Andy Cohen slammed the passage of Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill saying that Republicans “are pretending to solve a problem that doesn’t exist” by voting to approve the “vague, hateful” legislation.
The host of Bravo’s late-night talk show “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” ended his Tuesday show with a scathing rebuke of Florida lawmakers who voted to pass a bill that would ban teachers from discussing “sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”
The controversial legislation — officially called the Parental Rights in Education bill — passed the state Senate in a 22-17 vote on Tuesday, just days after passing the state’s House of Representatives in a 69-47 vote.
Cohen, who’s the father of a 3-year-old, had tweeted earlier on Tuesday asking Gov. Ron DeSantis — who’s expected to sign the bill into law — about how kids of LGBTQ parents would be affected by the legislation.
“So if my son went to school in Florida, he would not be allowed to mention his father? How does this work exactly?” he wrote, tagging the Republican governor.
At the end of his Tuesday show, he took two minutes to address “some personally disturbing news coming out of Florida.”
He noted that “there’s not a mass conspiracy of kindergarten teachers who are plotting to teach children to be gay,” and that the issue the law supposedly addresses simply does not exist.
“This is one big dog whistle. You’re scaring people into spewing hate and discrimination at the LGBTQ community,” he said.
He also went back to the question he’d asked DeSantis on Twitter a few hours earlier.
“While the words ‘don’t say gay’ don’t explicitly appear in the bill, as a gay parent, I’m concerned that its deliberately vague language leaves room for it to be interpreted that way,” he said.
“If my son went to school and talked about his gay dad during class and the teacher engaged, under your vague, hateful law, that can be considered illegal?,” he wondered.
Cohen also criticized supporters of the bill for “spreading so much disinformation,” including the governor’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, for suggesting that “only ‘groomers’ would oppose [the bill]. You can’t groom someone to be gay. You’re born gay,” he said.
Speaking about Miami Sen. Ileana Garcia, who justified her support for the bill by saying that being LBGTQ was not permanent,” Cohen pointed at himself and said, “sweetie, with all due [respect]: it is permanent. Trust me!”
The executive producer of the “Real Housewives” franchise ended his emotional speech by saying that he thought that “the whole point of sending our kids to school was to educate them and prepare them for the real world.”
“Well, newsflash, the real world has gay people in it. It has people of all different gender identities,” he said adding that LGBTQ people will still exist, even if lawmakers pass laws targeting their existence.
“You can draft all the homophobic and transphobic bills you want, you’re not going to erase us,” he said. I just wonder how many children and families need to suffer before our politicians figure that out.”
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