‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill: Florida Senate pass ntroversial LGBTQ school measure

Contents:

• ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL: FLORIDA SENATE PASS LAW MARGALIZG LGBTQ+ PEOPLE
• FLORIDA LAWMAKERS PASS 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL
• 'DON'T SAY GAY': BIN NOUNC 'HATEFUL' NEW FLORIDA BILL
• FLORIDA'S ERNOR SIGNS NTROVERSIAL LAW OPPONENTS DUBBED 'DON'T SAY GAY'
• FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL IS PART OF THE STATE'S LONG, SHAMEFUL HISTORY
• ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL: FLORIDA SENATE PASS NTROVERSIAL LGBTQ SCHOOL MEASURE
• WHAT FLORIDA'S "DON'T SAY GAY" BILL COULD MEAN FOR LGBTQ KIDS

‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL: FLORIDA SENATE PASS LAW MARGALIZG LGBTQ+ PEOPLE

The Republin-domated Florida legislature passed a bill on Tuday which would forbid stctn on sexual orientatn and genr inty krgarten through third gra, rejectg a wave of cricism om Democrats that margaliz LGBTQ+ proposal, which opponents have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, now mov to the sk of the Republin ernor, Ron DeSantis, who is expected to sign to s ceptn, the measure has drawn tense opposn om LGBTQ+ advot, stunts, Democrats, the Whe Hoe and the entertament dtry, amid creased attentn on Florida as Republins ph culture war legislatn and DeSantis ascends the GOP as a potential printial ndidate. Dozens of stunts and advot flood mtee rooms durg the early stag of the bill procs and then packed the halls of the legislature as moved toward fal passage, often wh chants of “We say gay!

DeSantis has chafed at llg the proposal the “Don’t Say Gay” bill bee he said would apply to stctn on any genr inty or sexual orientatn. State laws that ban or nstra the discsn of LGBT life classrooms - sometim lled "no promo homo" laws by crics - are not unmon. Activists have dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill and warn will stigmatise LGBT people and s proponents say the legislatn is about protectg parental proposal was troduced the state Hoe of Reprentativ last month.

FLORIDA LAWMAKERS PASS 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL

"State laws that ban or nstra the discsn of LGBT life classrooms - sometim referred to as "no promo homo" laws - are not unmon. Several were troduced the 1970s and 1980s, closely rrelated wh anti-gay rights activism at the time, but many have long been repealed. "The larger issue wh all of this is parents mt have a seat at the table when to what's gog on their schools, " he told reporters on LGBT advot have warned the legislatn will harm the mental health of LGBT youth and unrme their existg protectns unr the law while movg Floridians away om a more clive school ptn, Rory Wa said he found "homophobia was very normalised daily nversatn" durg his school daysMore on this story.

'DON'T SAY GAY': BIN NOUNC 'HATEFUL' NEW FLORIDA BILL

LGBTQIA+ means Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgenr, Queer, Intersex, Asexual/Aromantic/Agenr, pl many more clud the terms. The bill, which some opponents have lled "Don't Say Gay, " was signed by DeSantis on Monday. The "Don't Say Gay" moniker om crics of the measure who blast this ia and sist this policy will hurt LGBTQ children.

"Florida's HB 1557, also known as the 'Don't Say Gay' bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed to law, " the statement read.

FLORIDA'S ERNOR SIGNS NTROVERSIAL LAW OPPONENTS DUBBED 'DON'T SAY GAY'

Ron DeSantis (R) signed to law a measure, the Parental Rights Edutn bill, that crics have succsfully labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” certaly aims to lim LGBTQ discsn schools. For olr stunts, discsn about gay and transgenr issu has to be “age appropriate or velopmentally appropriate. A bill workg s way through the Tennsee legislature would prevent schools om g textbooks or materials that “promote, normalize, support, or addrs lbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgenr issu or liftyl.

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.

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

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.

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. 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.

‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL: FLORIDA SENATE PASS NTROVERSIAL LGBTQ SCHOOL MEASURE

” 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. 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. ” Wh the 2016 bloody massacre at the gay nightclub Pulse, the cy of Orlando, Florida gaed a reputatn for homophobic lethal vlence.

WHAT FLORIDA'S "DON'T SAY GAY" BILL COULD MEAN FOR LGBTQ KIDS

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.