Florida approv ntroversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law polil w for DeSantis - POLITICO

Contents:

• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT
• HERE'S WHAT FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL WOULD DO AND WHAT WOULDN'T DO
• LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?
• CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR
• FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG
• SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS THE 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW & HOW DO IT AFFECT YOU?
• THE GAY/TRANS PANIC DEFENSE: WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO END IT
• BIN ON FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW: 'WHAT THE HELL IS GOG ON HERE?'
• GAY-LSAC’S LAW
• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS
• GAY RIGHTS
• GAY-LSAC’S LAW: INTRODUCTN, FORMULA AND DERIVATN

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: ANTI-GAY LAWS PROMOTE VLENCE, DISCRIMATN ST. VCENT

Gav Newsom and sla gay rights lear Harvey the ne-hour Temecula Valley Unified meetg, which ran past midnight, some parents spoke support of the nservative majory on the school board and s buckg of state standards for clive and diverse pated Newsom — who plans to send textbooks that reference Milk to Temecula stunts fiance of the board — as a “tyrant” who “forc his le” upon a district he knows nothg about.

HERE'S WHAT FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL WOULD DO AND WHAT WOULDN'T DO

”The bate arose after the board rejected proposed stctnal material that mentned Milk, a member of the San Francis Board of Supervisors and the first out gay man elected to public office California, who was assassated 1978. ” Conservative school board Print Joseph Komrosky, who lled Milk a “pedophile” and has been publicly fdg wh Newsom over the issue, asked sheriff puti on Tuday to remove a teacher om the meetg after she lled nservative board member Danny Gonzalez a “homophobe. "The crimalizatn of gay sex giv tac state sanctn to the discrimatn and vlence that LGBT people experience their daily liv and pels many to look abroad to live eely and fulfill their dreams, " said Cristian González Cabrera, gay rights rearcher at Human Rights Watch.

But Florida’s Parental Rights Edutn act — which crics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — has sudnly sparked a natnal war of recent weeks, lears of global rporatns, edorial boards of major newspapers and Hollywood actors have all weighed on the proposed legislatn, wh some llg “eply disturbg” and others “nonntroversial. The bill, which passed Florida’s Senate last week and the state’s Hoe of Reprentativ Febary, do, however, nta the terms “sexual orientatn” and “genr inty, ” each legal experts say that whether the bill prohibs the word “gay” self is a “distractn.

”Beyond brandg, a re argument over the bill centers around whether would prohib the “stctn” or “discsn” of sexual bill’s sponsors have emphatilly stated that the bill would not prohib stunts om talkg about their LGBTQ fai or bar classroom discsns about LGBTQ history, cludg events like the 2016 adly attack on the Pulse nightclub, a gay club Orlando.

LGBT RIGHTS AI: WILL KENYA BE THE LATT TO PASS ANTI-GAY LAW?

Speakg before Put signed the bill to the law on Monday, Tanya Loksha, associate Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch said: “The 2013 ‘gay propaganda’ law was an unabashed example of polil homophobia, and the new draft legislatn amplifi that broar and harsher ways.

CALIFORNIA STILL HAS AN ANTI-GAY MARRIAGE LAW ON THE BOOKS. VOTERS ULD REMOVE NEXT YEAR

The Ugandan law is regard as one of the harsht anti-LGBTQ laws the propos life imprisonment for anyone nvicted of homosexualy, and the ath penalty for so-lled aggravated s, which clu havg gay sex wh someone below the age of 18 or where someone be fected wh a life-long illns such as the other si of the ntent, MPs Ghana earlier this month unanimoly voted favour of amendments to the untry's anti-gay legislatn, phg closer to beg enacted to law.

FIRG OF GAY CATHOLIC SCHOOL TEACHER ULD TT LATT SUPREME COURT LG

Though ls harsh than Uganda's new law, the Promotn of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Fay Valu Bill propos a three-year prison sentence for anyone who intifi as LGBTQ and a 10-year sentence for anyone who promot homosexualy. Gay sex is already illegal Kenya, but the ernment n also be tolerant of gay people - for example, has given asylum to people om other Ain untri, cludg Uganda, who faced persecutn their home untri bee of their sexual orientatn.

Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Many Kenyans believe that gay rights are agast their relign - whether Christian or MlimAlthough the meetg Uganda was billed as an attempt to protect the "sovereignty" of Ain stat, was actually -sponsored by an Amerin Christian right-wg anisatn, Fay Watch Internatnal (FWI) Kapya Kaoma, a Zambian prit the Anglin Church and an amic at Boston Universy the US, says Ain untri are beg targeted by FWI and siar US-based anisatns, and that the impact of s lobbyg has been "horrible and humane" parts of Ai, fuellg what he lls "ant homophobia".

"It is one thg to say: 'I don't agree wh you beg gay', but we didn't have the ant one, where policians now are sayg: 'You go to jail for life, you go to jail for talkg about beg gay, you go to jail bee you're livg wh your fellow woman', " Dr Kaoma says. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circu Richmond is an early tt of how that major Supreme Court cisn ptg ee speech agast anti-discrimatn laws will play out beyond the hypothetil suatn that se, which volved a platiff who had never actually ma weddg webs or been asked to do so by a gay person.

SO, WHAT EXACTLY IS THE 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW & HOW DO IT AFFECT YOU?

“The Court rejected the dissent’s assertn that s cisn opened the door to discrimatn employment, ” ACLU attorney Josh Block wrote a reply to Becket’s the exampl raised the Supreme Court did not clu a relig anizatn or a gay employee, and Gorsuch repeatedly voked a 2000 cisn allowg the Boy Suts to expel a gay volunteer on “exprsive associatn” grounds. “We all said that thoands of relig anizatns all across the untry ask their employe to uphold their tradnal view of marriage word and ed, and if you terpret the statute that way, ’s gog to unleash lots of lawsus agast them, ” Goodrich the Supreme Court has specifilly said preventg racial discrimatn is a pellg ernment tert that jtifi rtrictg First Amendment eedoms, he noted that the Supreme Court has rejected such a fdg on discrimatn agast gay or transgenr people.

Over the urse of lbian, gay, or bisexual people's lifetim, one five will experience hate crim, and one four transgenr people will as dividuals at the tersectn of homophobia, transphobia, and racism, face worse statistics. Help to end this discrimatn by supportg legislative bans on the gay/trans panic steps you n, and should, take are as follows:Contact legislators and ernors stat currently tryg to ban the gay/trans panic fense.

Be sure to reach out to feral legislators as an advote stat where there is currently no proposed gay/trans panic ban your own policians know that equaly unr the law should apply to the victims of hate crim as well. Florida Hoe Republins advanced a bill, dubbed by opponents as the "Don't Say Gay" bill, to forbid discsns of sexual orientatn and genr inty schools, rejectg cricism om Democrats who said the proposal moniz LGBTQ+ people. And Tennsee, legislators are phg different bills seekg to ban materials that “promote, normalize, support, or addrs lbian, gay, bisexual, or transgenr issu or liftyl” and prevent public schools and public charter schools om stockg librari wh books ntag “obscene materials or materials harmful to mors.

THE GAY/TRANS PANIC DEFENSE: WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO END IT

The most ntent piece of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill stat that classroom stctn surroundg sexual orientatn and genr inty is banned outright for stunts krgarten through third gra while prohibg lsons on those for other gras unls they are “age-appropriate or velopmentally appropriate. Alarmgly rtrictive laws ntue to proliferate across much of the Raedle / GettyThe red-state drive to roll back civil rights is enterg a new phase, perhaps bt symbolized by Florida’s passage this week of the “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” bill censorg how schools discs sexual orientatn. The refal of the Walt Disney Company, one of Florida’s most powerful employers, to publicly cricize Florida’s “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” bill as moved through the legislature has quickly e to symbolize a retreat om the loud public opposn that many pani exprsed to earlier state iativ rtrictg civil liberti, such as the “bathroom bill” North Carola Republins approved the broad range of socially nservative iativ that Florida’s Republin ernor, Ron DeSantis, and the GOP state legislature have advanced sce 2021, bs has been “silent, silent as fuck, they are so silent, ” says Florida Democratic State Reprentative Anna Eskamani, echog a plat I heard across several stat om Democrats and civil-rights advot this week.

