Welcome back to news wrap in a major blow
for the LGBTQ community and its many supporters florida.
Governor Ron DeSantis has signed the controversial so
called don't say gay bill into law.
It's now official the parental rights in
education policy as it is officially called
Ban's classroom instruction on gender identity and
sexual orientation in kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Joining me now to discuss is Gary find out reporter at political florida Gary.
Welcome to the show. I'm so glad you came on to discuss this.
What are some of the biggest concerns surrounding
the don't say gay bill becoming a law?
Because there is a lot of confusion when it comes to this bill?
Well, I think the, there are two main parts of the bill, uh,
there is the one part that's gotten a lot of the attention, which is the,
the ban on sexual,
uh,
discussions are successful.
I'm sorry, not discussions, let me be clear instruction
on sexual orientation and gender identity
In the elementary grades, the lower grades K through three.
Then there is another part of the bill that
says you should only have aged appropriate materials.
There's a lot of,
a lot of questions as to
how is that going to be decided? What are age appropriate materials.
And, and then as a result of that, there's a whole process laid out there in which
if a parent feels that this portion of the legislation is being violated,
uh, they could ultimately take action and actually go to court.
There's another part of the bill that also has raised concerns, uh, from L. G. B. T. Q.
Advocates related to,
uh, what the districts can do with an interacting with, with Children
and what they have to tell the parents.
And there is a concern that, uh,
at least the critics of the legislation feel that this could lead to Children who are
thinking about whether or not they're trans or whether or not they are,
you know, non binary, whether they would be outed to their parents.
Let's discuss the intentionally vague language of this bill.
Like I mentioned before,
I think that's why they're so much confused and surrounding it.
Why does this matter and how will it impact teachers on a daily basis?
I have many friends that weren't comfortable coming out to their parents,
but their counselors and their teachers were that source of just, hey,
I'm going to be okay now that that's taken away.
What does that mean with this vague language?
Well, I think two things again, I would, I would, I would point out is that,
so the language has this, this process where you're supposed to inform parents
and this came as a, as a result of,
there were some support guides that were
distributed in several districts in florida,
in which it was, there was caution not to approach the parents
and this has actually led to litigation in which there are
parents who have filed lawsuits against school districts in florida,
in which they have maintained that they should have been given
more information as to what was going on with their child.
And so that's, that is one
that is one element of it in terms of the vague
language and everything like that is what does that mean?
But the other thing is that the Department of Education has basically
up to a year to sort of decide what certain things are.
Like, for instance, what is age appropriate?
So you're going to have a state agency that's
sort of going to be charged with trying to,
to figure that out and give instructions.
So I,
the critics would tell you that what they're concerned about
is that this is just going to shut everything down.
An example that some of the opponents constantly used during the debate was,
well, what if there is a exercise in the second grade
to discuss a family tree
and a child comes in and says, well, I have
two mommies or two daddies.
And
what does that do?
What can the, can the instructor continue to talk about that or now, of course,
the supporters of the bill said, look, we're only talking about curriculum.
We're not talking about conversation.
It is worth noting that the bill originally said
discussions,
it was later changed to instruction,
but still you have a sort of an open ended question as to what does that constitute?
Disney has come out and said that the company's goal is for
this law to be repealed or struck down in the course,
Of course, they're the biggest employer in florida.
Do you see that happening? Gary?
Well, what I see happening is I think there will definitely be litigation.
Uh,
large LGBTQ organization in Florida quality Florida has already promised as such.
So, I think we will see this in court at some point in time.
The law itself doesn't take effect till July one.
So that means it could be a couple of months before litigation has actually filed.
Then there's a question of, you know,
they will probably have to find people to join the lawsuit.
And so, I mean, here in florida,
we there's been a whole run of things over the last couple of years that
have been passed by the Republican controlled
legislature and signed into law by governor,
Rhonda Santis that have wound up in court and have been held up.
Uh, we'll see. We'll have to see whether or not that
becomes the case here as well.
Gerry find out reporter at political florida. We hope you come back to discuss Gary.
We know we'll be talking about this for some time to come. Thank you for your time