Florida’s first openly gay state senator on ‘Don’t Say Gay’ passg: ‘the air was taken out of the room’ – The Hill

Contents:

• HOE PASS SWEEPG GAY AND TRANSGENR EQUALY LEGISLATN
• HERE'S WHAT FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL WOULD DO AND WHAT WOULDN'T DO
• FLORIDA’S FIRST OPENLY GAY STATE SENATOR ON ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ PASSG: ‘THE AIR WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE ROOM’
• ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL: FLORIDA SENATE PASS LAW MARGALIZG LGBTQ+ PEOPLE
• ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL: FLORIDA SENATE PASS NTROVERSIAL LGBTQ SCHOOL MEASURE
• 'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL PASS FLORIDA SENATE

HOE PASS SWEEPG GAY AND TRANSGENR EQUALY LEGISLATN

Tammy Baldw, D-Wis., the first openly gay lawmaker elected to the Senate. ”The legislatn me about after the nservative Supreme Court majory overturned the nstutnal right to an abortn, sparkg fears that the jtic may also revis liberal urt precents that enshre marriage rights for gay and terracial bill would require the feral ernment to regnize marriag that were valid a state when they were performed.

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

Is the current gay marriage bill a bean of brighter days? Of, as more optimistic gays say, thgs “gettg better”?

A rhetoril bone to thank gays and Black people for votg for them? But the mdset is so pervasive, the sire for equaly on patriarchy’s terms so eply entrenched wh , that we seek equal rights and protectns — here, that your gay marriage will be “regnized” a state that bans gay marriage — that we fail to qutn the pacy of the measur.

FLORIDA’S FIRST OPENLY GAY STATE SENATOR ON ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ PASSG: ‘THE AIR WAS TAKEN OUT OF THE ROOM’

It was the send time the Democratic-led Hoe had passed the measure, known as the Equaly Act, which seeks to amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to add explic bans on discrimatn agast lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr people both public and private spac. People n be discrimated agast bee of who they are, or who they love, ” said Reprentative David Cicille, an openly gay Democrat om Rho Island and the lead sponsor.

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

Several Republins assailed the Equaly Act as dangero, leadg one top Democrat, Reprentative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, to acce them of believg that gay and transgenr people “are morally ferr, and that firg should be permted.

Maloney, the openly gay chairman of Hoe Democrats’ mpaign arm. ”In a landmark cisn June, the Supreme Court led that the 1964 civil rights law protects gay and transgenr people om workplace discrimatn, and that the language of the law, which prohibs discrimatn on the basis of sex, also appli to discrimatn based on sexual orientatn and genr inty.

Chamber of Gay Stolberg ntributed reportg. Mark Takano, D-Calif., the first openly gay person of lor Congrs.

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

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.

'DON'T SAY GAY' BILL PASS FLORIDA SENATE

”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.