Expanded ‘don't say gay' law creates more confusion for teachers: Critics

Highly controversial from the start, Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law has been expanded and the new version takes effect on July 1.

The law started out banning discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation up to the third grade. Its sponsors used that as a selling point, saying children that young had no business being exposed to topics like that in school. But a year later, the legislature extended the bans through the 8th grade.

Supporters of the law see it as protecting kids from sexually explicit topics.

“When children go to school, they’re supposed to learn reading, writing, arithmetic, they’re not supposed to be indoctrinated into ideology, these conversations need to happen in the home with family members,” Anthony Verdugo of the Christian Coalition said last year.

“The notion that we are grooming or recruiting, what’s our platform, everybody hates us, come join us?” quipped Orlando Gonzales of SAVE Dade, an LGBTQ advocacy group.

Gonzalez says the first version of the so-called Don’t Say Gay law created a chilling effect on teachers. Because of its vagueness, teachers have not been sure what they can and cannot talk about, so they self-censor and avoid topics they would discuss in the past.

Gonzales says that’s the point of the law. Now that it’s been expanded by law through the 8th grade and expanded through high school by the Florida Board of Education, making it illegal to discuss gender identity and sexual orientation issues unless they come up in a health class, critics say it creates more confusion for teachers.

“The people who oppose LGBT people, they conflate the idea that whenever you talk about us, you’re also talking about sex, that is downright perverse,” Gonzales said.

He claims the law also creates barriers for kids looking for advice from trusted adults at school.

“Many times students are going to counselors seeking support because they’re dealing with issues of sexual orientation or gender identity, but they have found that there’s nobody there for them to speak to and oftentimes what they’re told is go talk to their parents,” Gonzales said.

That’s exactly the outcome the law’s sponsors have wanted, saying parents should be the first option for children.

The problem is, some kids in that situation, Gonzales says, feel like they can’t talk to their parents without severe repercussions, and school counselors feel like they have their hands tied by law. Now local school boards will be grappling with the consequences of the new policies next school year.