The state’s restriction on teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity to kids was extended by the Florida Board of Education to all K–12 public schools on Wednesday. a measure supported by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of the southern US state. The proposed restriction, which doesn’t need legislative permission, is a part of DeSantis’s larger campaign for cultural problems in what is likely to be a 2024 presidential campaign.
LGBTQ rights organisation in Florida, Equality Florida, voiced outrage at the action and claimed that it marginalises LGBTQ pupils
The new rule stipulates that teachers “shall not intentionally provide classroom instruction to students in grades 4 through 12 on sexual orientation or gender identity unless such instruction is … expressly required by state academic standards.” It also allows for an exemption if the lesson is “part of a reproductive health course or health lesson for which a student’s parent has the option to have his or her student not attend.”
The language states that teachers who breach the guideline risk having their teaching credentials and licences suspended or withdrawn. DeSantis supported a new rule last year that forbade the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through third grade. He stated that parents should decide when to bring up certain topics with their children, not teachers. An LGBTQ rights organisation in Florida, Equality Florida, voiced outrage at the action and claimed that it marginalises LGBTQ pupils.
“Shame on the DeSantis Administration for putting a target on the backs of LGBTQ Floridians,” the group said
“Shame on the DeSantis Administration for putting a target on the backs of LGBTQ Floridians,” the group said in a statement. It accused Republican officials of having a “lust for government censorship.” State education officials, on the other hand, said that the rule is meant to ensure that educators stick to Florida’s teaching standards. “The curriculum and the standards taught in an academic classroom have nothing to do with the school’s compassion and being able to provide services to individual students,” Education Commissioner Manny Diaz said at the meeting in Tallahassee. “They’re not being shunned; none of this is being addressed here.”
DeSantis and Disney are at odds now because the entertainment giant openly opposed the rule and DeSantis supported it. Since then, the governor has moved to rescind Disney’s special permission to use the property where Walt Disney World is situated. The amendments approved on Wednesday support a regulation the board first established in October implementing the contentious law from the previous year. In his second term, DeSantis, who won re-election in 2022 with a landslide victory, has made combating politicians, teachers, and companies that he claims to want to impose a progressive ‘woke’ philosophy on others a top priority.