This clus laws limg accs to abortn, rtrictg votg rights, banng transgenr girls om participatg high-school or llege sports, barrg transn medil treatment for transgenr mors, censorg how teachers n talk about current or historil racial and genr equi, removg licensg requirements to publicly rry firearms, creasg penalti for public protters, and immunizg drivers who h and jure Watch what’s happeng red statFlorida alone has passed almost every em on that list, and this week add the “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” bill rtrictg classroom discsn of sexual orientatn. ” Although many big rporatns touted their mment to Black History Month Febary, he not, they “are not willg to put their hand on the sle to stop the removal of Mart Luther Kg and Rosa Parks om our public schools” or to stand up unequivolly for votg rporate rponse was even more muted to the “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” legislatn Florida passed Tuday.

BIN ON FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW: 'WHAT THE HELL IS GOG ON HERE?'

”Bin also tweeted stern opposn to Florida’s “Don’t Say ‘Gay’” bill, and when passed on Tuday, Edutn Secretary Miguel Cardona issued a stronger statement of nmnatn than he’s offered on any of the earlier state-level bills targetg curriculum. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed what’s bee known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, th difyg state law a prohibn that don’t promote the well-beg of Florida’s children but stead drags dangero, homophobic li back to the rise of the QAnon nspiracy theory has brought latent fears of pedophilic perasts back to the foreont of the GOP base’s ncerns. Siar lawsus are now explicly thorized unr the “Don’t Say Gay” bill’s that se illtrat, at the re of this new law is the toxic belief that there is no such thg as a gay or transgenr mor, only adults who “rec” a child to the gay or transgenr “liftyle.

GAY-LSAC’S LAW

)In a tweet om earlier this month that was somehow still up Monday, DeSantis’ prs secretary, Christa Phaw, wrote: “The bill that liberals accurately ll 'Don't Say Gay' would be more accurately scribed as an Anti-Groomg Bill. Many of the party’s lears have given up on opposg gay rights as a wedge issue and have at least superficially embraced LGBTQ the rise of the QAnon nspiracy theory has brought latent fears of pedophilic perasts back to the foreont of the GOP base’s ncerns.

It don’t matter to him that promot a bunked lie that gay men rely on actively recg children for future matters to him is that he gets to be the first ernor the untry to endorse this specific wave of bigotry wh his signature, hopg will pay off for him e 2024. As Florida’s Parental Rights Edutn law — or what crics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law — go to effect Friday, some of the state’s public school districts have begun rollg out new polici to lim LGBTQ issu and inti om beg discsed the Tuday night, the Leon County School Board unanimoly approved s “LGBTQ Inclive School Gui, ” which clus a provisn to alert parents if a stunt who is “open about their genr inty” is their child’s physil tn class or wh them on an overnight school trip.

Clifford / AP fileThe so-lled Don’t Say Gay law, HB 1557, bans “stctn” about sexual orientatn or genr inty “ krgarten through gra 3 or a manner that is not age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards. ” A provisn the law also requir school staff members to alert parents about “cril cisns affectg a stunt’s mental, emotnal, or physil health or well-beg, ” which many advot have terpreted as a way to force tors to out their gay or trans stunts. They have also ntend that will not prohib teachers and stunts om talkg about their LGBTQ fai or bar classroom discsns about LGBTQ history, cludg events like the 2016 attack at the Pulse gay nightclub crics and legal experts have said the broad language of the law uld open school districts and teachers to lawsus om parents who believe any nversatn about LGBTQ people or issu is “not age appropriate.

AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS

“What’s happeng right now — wh the censorship of rabow flags and school districts preparg to basilly ph LGBTQ stunts and teachers to the closet — is exactly what we said would happen wh the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law. Chandan Khanna / AFP via Getty Imag fileFive other stat — all of them the South — have enacted laws that lim stctn or discsns about LGBTQ people or issu school, and at least 32 others have proposed such measur this year, acrdg to acrdg to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ thk tank that has been trackg the strsed that the polici will have nsequenc for lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer stunts, potg to the disproportnately high rat of suici attempts among the untry’s LGBTQ youths.

GAY RIGHTS

”In Palm Beach County, Woods, who is gay, said that after they received the qutnnaire om school officials to flag urse material or books wh LGBTQ referenc, many of his lleagu are nervo they’ll be reprimand if they miss somethg. Army service World War I, Gerber was spired to create his anizatn by the Scientific-Humanarian Commtee, a “homosexual emancipatn” group ’s small group published a few issu of s newsletter “Friendship and Freedom, ” the untry’s first gay-tert newsletter. Ernment signated Gerber’s Chigo hoe a Natnal Historic Pk TriangleCorbis/Getty ImagHomosexual prisoners at the ncentratn mp at Sachsenhsen, Germany, wearg pk triangl on their uniforms on December 19, gay rights movement stagnated for the next few s, though LGBT dividuals around the world did e to the spotlight a few example, English poet and thor Radclyffe Hall stirred up ntroversy 1928 when she published her lbian-themed novel, The Well of Lonels.

