Gender identity, sexual orientation and other LGBTQ instruction have been pushed out of Florida classrooms as the state’s board of education on Wednesday extended the controversial Dont Say Gay through 12th grade. Florida’s previous ban, which was enacted last year and has inspired similar laws in several other states, had only applied through third grade.
Neither the original bill nor the new rule prohibits instruction related to sexual orientation or gender identity within a reproductive health curriculum. Florida, however, does not require K12 schools to teach reproductive health.
Teachers risk losing their teaching licenses if they violate the expanded ban, which was on Wednesday by Florida’s Board of Education, CNN reported. Were providing clarity on what the students are expected to learn. Nothing more than that, state board member Esther Byrd, told CNN. This really isnt a complicated thing.
State officials on Wednesday also downplayed the idea that the ban could cause emotional harm to LGBTQ students or prevent them from receiving counseling and other support. The curriculum and the standards taught in an academic classroom have nothing to do with the schools compassion and being able to provide services to individual students, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said at the board of education meeting in Tallahassee, . Theyre not being shunned, none of this is being addressed here.
Critics called the decision an effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to exert ideological control over public education. “Beyond this flagrant escalation of educational censorship, the decision sends a disturbing message that some families and students can be erased from public recognition, their stories, histories, and identities prohibited from being discussed among the rising generation,” said , director of free expression and education programs at PEN America, an anti-censorship and civil rights nonprofit.
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