In a devastating blow to the LGBTQ+ community in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis’s grotesque ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill has been passed by Republicans and will become law if it is passed by the Senate, which is expected.
Seven Republicans joined Democrats to oppose “Don’t Say Gay” but it was passed by a vote of 69 Republicans to 47 Democrats.
Amongst other things, the bill would ban discussion of LGBTQ+ issues in schools below the third grade, rendering children with same sex parents to not even MENTION their home life through fear of being sent to the principal’s office. Yes it’s THAT shitty.
Cathryn Oakley, the state legislative director and senior counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, said: “Let’s be clear – the negative consequences of [the bill] will ripple across Florida. It will hurt the LGBTQ+ community, people of color, and women. Every historically marginalized population will be impacted by this legislation.”
Not only queer people were the target of DeSantis’s desperate attempt to be MORE Trumpy that Trump and thereby maybe have a shot the Republican nominee for President in 2024. The “Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees” Act, or “Stop WOKE” Act also sailed through and that would bar classroom discussions that ‘could make students feel responsible for historic wrongs because of their race, colour, sex or national origin’, which critics argue could censor lessons on historic atrocities, from slavery to the Holocaust.
Florida Democratic Representative Fentrice Driskell said: “You don’t get the same liberty if you are an LGBTQ youth in our schools and you don’t get the same liberty if you are a member of an oppressed community of color. I’m tired of being gaslit. This bill didn’t manifest out of thin air. It’s in the context of a concerted effort to suppress stories of communities of color and to not teach our history which is also everyone’s history.”
These are dark times. It seems the Republicans have taken full leave of their senses and sold their souls to Trump and the promise of power, no matter what the cost.