Addnally, 1948, his book Sexual Behavr the Human Male, Aled Ksey proposed that male sexual orientatn li on a ntuum between exclively homosexual to exclively Homophile Years In 1950, Harry Hay found the Mattache Foundatn, one of the natn’s first gay rights group. ”Though started off small, the foundatn, which sought to improve the liv of gay men through discsn groups and related activi, expand after foundg member Dale Jenngs was arrted 1952 for solicatn and then later set ee due to a adlocked the end of the year, Jenngs formed another anizatn lled One, Inc., which weled women and published ONE, the untry’s first pro-gay magaze. Post Office, which 1954 clared the magaze “obscene” and refed to liver Mattache Society Mattache Foundatn members rtctured the anizatn to form the Mattache Society, which had lol chapters other parts of the untry and 1955 began publishg the untry’s send gay publitn, The Mattache Review.

That same year, four lbian upl San Francis found an anizatn lled the Dghters of Bilis, which soon began publishg a newsletter lled The Ladr, the first lbian publitn of any early years of the movement also faced some notable setbacks: the Amerin Psychiatric Associatn listed homosexualy as a form of mental disorr followg year, Print Dwight D. ”In fear of beg shut down by thori, bartenrs would ny drks to patrons spected of beg gay or kick them out altogether; others would serve them drks but force them to s facg away om other ctomers to prevent them om 1966, members of the Mattache Society New York Cy staged a “sip-”—a twist on the “s-” protts of the 1960s— which they vised taverns, clared themselv gay, and waed to be turned away so they uld sue. They were nied service at the Greenwich Village tavern Juli, rultg much publicy and the quick reversal of the anti-gay liquor Stonewall Inn A few years later, 1969, a now-famo event talyzed the gay rights movement: The Stonewall clanste gay club Stonewall Inn was an stutn Greenwich Village bee was large, cheap, allowed dancg and weled drag queens and homels the early hours of June 28, 1969, New York Cy police raid the Stonewall Inn.

GAY-LSAC’S LAW: INTRODUCTN, FORMULA AND DERIVATN

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. 1 / 12: NY Daily News Archive/Getty ImagChristopher Street Liberatn Day Shortly after the Stonewall uprisg, members of the Mattache Society spl off to form the Gay Liberatn Front, a radil group that lnched public monstratns, protts and nontatns wh polil officials.

Siar groups followed, cludg the Gay Activists Alliance, Radilbians, and Street Transvt Actn Revolutnari (STAR) 1970, at the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Rts, New York Cy muny members marched through lol streets memoratn of the event. Addnally, several openly LGBTQ dividuals secured public office posns: Kathy Kozachenko won a seat to the Ann Harbor, Michigan, Cy Council 1974, beg the first out Amerin to be elected to public Milk, who mpaigned on a pro-gay rights platform, beme the San Francis cy supervisor 1978, beg the first openly gay man elected to a polil office asked Gilbert Baker, an artist and gay rights activist, to create an emblem that reprents the movement and would be seen as a symbol of pri. In 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn published a report about five prevly healthy homosexual men beg fected wh a rare type of 1984, rearchers had intified the e of AIDS—the human immunoficiency vis, or HIV—and the Food and Dg Admistratn licensed the first mercial blood tt for HIV 1985.

But after failg to garner enough support for such an open policy, Print Clton 1993 passed the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) policy, which allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexualy a rights advot cried the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, as did ltle to stop people om beg discharged on the grounds of their 2011, Print Obama fulfilled a mpaign promise to repeal DADT; by that time, more than 12, 000 officers had been discharged om the ary unr DADT for refg to hi their sexualy. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was officially repealed on September 20, Marriage and Beyond In 1992, the District of Columbia passed a law that allowed gay and lbian upl to register as domtic partners, grantg them some of the rights of marriage (the cy of San Francis passed a siar ordance three years prr and California would later extend those rights to the entire state 1999) 1993, the hight urt  Hawaii led that a ban on gay marriage may go agast the state’s nstutn.