by Erin Guo
On Tuesday, Florida's Senate passed a bill that would ban discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s primary school classrooms, a move in which Democrats have denounced as anti-LGBTQ.
The legislation, called Parental Rights in Education or as critics called it the "Don’t Say Gay" bill, is expected to be signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis who has shown his support for the legislation. The vote came down to a 22-17 vote and has sparked attention nationwide and on social media.
GOP House of Representative member Joe Harding, who started the bill, claims that it’s about "empowering parents" and improving the quality of life for their children. He also emphasized that the bill does not prohibit students from having classroom discussions about their LGBTQ families or LGBTQ history. Supporters of the bill also say it was to keep schools from talking about topics that young kids are not able to process yet.
Florida has already filed more than 170 anti-LGBTQ bills in less than 2 months and most of this year's proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation, about 92 bills, target trans people. In addition to this bill, 15 other bills limiting discussions on LGBTQ identities in classrooms are being considered in 8 states, according to PEN American.
Several other states have passed similar laws, widely known as "no promo homo" which allow parents to take their children out of classes and assignments that mention sexual orientation or gender identity, according to GLSEN, an LGBTQ awareness campaign.
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