Analysis by WorldTribune Staff, May 4, 2023
More than 100 leftist activists descended on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office in Tallahassee on Wednesday after the Florida House voted to expand the Parental Rights in Education bill.
Under the initial bill, passed in March of 2022, teachers in public school kindergarten through 3rd grade classes were prohibited from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity and were limited in the use of preferred pronouns. The legislation passed on Wednesday, HB 1069, expands the bill to cover kindergarten through 8th grade classes in all public schools.
Over a dozen activists enraged over the expansion of what is falsely referred to by the Left as the “Don’t Say Gay Bill,” were arrested Wednesday night while protesting in DeSantis’s office.
The 14 people arrested were charged with misdemeanor trespass and were booked into the Leon County Jail, Florida Department of Law Enforcement spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger told the Tallahassee Democrat.
“Once the building closes, unless you have an office in the Capitol, you’re not allowed to be here,” Plessinger said, citing Department of Management Services policy.
“This bill promotes parental rights, transparency, and state standards in Florida schools. It requires that lessons for Florida’s students are age-appropriate, focused on education, and free from sexualization and indoctrination,” Republican state Rep. Adam Anderson said.
While there is more flexibility with high school students, teachers and instructors for those grade levels are restricted to only discussing the topics in a manner that is “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for their students.
The Florida Senate’s version of the bill is still making its way through committees, but is expected to pass and DeSantis is expected to sign it into law.
“You see society coming at our children in a culture war that has an agenda to make them confused,” Republican state Sen. Erin Grall said. “We are depriving children of the ability to figure out who they are when we push an agenda, a sexualized agenda, down onto children.”
The Florida House also approved a proposal to ban people from entering bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.
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