Meanwhile, in Florida...

[L'Emmerdeur]

The freedom-loving governor DeSantis and fine upstanding Christian Republican legislators will not tolerate such displays!

'Student Organizer of Statewide Protest Against Florida ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill Suspended for Handing Out Pride Flags'

Jack Petocz, the student who organized a statewide school walkout and protest against Florida Republicans’ “Don’t Say Gay” bill has been suspended indefinitely, reportedly for handing out pride flags, which he says school administrators confiscated.

Thousands of students in at least 20 schools across the state participated in the protest Thursday, including about 400 to 500 at Petocz’s Flagler Palm Coast High School, where he is a junior.

Petocz had worked with school administrators who initially supported his plan to hold a short walk out but Petocz says hours before the protest was to begin Flagler Palm Coast High School Principal Greg Schwarz called it off, local news outlet FlaglerLive reports. Petocz believes one school board member he has clashed with in the past, who was seen walking around the school Wednesday with Principal Schwarz may have ordered the protest to be canceled.

“Petocz was suspended after the protest because he distributed pride flags after being told not to,” FlaglerLive reports.

Petocz is taking on the administration’s actions.

“Today, I led a planned and preapproved rally at Flagler Palm Coast High School in my home state of Florida in opposition to the homophobic and discriminatory legislation being pushed by Governor DeSantis and the Florida State Legislature,” Petocz says in a statement. “Over 500 students from my school joined thousands of other concerned youth statewide to demonstrate their constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom to protest. Students waved pride flags and stood together, showing the politicians peddling bigotry that we will not be silenced. We made our plea to those actively targeting us, the same people who pledged to protect and empower all Floridians.”

[Brian Peacock]

Isn't Flagler Palm a rather nasty skin complaint?

[laklak]

Flagler County is the last redneck country on the east coast. Know your audience would be my advice.

[Sean Hayden]

I had to look it up.

The legislation prohibits any instruction about sexuality or gender between kindergarten and third grade "or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

It would also guarantee parents access to their children's education and health records and require that schools notify parents "if there is a change in the student's services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being and the school's ability to provide a safe and supportive

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/24/10829690 ... l-by-criti

[laklak]

I'm not seeing an issue here.

[Brian Peacock]

I think the issue is probably confiscating pride flags and suspending student organisers.

[Sean Hayden]

Was he trying to organize protests during class? I'd kick him out too.

[Tero]

I'm not seeineg an issue here.

Next step is gay conversion therapy. So they can all play sports safely. No gays or transgenders in the shower.

[Sean Hayden]

The paranoid's survival guide is here.

[L'Emmerdeur]

The Florida Senate version of the bill retains the 'primary grade levels' language. It remains to be seen whether that will be modified when the final bill is sent to Governor DeSantis. In any case, children generally express a gender identity by around the age of 3. I don't think it is unreasonable to allow discussions of this issue at any grade level, should it arise.

I question who exactly is being 'protected' by this bill in the first place.

[JimC]

I question who exactly is being 'protected' by this bill in the first place.

The delicate sensibilities of conservatives?

[L'Emmerdeur]

The paranoid's survival guide is here.

You can scoff, but the fact is that there is a significant element in the Republican Party that supports 'gender conversion therapy.' Tony Perkins (infamous religious bigot) got it in the Republican Party platform, after all. Given the history behind the issues of gender and sexuality, I don't think that LGBTQ people are being paranoid when they oppose these bills.

[Sean Hayden]

I had to look it up.

The legislation prohibits any instruction about sexuality or gender between kindergarten and third grade "or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards."

It would also guarantee parents access to their children's education and health records and require that schools notify parents "if there is a change in the student's services or monitoring related to the student's mental, emotional, or physical health or well-being and the school's ability to provide a safe and supportive

https://www.npr.org/2022/02/24/10829690 ... l-by-criti

Do I need to read the bill to find the scary part?

BTW discussing what comes up in class is not necessarily instruction. --the difference is important imo

--//--

If you were to offer a lesson about gender to my daughter, that single lesson would entail more than she and I have ever discussed the topic. Perhaps that's a parenting failure on my part. Maybe we should be discussing gender more frequently. Whatever the case, it isn't obviously --yet-- widely accepted as good or necessary.

[L'Emmerdeur]

A child comes home from school asking why Jeb has two mommies and no daddy. In many instances no big deal, but with this law it is certainly not out of the question that some parents would see grounds for a lawsuit. You think that has not been on the minds of at least some teachers? That this law will have no effect?

* * *

Meanwhile, yeah, remind me again about 'paranoia.'

'DeSantis SPOX Blasted for Saying "Don't Say Gay" Bill Opponents "Probably" Are "Groomers" of Kids'

Many across the nation were shocked and outraged after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis‘s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, entered the battle over the “Don't Say Gay” bill, saying anyone who opposes the legislation is “probably” grooming children for sex. Many immediately took that to mean she is calling them, especially LGBTQ people, pedophiles.

The far-right, often the religious right, for decades have falsely accused LGBTQ people of being pedophiles. Studies prove LGBTQ people are no more likely to engage in pedophilia than their heterosexual counterparts.

Yet Pushaw was only too happy to push the vicious, damaging, and discredited lie.

“The bill that liberals inaccurately call ‘Don’t Say Gay’ would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill,” Pushaw tweeted Friday evening.

She didn’t stop there.

“If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the rules,” she added.

To be clear, the spokesperson for the governor of the nation’s third-largest state is saying nearly half his constituents are “probably” grooming children for sex, or “complicit” in grooming children for sex.

[Sean Hayden]

Of course you're right, and I'm being an ass. So let me acknowledge the threat now, Republican power has proven itself especially dangerous to LGBTQ.

--//--

The way I understand the legislation, and correct me if I'm wrong, it would provide the means to prevent schools from adopting unproven instruction about gender. Well, at least until the kids are in the 4th grade.

If instead they want to censor discussion around these issues as they come up, for example like they might after reading a story with non-traditional characters, then I'd say they've got the wrong idea about education.