Opn: Florida's 'don't say gay' bill is cel and dangero | CNN

Contents:

• FLORIDA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL IS CEL AND DANGERO
• PROTTS NTUE AGAST FLORIDA 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL
• FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY
• FLORIDA STUNTS PARTICIPATE MASSIVE WALKOUT TO PROTT THE ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL
• HERE'S WHAT FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL WOULD DO AND WHAT WOULDN'T DO
• PEACEFUL PROTT AGAST ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL TURNS VLENT AT DAVIE HIGH SCHOOL
• WHAT'S THE SO-LLED DON'T SAY GAY BILL THAT ULD IMPACT THE WHOLE UNTRY
• IT’S NOT A ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ LAW. IT’S AN ANTI-INDOCTRATN LAW.
• FLORIDA TEEN FI 'DON’T SAY GAY' LAW AND TEACH CLASS ABOUT STONEWALL UPRISG

FLORIDA’S ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL IS CEL AND DANGERO

'Absolutely': Pete Buttigieg on whether 'Don't Say Gay' bill is dangero. One of the most extreme exampl is a piece of legislatn Florida known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Let’s be clear: The “Don’t Say Gay” bill will do real and lastg harm.

Demonstrators gathered ont of and si the Florida State Capol on Monday to stop the legislatn that has been dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill.

PROTTS NTUE AGAST FLORIDA 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL

"We say gay, " they chanted, the sound echog throughout the halls as they anticipated a vote on the bill expected Monday. Crics of what they ll the “Don’t Say Gay” bill fear that will end the teachg of LGBTQ history Florida’s public schools and expose the schools to a flood of lawsus. Disney officials have publicly opposed the new law, argug that “ uld be ed to unfairly target gay, lbian, non-bary and transgenr kds and fai, ” and lled for the urts to validate .

In tryg to unrstand why a purple state like Florida fds self the current prediment, very ltle has been said about the state’s long history as Ameri’s breedg ground for toxic anti-gay polics and how this history may have rmed the parental rights bill. Florida’s renown for homophobic attacks go back to the now-fotten Florida Legislative Invtigatns Commtee, also known as the Johns Commtee, a wch hunt rooted racism, homophobia, and anti-munism.

Named after fluential state senator and former Florida ernor Charley Johns, this ignoble body spent the years of 1957 through 1963 outg, persecutg, and timidatg people spected of beg gay at Florida’s state universi.

FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY

But after that missn failed, gays and lbians beme the target.

This effort culmated wh the release 1964 of the report “Homosexualy and Cizenship Florida, ” also known as “The Purple Pamphlet” bee of s lurid ntent.

It noted “the extent of filtratn to agenci supported by state funds by practicg homosexuals. Des after the Johns Commtee me Save Our Children, a 1977 anti-gay rights csa led by Ana Bryant, a untry mic sger and nner up to the Miss Ameri tle. Wily-regnized as the first anized opposn to gay rights the Uned Stat, this notor extravaganza of li, sults, and nspiracy theori about homosexuals succsfully st gay men as pedophil and predators overturng an ordance enacted by Da County banng discrimatn hog, employment and public acmodatn on the basis of sexual orientatn.

FLORIDA STUNTS PARTICIPATE MASSIVE WALKOUT TO PROTT THE ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL

Throughout the repeal mpaign Bryant routely referred to homosexuals as “human garbage, ” while cricizg the ordance “as an attempt to legimize homosexuals and their recment of our children.

” In ads nng Da County newspapers Bryant ntend that “the recment of our children is absolutely necsary for the survival and growth of homosexualy—for sce homosexuals nnot reproduce, they mt rec, mt hen their ranks.

The csa prompted Florida’s legislature to enact the natn’s first ban on gay adoptns, even though at the time no gay adoptn had taken place anywhere Florida. It also ntributed to Florida beg one of the last stat to legalize homosexual sex; only did so 2003 when the Supreme Court overturned the state’s banng sodomy, alongsi the sodomy laws of 13 other stat, the Lawrence v. Bryant’s tactics were also emulated across the Uned Stat, ocsng a wave of gay-rights feats other stat, cludg rtorg Arkansas’ anti-sodomy law and banng gays and lbians om teachg public schools Oklahoma.

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

Bryant’s anti-gay csa also help give rise to the Christian Right by herg the Moral Majory, whose founr, televangelist Jerry Falwell, famoly issued a “claratn of war on homosexualy” 1979.

PEACEFUL PROTT AGAST ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL TURNS VLENT AT DAVIE HIGH SCHOOL

” Wh the 2016 bloody massacre at the gay nightclub Pulse, the cy of Orlando, Florida gaed a reputatn for homophobic lethal vlence. This was the worst attack on the Amerin gay muny and one of the biggt mass shootgs Amerin history.

LGBTQ Amerins are still wag for an acknowledgement om the Lavenr Sre, a mid-century wch hunt of feral workers spected of beg homosexual triggered by Print Dwight Eisenhower’s 1953 Executive Orr 10450 banng “perverts” om workg the feral employment. It rulted thoands of homosexuals or spected homosexuals losg their reers the feral ernment, wh some nfed to mental stutns, pecially Washgton DC’s St. There also has been no acknowledgement for “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, ” the Clton-era policy that allowed gay men and women to serve the ary as long as they kept their sexual orientatn a secret.

Endg the amnia surroundg anti-gay reprsn and vlence has recent years emerged as a new ont gay activism, and this offers hope for rtorg the historil memory of attempts by Florida and other loli to systemilly opprs LGBTQ people.

WHAT'S THE SO-LLED DON'T SAY GAY BILL THAT ULD IMPACT THE WHOLE UNTRY

Abroad, Germany has paid reparatns to the victims of the “Gay Holot, ” the thoands of gay men who perished Nazi-era ncentratn mps.

IT’S NOT A ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ LAW. IT’S AN ANTI-INDOCTRATN LAW.

The Uned Kgdom has issued a posthumo pardon to anyone nvicted of “gross cency, ” a charge that for centuri allowed for the prosecutn of homosexuals. Spa has erased prr nvictns of homosexual offens. Gav Newsom troduced a policy by which people nvicted by laws that crimalized homosexual nduct uld receive a pardon and rtore their reputatn.

No apology n undo the harm ed by homophobic laws and their legacy.

FLORIDA TEEN FI 'DON’T SAY GAY' LAW AND TEACH CLASS ABOUT STONEWALL UPRISG

More than 500 stunts participated a massive walkout Monday at Wter Park High School Orange County, Florida, prott of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill currently beg nsired by the state Senate, acrdg to walkout anizer and high school stunt Will Larks. LGBTQ advot say the measure would lead to further stigmatizatn of gay, lbian and transgenr children, g more bullyg and suicis wh an already margalized muny.

Durg the walkout, stunts were chantg, “We say gay! 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. ” Conversely, opponents say would unfairly target the LGBTQ muny — particularly gay and trans stunts — and is “pretendg to solve a problem that don’t exist.

For starters, cricism that the “Don’t Say Gay” bill do not fact say “gay” anywhere s text is te. 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. “The ‘Don’t Say Gay’ moniker is a moniker about a certa polil amg of this suatn.