SPRING HILL, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill into law Monday during a news conference at a school in Spring Hill.
Republican sponsors say the Parental Rights in Education Bill is about helping parents control what their children do and learn about in school. Critics have dubbed it the “Don’t Say Gay Bill” because of its language in a particular paragraph, which specifies sexual and gender identity may not be in lessons in K through third grades.
DeSantis said he was signing the bill to make sure that parents send their children to school “to get an education not an indoctrination.”
United Teachers of Dade President Karla Hernandez Mats released a statement earlier this month criticizing the bill, saying “none of our educators in the entire state of Florida teach about sexual orientation to any child in k-3.”
“The malicious and absurd intent of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill is evident,” she added.
But the governor refuted that claim Monday, holding up a poster about the “genderbread man,” which he said was shown to young children in Florida while they were being taught about gender ideology.
He also displayed a children’s story about a transgender child that he said was also found in a Florida classroom.
He did not name the schools where the materials were found.
The house sponsor of the Parents’ Rights Bill, State Rep. Joseph Harding spoke to Local 10 News about the bill earlier this month.
“Nowhere in the bill do we limit them being able to confide to someone at school,” Harding said while appearing on This Week in South Florida. “That’s the biggest misconception of the bill. And it’s just not in the words on the page.”
The governor said the new law, however, will ensure that no healthcare services are offered to students without parental consent.
One Florida mother who is a licensed mental health counselor spoke at Monday’s press conference and said that her 13-year-old daughter notified her in September 2020 that she had a meeting with school officials in which they asked her what restroom she wanted to use.
The mother said she contacted the school and they told her by law they couldn’t release details about the meeting with her without her daughter’s consent.
She said she learned her daughter’s middle school and a Social Services worker had created a transgender support plan without parental consent, and advised her daughter to use her birth name at home and a different name at school so her parents would not be aware of the plan.
The mother said this ultimately created a wedge between her daughter and their family, making her child believe that she needed to be protected from them.
The mother added that she believed schools are “grossly unqualified to be taking these steps without parental involvement.”
President Joe Biden condemned the bill as hateful to the LGBTQ+ community, and the law has been highly criticized by Hollywood’s elite, including at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava also condemned the new law, calling it “hateful” and “harmful.”
The 'Don't Say Gay' law makes entire families and communities feel invisible.
— Daniella Levine Cava (@MayorDaniella) March 28, 2022
It is hateful, harmful, and has no place in our state.
To every LGBTQ Floridian – especially our children – Miami-Dade has your back, and our community will continue to protect you.
Members of the LGBTQ rights activist group Equality Florida said they will legally challenge the law.
“The stigma that this creates for some of our most marginalized young people,” said Joe Saunders with Equality Florida.
Saunders said he’s concerned for for LGBTQ parents and children, but also for teachers who may feel silenced.
“To bar under the threat of outrageous lawsuits any kind of instruction related to the existence of LGBTQ young people is wrong,” Saunders said.
The law was ridiculed on the Oscar’s state Sunday night, but DeSantis and supporters continue to defend it, saying it is about empowering parents.
“I don’t care what corporate media outlets say, I don’t care what Hollywood says, I don’t care what big corporations say – here I stand. I’m not backing down,” DeSantis said.
The full bill can be viewed below: