Florida Republicans Pass Bill Banning The Word ‘Gay’ In Schools

Joe said:
I'm pretty sure that teacher is just making a joke because people assume teachers are turning their kids gay.

Conservatives always need a boogie man.
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I would hope so. But we only know about the "snarky" comment because it was posted. What if someone just saw that with no context.

And what if it said "Beating your kids daily since 2020". I don't think any amount of context would make that OK.
 
Herdfan said:
And what if it said "Beating your kids daily since 2020". I don't think any amount of context would make that OK.
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Corporal punishment used to be the norm in public schools. My cousin experienced it in the Seattle area in the '60s, though it was unheard of in our school district.
 
Herdfan said:
I would hope so. But we only know about the "snarky" comment because it was posted. What if someone just saw that with no context.

And what if it said "Beating your kids daily since 2020". I don't think any amount of context would make that OK.
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I can see some people taking it serious, especially the R crowd that believes everything on a meme.

The beating your kids daily thing wouldn't work because that's not an issue in schools. It doesn't make sense. No one would make a sign like that.
 
Herdfan said:
This is what it is designed to prevent:

View attachment 12582

This is from a teacher's FB page. It is not their job to try to influence kids one way or another.
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Actually this is based on something that has been around for as long as I have been a card carrying queer.

Here it is:

“My mother made me a homosexual.”
“If I get her the wool, will she make me one as well?”

It is humour.
Unfortunately, sometimes humour backfires — especially in politically charged areas and the intent is deliberately misunderstood so people can mount their high horses and umbrage taken.
As in the example you used…

Herdfan said:
And what if it said "Beating your kids daily since 2020". I don't think any amount of context would make that OK.
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See, now you're starting to equate educating people about homosexuality with child abuse…
I am sure that was not your deliberate intention. But it is such an easy segue.

Joe said:
I can see some people taking it serious, especially the R crowd that believes everything on a meme.

The beating your kids daily thing wouldn't work because that's not an issue in schools. It doesn't make sense. No one would make a sign like that.
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Back in the 70s I was regularly caned at school.
Hair a tad too long? 4 strokes.
Late for class? Bend over and grab your knees…
Your rugby team lost? 6 of the best!
Teacher's wife not putting out the previous night? Anyone's guess.

Heh ho. I survived. Mind you, it still didn't make me a homosexual with a predilection for S&M. 🤣
 
Arkitect said:
As in the example you used…


See, now you're starting to equate educating people about homosexuality with child abuse…
I am sure that was not your deliberate intention. But it is such an easy segue.
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Definitely not. Didn't even think about that connection.
 
Should add that the text of this Bill was changed in its final form. It initially said "classroom discussion", but as approved only says "classroom instruction".

What I find interesting is that "or" in the last sentence of section 3, which seems to imply that instruction about gender identity or sexual orientation in a later grade, though not prohibited by this bill, could be prohibited if it is "age-inappropriate", but says nothing about heterosexuality. Does that mean that any instruction about heterosexuality, no matter how sexually explicit or age-inappropriate, is acceptable? This bill seems to only target LGBT instruction.
 
Yeah, I hate the sort of implication that if it's anything other than heterosexual, there's some kind of seedy context.

Here's two men kissing.

OMG, PEARLS CLUTCHED, SATAN, CLINTONS!

Here's a guy getting f***** with a 12" strap-on, but it's his wife, and he's, not, you know, gay or anything.

HOW NICE, A MARRIED MAN AND WOMAN, THAT'S THE DEFINTION OF MARRIAGE.
 
1649258558910.png
 
The first two strips are what @TBL, and my (granted, a little graphic) example was all about. If the objective reading of the law was followed, you couldn't talk about anything, it's clearly written with vague subjective language.
 
Herdfan said:
Surprise, surprise. I got paddled more than occasionally in school. :D
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Ditto. One thing I used to do was tell them yes every time they asked me if I had an open sores on my ass cheeks before the paddling.

It never worked. I don't think they believed me.
 
Herdfan said:
Surprise, surprise. I got paddled more than occasionally in school. :D
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Teachers used to have the paddles hanging on the wall and would notch them every time they used it. It was a different time and if you fucked around you took a hit, today those same people call mommy and litigate against the school if a teacher even speaks to them with a stern voice.
 
Eric said:
Teachers used to have the paddles hanging on the wall and would notch them every time they used it. It was a different time and if you fucked around you took a hit,
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In Jr. High we had a Geography teacher, who looking back on it now, took way more abuse than she should have. At least once a year someone put food coloring in her fish tank or take all her chalk or erasers or some other equally sophomoric prank. Getting paddle by her was not a deterrent because she hit very lightly and the sting was usually gone before you got back to your seat.

Then one day she finally had enough and went over and got the male teacher from across the hall to paddle this one boy. That put the scare in us a bit, but figured she wouldn't do it again. Until she did. Pranks in her room pretty much stopped at that point. :)
 
Many other states are copying Florida now.

www.npr.org

Not just Florida. More than a dozen states propose so-called 'Don't Say Gay' bills

The specific details regarding the bills vary between state. But overall, they seek to prohibit schools from using a curriculum or discussing topics of gender identity or sexual orientation.
www.npr.org www.npr.org

It’s a race to see who is the most bigoted. This feels like backlash to the Obergefell decision protecting gay marriage… much in the same way Trump was a racist backlash to the 2-term Obama presidency.
 
