Florida governor signs bill limiting LGBT education in schools
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a law banning sexual orientation and gender identity lessons in elementary schools, a move critics say will harm the LGBTQ community.
“We will make sure that parents can send their children to school for an education, not indoctrinating them,” the Republican governor said before signing the bill.
Opposition Democrats and LGBT rights activists have lobbied against what they call the “Don’t Say Like Me” law, which will affect children in kindergarten through third grade, when they are eight or nine years old.
Critics say this wording means that the law can be applied to older children as well.
Republicans responded by saying that teachers and students can in fact speak spontaneously about sexual orientation and gender identity and that the bill simply prohibits lessons on these issues from being part of the formal school curriculum.
The legislation caused an uproar across the country after it was approved by the Republican-majority Senate in Florida on March 8.
The controversy also sparked protests in mid-March among employees of the entertainment giant Disney for not explicitly opposing the law.
The company, which employs about 75,000 people at its theme park in Orlando, Florida, condemned the bill on Monday in a statement.
On Sunday, the Oscars hosts — comedians Amy Schumer, Regina Hall and Wanda Sykes — alluded to Floridalo in their opening speech when they chanted “gay” several times.
For months, Florida Republicans have been waging what they call a battle for parents to have a greater say in what their children learn in school.
Defense group EqualityFlorida, which advocates for LGBT rights, has criticized DeSantis for signing the law.
“DeSantis has damaged our state’s reputation as a welcoming and inclusive place for all families, and made us a laughingstock and a target of national ridicule,” the NGO said in a statement.
“Worse, it has made schools less safe for children.”
The Florida Education War focuses on teaching critical race theory, the doctrine that racism is an ingrained part of America’s law and legal institutions in that it serves to maintain social, economic, and political inequality.
Last month, the House of Representatives in the Florida legislature passed a bill that would ban the teaching of racially oriented subjects as part of the formal school curriculum.
(AFP)
