Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill, explained

Brut America

Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill just passed the state Senate. Here’s why students and LGBTQ+ activists are pushing back against the measure ...

Transcript

00:00We say gay! We say gay! We say gay!

00:04We're going out right now for the Don't Say Jerusalem.

00:22So I urge my colleagues to look at this, and me, and those children,

00:28not as hypotheticals, but looking at myself and others

00:32as real life stories that are standing in front of you.

00:35Just vote to empower parents and encourage them to take responsibility

00:41and to be partners with these teachers.

00:58The way the bill is written, it says you can't have any classroom instruction.

01:15So what is classroom instruction?

01:17I mean, the problem is that it's so vague and overly broad.

01:20Most of what kindergarten through third grade is, is, you know,

01:23tell me about yourself, tell me about your family, draw a picture of your family.

01:27And so for any child that has an LGBTQ family member or sibling,

01:32or if they have two dads, all of a sudden you're going to have that child

01:35not being able to talk about their two dads.

01:38They're not going to be able to talk about what their family did over the weekend.

01:41All of a sudden the teacher has to say, you know,

01:43no, sorry, we can't talk about that here.

01:46I mean, basically, you know, this is a government censorship bill.

01:51I think we've finally gotten to the point where kids are really comfortable

01:58coming out to trusted faculty at school.

02:01And I think that taking away the security of that will really have a detrimental effect.

02:07I had a seventh grade teacher who would have like a little GSA after school on Fridays.

02:22He would just kind of open up his room and he would let us talk.

02:26And it was a really good way for me to see that there were other kids like me

02:30and that I wasn't alone.

02:32And it was a good way to meet friends and just having an adult

02:35at school who I knew supported me and everyone else in the room

02:39was just really helpful to me figuring myself out.

02:50You look at the bill and it says no sexual instruction in grades pre-K through three.

02:58And so how many parents want their kindergartners to have transgenderism

03:03or something injected into classroom instruction?

03:06I've also been a student for 13 years.

03:09So I'm fully aware there are not inappropriate conversations

03:12about anything related to the LGBTQ community going on in schools.

03:17Anywhere, anywhere.

03:18If you walk into any elementary school in Florida,

03:20you are not going to hear any sort of inappropriate discussion other than,

03:24oh, you know, Emma has two dads or oh, you know, JoJo was born a boy, but now she's a girl.

03:32There is nothing that is developmentally inappropriate happening in schools right now.

03:43It allows any parent to sue a school district if they think that any material or any instruction

03:49or any conversation that has been had in a classroom is inappropriate.

03:53And therefore, the school districts will be liable for damages.

03:58And it opens the door to all of these frivolous lawsuits.

04:01And in order to prevent being sued on this bill by parents who

04:08think that something is inappropriate, even though it is entirely appropriate,

04:12schools may self-censor themselves in order to avoid frivolous lawsuits.

04:17We will not be victims! We will not be victims! We will not be victims!

04:26This is part of a nationwide attack on LGBTQ individuals.

04:34It is a nationwide attack on free speech.

04:39And it is government censorship that we see happening across the country.

04:46It is a nationwide attack on free speech that we see happening across the country.

Category

Transcript

Recommended