Absolutely it is. The opposition to gay marriage focused on religion, family, tradition, etc. but in the wake of the loss of that "cultural battle" and realizing those arguments are no long as persuasive as they once were, the anti-LGBT movement has shifted to "grooming" and pedophilia (nothing new of course) and an unhealthy obsession with trans youth. The public schools have become the new arena to fight against the existence of LGBT people (by ensuring that schools do not acknowledge it).
 
The Florida state legislator who introduced the "Don't Say Gay" bill has been indicted for money laundering and wire fraud related to fabricating a basis to take covid-related small biz loans.

www.tampabay.com

Florida state Rep. Harding indicted on wire fraud, other charges

He sponsored the Parental Rights in Education law, which opponents called the “don’t say gay” bill.
www.tampabay.com www.tampabay.com

State Rep. Joe Harding, a Republican from north Florida, was indicted Wednesday on charges of money laundering and wire fraud after a federal grand jury said he falsely claimed two inactive businesses of his had employees in order to get coronavirus-related loans.

The federal indictment accuses Harding, R-Ocala, of scheming to defraud the Small Business Administration in order to get Economic Injury Disaster Loans, saying he obtained or attempted to obtain more than $150,000 “to which he was not entitled,” according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida.
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Maybe that Parental Rights in Education Act (the one nicknamed "Don't say Gay") should have been subtitled "And Don't Say You Made Fake Hay Either".

The legislator asserted on loan applications that two dead businesses of his each made $400k the year before covid and that they had had, respectively, four and two employees. In fact they both made zero bucks and had had no employees and had been dormant for three years. He went further and took the trouble to make fake bank statements for one of the firms, and reinstated both with Florida's agency that handles corporate registrations before he applied for the loans.

The maximum sentence for wire fraud is 20 years, while the maximum sentence for money laundering is 10 years and is five years for making false statements. Harding’s trial is set for Jan. 11.
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Meanwhile back at the state legislature....

[The Florida state] House Speaker Paul Renner said he is “temporarily” removing Harding from his committee assignments “to allow him time to focus on this matter.” Harding was slated to serve as the vice-chairperson of the Health & Human Services committee and the vice-chairperson of the PreK-12 Appropriations subcommittee.

“In America we adhere to the rule of law, and as such, Representative Harding is presumed innocent and will have the opportunity to plead his case before a court,” Renner said in a statement. “Since the indictment does not relate to any aspect of his legislative duties, any further questions should be directed to his legal counsel.”
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Censoring a school curriculum doesn't have the same punch it did 20, 30 years ago. Kids get this kind of education via their friends, via the internet and their phones in a way previous generations never did; and besides the best way to get a kid to do something is to tell them they can't do it.

I wonder if there is any self-awareness at all amongst Republicans as to how ineffective, nakedly hateful, ham-fisted, pandering, sad and out of touch this movement is and in what way their names will be remembered as being attached to it.
 
bwinter88 said:
Censoring a school curriculum doesn't have the same punch it did 20, 30 years ago. Kids get this kind of education via their friends, via the internet and their phones in a way previous generations never did; and besides the best way to get a kid to do something is to tell them they can't do it.

I wonder if there is any self-awareness at all amongst Republicans as to how ineffective, nakedly hateful, ham-fisted, pandering, sad and out of touch this movement is and in what way their names will be remembered as being attached to it.
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I was thinking that too. There was no internet or smartphone tech in the 50s when I was a kid. Children who were not told some version of "the facts of life" by their parents learned a usually somewhat more explicit version from friends on the playground.

Today the playground is the net and it may be a tossup whether there's more upside than downside to that for most kids, considering that "everything" is out there on the "information highway" all the time and all it takes is one pal with a smartphone to access a lot of information... or a lot of trouble.

But the net can definitely be a lifesaver too... especially if a kid lives where some parents have decided they've the right to limit not only what their kid learns at school but what everyone else's kid gets to learn there as well.

Personally I'd rather a kid had access to reliable information in a school library setting, school nurse teacher setting or sex ed classes, than to hope to keep a child "innocent" or whatever the HELL it is that parents who are up in school librarians' faces are trying to do by book banning --of any sort-- and perhaps particularly about gender and sexuality.

Ignorance is what results from such banning efforts. Ignorance is not bliss. It's a prelude to the school of hard knocks. It's your option to send your own kid to that potential hellscape while other students may acquire life saving or at least factual understandings of human life and sexuality from informed, vetted sources.

So sure, go to school board meetings and talk about age appropriate categories of books, provide input on your own views of what those ages and constraints might be. And then if you like, tell the school principal and the school librarian that your children may only look at books you've approved in person, make the appointment, pick out the books. Let other parents do the same if they wish to constrain their own kids' choices.

We need to ditch the misguided notion that any parent has the right to determine constraints on other people's kids' public school education. Where did that ever come from anyway? Public school education doesn't run on a parent's "my way or the highway" basis. Haul the kids out and home school them if it's such a big deal, or scrounge up the money for a private school. A helicopter parent is one thing, but a bunch of parents trying to usurp rather than expand other parents' options... just NO.
 

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