A Florida teacher felt she had to qu amid "Don't Say Gay" rhetoric - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• I’M A GAY KRGARTEN TEACHER FLORIDA. THE ARE THE QUTNS I’M ASKG MYSELF.
• FLORIDA TEACHER UNR VTIGATN FOR SHOWG DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER SAYS SHE DIDN’T KNOW LGBTQ RTRICTN APPLIED TO HER CLASS
• FLORIDA SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS CLOSED VTIGATN TO TEACHER WHO SHOWED DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER
• IN A DEEP-RED FLORIDA COUNTY, THIS GAY TEACHER QU TO SAVE HER CAREER
• LGBTQ TEACHERS STGGLE TO NAVIGATE FLORIDA'S SO-CALLED 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW
• FLORIDA TEACHER SAYS SHE IS UNR VTIGATN AFTER SHOWG 5TH GRA CLASS DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER
• ‘IT’S HAD A CHILLG EFFECT’: FLORIDA TEACHERS ANX ABOUT ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL
• TEACHERS FEAR THE CHILLG EFFECT OF FLORIDA'S SO-LLED 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW
• FLORIDA TEACHER FIRED FROM ADVENTIST SCHOOL FOR BEG GAY
• AS FLORIDA'S 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW TAK EFFECT, SCHOOLS ROLL OUT LGBTQ RTRICTNS
• HOW FLORIDA TEACHERS PLAN TO AL WH 'DON'T SAY GAY' L

I’M A GAY KRGARTEN TEACHER FLORIDA. THE ARE THE QUTNS I’M ASKG MYSELF.

As a krgarten teacher who is gay and has pictur of himself and his partner his classroom, I regularly answer qutns om my stunts like: “Mr. Calls and emails were ma to my supertennt mandg my termatn, far-right news outlets began nng headl like “Gay krgarten teacher wants to talk to his kids about his love life, ” and the number of random-number phone lls to my personal cellphone creased twofold.

And a key part of that tn is the necsary, valuable buildg block of muny is built the classroom, the level of engagement I see my stunts mak hard to believe they are only 5 and 6 years the Parental Rights Edutn law, which crics have lled the “Don’t Say Gay” law, ultimately eros that muny.

RelatedRon DeSantis’ woke math sndal shows how he’s bee more dangero than TmpFlorida’s anti-gay bill is wrong. A Florida teacher unr a state vtigatn for showg a Disney movie featurg a gay character said she wasn’t aware the state’s ntroversial law banng stctn about certa LGBTQ topics had been recently expand to apply to her gra level. The Disney film tells the story of a fay of explorers and featur a gay character.

FLORIDA TEACHER UNR VTIGATN FOR SHOWG DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER SAYS SHE DIDN’T KNOW LGBTQ RTRICTN APPLIED TO HER CLASS

When DeSantis signed the ban to law last year, he and other Florida Republins touted as a protectn of parents’ rights, while opponents slammed as yet another effort by GOP lawmakers the state to erase and opprs LGBTQ people schools, llg the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. A first-year teacher at Wdg Waters K-8 school, Barbee said she showed the 2022 film bee directly related to class curriculum, not bee portrayed Disney’s first openly gay character.

Ron DeSantis signed legislatn March 2022 sayg was a form of “parental rights, ” while opponents said tried to erase LGBTQ people om schools and dubbed the law “Don’t Say Gay. “No one is teachg your kids to be gay!

FLORIDA SCHOOL SYSTEM HAS CLOSED VTIGATN TO TEACHER WHO SHOWED DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER

“Sometim they jt are gay. I lerally don’t have time to teach your kids to be gay. ”“This gay teacher, who accepts her stunts exactly as they are, outsred the unty by 15% geometry and outsred the state by 10%, ” she add.

”Hundreds of people had shown up for the meetg, largely due to an ongog ntroversy over a fifth-gra teacher who had shown her stunts a Disney movie that clud a gay character. And I’m gay. Marano was worried about gettg fired for vlatg Florida’s so-lled “Don’t Say Gay” law, which lims what teachers n say about genr inty and sexual orientatn the classroom and allows for a teacher’s license to be revoked if they break the law.

IN A DEEP-RED FLORIDA COUNTY, THIS GAY TEACHER QU TO SAVE HER CAREER

Jenna Barbee, the teacher who showed her class “Strange World, ” a movie about climate change that has a gay character, has also recently rigned.

Shannon Rodriguez, a parent the district and a member of the school board who is backed by the ultranservative group Moms 4 Liberty, reported Barbee to the partment after she learned about stunts seeg the movie last said she’s worried that small gtur, like displayg a Pri flag, and teachers talkg to stunts about their liv outsi of school uld be grounds for disciplary actn unr the Don’t Say Gay law.

“Providg stunts wh a rabow flag don’t mean you’re teachg kids to be gay, ” Marano said. “You nnot teach kids to be gay or straight, ” Marano said. “A lot of tst is given to teachers, and ma seem like I wasn’t tsted bee there’s somethg wrong wh me for beg gay, ” he said.

LGBTQ TEACHERS STGGLE TO NAVIGATE FLORIDA'S SO-CALLED 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW

“It mak seem like beg gay is somethg vile or disturbg or disgtg when ’s scribed as makg children unfortable knowg that I’m married to a man. ” While the Orlando parents did not succeed havg Thollanr discipled or oted, he and other LGBTQ teachers the state worry that newly signed state law — tled Parental Rights Edutn but dubbed by crics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law — will galvanize parents to take siar actn agast them. Lawmakers who support the law have repeatedly strsed that would 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 nightclub, a gay club Orlando.

