Florida Governor signs bill curbing teaching about sexual orientation

The measure, which opponents call the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, passed the Republican-led legislature earlier this month.

The bill signed by Ron DeSantis will take effect on July 1. Picture: AFP

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill restricting teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in public schools that has triggered divisive ­national debate.

Supporters of the legislation, passed earlier this month by the GOP-led legislature, say it is aimed at asserting more parental control over children’s education and prohibiting inappropriate classroom instruction.

Opponents, including Democrats and civil-rights groups who call the measure the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, say it will censor discussion about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and isolate LGBTQI children who are vulnerable to bullying.

The measure, which takes ­effect on July 1, sparked demonstrations by opponents in the state capital of Tallahassee. It drew criticism and mockery on Saturday Night Live and during the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday (Monday AEDT). And it created challenges for Walt Disney chief executive Bob Chapek, who initially sought to avoid publicly wading into the political debate but wound up in a spat with Mr DeSantis.

“You’ve seen a lot of sloganeering and fake narratives by leftist politicians, by activists, by corporate media,” Mr DeSantis said at a bill-signing event in Spring Hill, Florida. “We will continue to recognise that in the state of Florida, parents have a fundamental role in the education, healthcare and well-being of their children … We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination.”

After the bill was signed, a Disney spokesman said the bill “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain ­committed to supporting the ­national and state organisations working to achieve that.”

US Education Secretary ­Miguel Cardona said his department would monitor the law’s implementation to determine whether it violated federal civil-rights law.

“This is a part of a disturbing and dangerous trend across the country of legislation targeting LGBTQI students, educators and individuals,” he said.

The bill forbids instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten to third grade and bans it in later grades if not “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students”. It prevents school districts from withholding information about a student’s mental, emotional or physical health, ­including potentially matters of gender identity, from parents. And it allows parents to sue school districts over alleged violations of the bill.

Michael Woods, a special-education teacher in Palm Beach County who also teaches a unit on human growth and development for ninth graders, said ­existing state standards clearly defined what teachers could and could not address. The youngest students weren’t taught about sexual orientation and gender identity, he said. “This is a solution in search of a problem that didn’t exist,” said Mr Woods.

He said he worried that the measure “now specifically targets a marginalised group of people by name” and would make students who are grappling with issues of sexuality or gender feel less safe confiding in a teacher.

January Littlejohn, a mother of three who backs the measure and appeared with Mr DeSantis at the signing event, said she ­believed schools were cutting parents out of critical decisions involving their children. “These parental-rights violations must stop, and school districts must be held accountable when they break the law,” she said.

The Wall Street Journal