Florida education board approves DeSantis’s expansion of ‘Don’t Say Gay’

The Florida Board of Education on Wednesday approved an expansion of the Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents, that will affect the K-12 teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) last month proposed to the board a rule that would only allow discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in fourth through 12th grade if it is in line with state curriculum or in a health class a student can choose not to participate in. 

The proposal was an extension of the Parental Rights in Education bill passed last year that banned all discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity up to the third grade in Florida. 

“This policy will escalate the government censorship sweeping our state, exacerbate our educator exodus, drive hardworking families from Florida, and further stigmatize and isolate a population of young people who need our support now more than ever,” Equality Florida, an LGBTQ rights group, posted on Twitter in response to the approved rule. “Shame on the DeSantis Administration for putting a target on the backs of LGBTQ Floridians.”

The newly approved rule will take effect in one month after it goes through a procedural comment period, a spokesperson from the Florida education department told The Associated Press. 

The approval from the state board marks the latest escalation of DeSantis’s fight with LGBTQ advocates.

“Parents’ rights have been increasingly under assault around the nation, but in Florida we stand up for the rights of parents and the fundamental role they play in the education of their children,” DeSantis said when he signed the legislation into law. “Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old.”

Even as DeSantis proposed this expansion to the state board, Florida lawmakers are looking to officially expand the law through the state legislature. 

The Florida House has already passed an expansion of Parental Rights in Education that would put DeSantis’s rule on the teaching of sexual orientation in fourth through 12th grade officially on the books, as well as expand the process for challenged books to be pulled out of classrooms. 

The expansion is now in the Senate for consideration and likely to pass next month.

—Updated at 1:34 p.m.