Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill just passed the state Senate. Here’s why students and LGBTQ+ activists are pushing back against the measure ...
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00:00We say gay! We say gay! We say gay!
00:04We're going out right now for the Don't Say Jerusalem.
00:22So I urge my colleagues to look at this, and me, and those children,
00:28not as hypotheticals, but looking at myself and others
00:32as real life stories that are standing in front of you.
00:35Just vote to empower parents and encourage them to take responsibility
00:41and to be partners with these teachers.
00:58The way the bill is written, it says you can't have any classroom instruction.
01:15So what is classroom instruction?
01:17I mean, the problem is that it's so vague and overly broad.
01:20Most of what kindergarten through third grade is, is, you know,
01:23tell me about yourself, tell me about your family, draw a picture of your family.
01:27And so for any child that has an LGBTQ family member or sibling,
01:32or if they have two dads, all of a sudden you're going to have that child
01:35not being able to talk about their two dads.
01:38They're not going to be able to talk about what their family did over the weekend.
01:41All of a sudden the teacher has to say, you know,
01:43no, sorry, we can't talk about that here.
01:46I mean, basically, you know, this is a government censorship bill.
01:51I think we've finally gotten to the point where kids are really comfortable
01:58coming out to trusted faculty at school.
02:01And I think that taking away the security of that will really have a detrimental effect.
02:07I had a seventh grade teacher who would have like a little GSA after school on Fridays.
02:22He would just kind of open up his room and he would let us talk.
02:26And it was a really good way for me to see that there were other kids like me
02:30and that I wasn't alone.
02:32And it was a good way to meet friends and just having an adult
02:35at school who I knew supported me and everyone else in the room
02:39was just really helpful to me figuring myself out.
02:50You look at the bill and it says no sexual instruction in grades pre-K through three.
02:58And so how many parents want their kindergartners to have transgenderism
03:03or something injected into classroom instruction?
03:06I've also been a student for 13 years.
03:09So I'm fully aware there are not inappropriate conversations
03:12about anything related to the LGBTQ community going on in schools.
03:17Anywhere, anywhere.
03:18If you walk into any elementary school in Florida,
03:20you are not going to hear any sort of inappropriate discussion other than,
03:24oh, you know, Emma has two dads or oh, you know, JoJo was born a boy, but now she's a girl.
03:32There is nothing that is developmentally inappropriate happening in schools right now.
03:43It allows any parent to sue a school district if they think that any material or any instruction
03:49or any conversation that has been had in a classroom is inappropriate.
03:53And therefore, the school districts will be liable for damages.
03:58And it opens the door to all of these frivolous lawsuits.
04:01And in order to prevent being sued on this bill by parents who
04:08think that something is inappropriate, even though it is entirely appropriate,
04:12schools may self-censor themselves in order to avoid frivolous lawsuits.
04:17We will not be victims! We will not be victims! We will not be victims!
04:26This is part of a nationwide attack on LGBTQ individuals.
04:34It is a nationwide attack on free speech.
04:39And it is government censorship that we see happening across the country.
04:46It is a nationwide attack on free speech that we see happening across the country.