They need tors that look and remble them, ” said Kerek, who is gay. ”“Teachers do not go out of their way to create the moments where we’re ‘doctratg’ stunts, ” said Woods, who is gay. ” This fall is the first school year which teachers and school admistrators mt follow Florida’s HB 1557—lled the “Parental Rights Edutn” statute by lawmakers and dubbed the Don’t Say Gay law by crics—that banned public school districts om teachg about sexual orientatn or genr inty krgarten through the third gra, or “ a manner that is not age-appropriate or velopmentally appropriate for stunts acrdance wh state standards.

FLORIDA TEACHER SAYS SHE IS UNR VTIGATN AFTER SHOWG 5TH GRA CLASS DISNEY MOVIE WH GAY CHARACTER

) “All we want as tors is to create a safe space for our stunts and teach them to rpect each other, ” says Brian Kerek, a gay high school math teacher Osceola County, Florida. Cory Bernaert, a gay krgarten teacher Parrish, Florida, says his curriculum has never clud discsns of genr inty or sexual orientatn. ) “The fact that someone has to say to the teachers that you n have a picture of your spoe on your sk, shows the environment they’re havg to work , ” says McCracken, who is gay.

Michael Woods, a gay high school special tn teacher Palm Beach County, says he terpreted Palm Beach’s school district’s guidance to mean that if a stunt tells him somethg about their genr or pronouns, he mt notify the kid’s parents. A fifth-gra teacher said she is beg vtigated by the Florida Department of Edutn after she showed her stunts “Strange World, ” a 2022 animated Disney movie featurg a character who is biracial and gay.

‘IT’S HAD A CHILLG EFFECT’: FLORIDA TEACHERS ANX ABOUT ‘DON’T SAY GAY’ BILL

DeSantis and other supporters phed the measure as a form of “parental rights, ” while opponents said tried to erase LGBTQ people om schools and dubbed the law “Don’t Say Gay. The movie also featured Disney’s first-ever out-gay character, voiced by edian Jaboie Young-Whe.

After about a the classroom, he was named the bt tor Kentucky September 2021 -- but at the same time, he said, a small but vol mory his ral town Montgomery County went after, who is gay, told ABC News that he was sgled out for actually protectg LGBTQ kids his school and their fai, which ma him a said that earlier this year, a muny member who was postg about him on social media also repeatedly went to unty school board meetgs to report predatn and so-lled child "groomg" -- a term that has bee popular nservative circl for allegatns of adults sexually manipulatg said this person, who had not named him at the board meetgs but repeatedly referenced him by name onle, also "doxxed" him and some of his stunts on Facebook by sharg their private, acrdg to Carver, he and some stunts' parents asked Montgomery County Supertennt Dr. "Many crics labeled the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights Edutn bill -- which don't specifilly e the word "gay, " though broadly rtricts talk of sexualy and genr -- to law earlier this year rponse to "woke genr iology.

"Joshua Block is a staff attorney wh the Natnal ACLU’s Lbian Gay Bisexual Transgenr & HIV "We need to be teachg them to read or wre, to add, to subtract, " he said -- addg that "the purpose of our schools is to te kids not to doctrate them. "This is the exact oppose of what we need, " Kryk, a gay fifth-gra teacher outsi of Tampa, told ABC News.

TEACHERS FEAR THE CHILLG EFFECT OF FLORIDA'S SO-LLED 'DON'T SAY GAY' LAW

He intifi as gay. Before the bill was passed, some Democrats unsuccsfully attempted to make more specific -- rtrictg stctn on sexual activy rather than orientatn, for though many who spoke wh ABC News said they are disappoted the law's lack of clary, some gay teachers don't see an issue wh .

FLORIDA TEACHER FIRED FROM ADVENTIST SCHOOL FOR BEG GAY

Pancholy's Stonewall Honor-wng novel "The Bt at It" follows 12-year-old Rahul Kapoor, who is not only figurg out his cultural inty as an Indian-Amerin but is also jt begng to realize that he might be gay.

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

And so what's next: gay marriage?

Michael Woods, a high school special tn teacher Palm Beach unty, Florida, wh 30 years of experience teachg and who grew up as a stunt the area who was bullied for beg gay, said he cried the night before this school year began Augt 2022 bee of anxiety related to Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill that went to effect July 2022.

“As a gay teacher, as a queer male, ’s been paful for me, ’s been very paful and very upsettg, ” said Woods. “The bills are all based on false pretens, they’re li, they’re based on li, they make assumptns that somethg is happeng our schools area, that teachers are somehow doctratg our stunts, teachg them to be gay, or whatever the se may be, ” said Andrew Spar, print of the Florida Edutn add: “I thk the biggt thg gog to the school year is the unknown, bee this bill and the other bills that are out there, give parents the abily to brg plats agast teachers, brg lawsus agast school districts, and we jt don’t know how ’s gog to play out. ”Ron DeSantis, the ernor of Florida, signg the ‘don’t say gay’ bill March 2022.

HOW FLORIDA TEACHERS PLAN TO AL WH 'DON'T SAY GAY' L

It's a bill that's drawn natnwi ntroversy, dubbed by opponents as the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Unr the new law, he wonrs, will be nsired age-appropriate to tell his stunts that the Revolutnary War hero, the Pssian General Friedrich Wilhelm Von Stben, is wily believed to have been openly gay? Demonstrators gather to prott what opponents ll the "Don't Say Gay" bill on the steps of the Florida Historic Capol Mm Tallahassee on March 7, 2022.