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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami) – The Parental Rights in Education bill, widely known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, was debated and discussed on the House floor Tuesday.
HB 1557 prohibits instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, and, in other grade levels, must be deemed “age or developmentally appropriate.”
In addition, it allows parents to sue a school they think violates this.
“Nowhere in this bill does a parent have to ‘out’ a student,” said bill sponsor Representative Joe Harding. “Nowhere in the bill are we limiting the speech of the students.”
Representative Carlos Smith said the language of the bill was too broad in terms of what constitutes classroom “instruction.”
“What topics specifically, about people like myself– LGBTQ Floridians– are not appropriate to teach in the classroom?” he asked Harding.
“Where we can go wrong here is going down a slope of instruction versus discussion,” Harding said. “What I want to reaffirm here is that nowhere in our bill are we banning any discussion that a student could have about any different variation of families and how they can look.”
“When teachers are teaching about different types of families,” asked Representative Michele Rayner, “are they allowed to say there are some families with two mommies, or two daddies, or or a mom and dad?
“Nowhere in our bill are we prohibiting someone talking about different families and understanding there are different makeups of families,” Harding responded. “In fact, I’m happy there’s a family that they’re talking about. I think we can agree on one thing, and that’s a family involved and engaged in a student’s life is the best thing for that student.”
Representative Mike Gottlieb questioned who determines what is “age appropriate,” as written in the bill. Harding said, while it does not exist yet, it would be up to a committee created by the State Board of Education
Franchesca D’Amore is a board member for the organization Safe Schools South Florida, which works to educate schools on how to create inclusive learning environments for LGBTQ students.
“I understand that parents should be more involved in the schooling of their children,” she said. “But this is not the way to do it.”
She says the bill makes these topics taboo when, instead, she believes, they should be normalized.
“What kind of message are you sending out to young kids at large? You know, that there’s something wrong with you if your sexual orientation is different, there’s something wrong with you if your gender identity is different. “You’re perpetuating these cycles of hate to the next generation.”
The bill rolled over to a third reading on the House floor. CBS4 was told that will happen Thursday before being taken up for a vote.
There is a nearly identical bill going through the Florida Senate.