All of Florida’s public school teachers are effectively banned from providing classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity, the State Board of Education decided Wednesday.
The board unanimously voted for a rule that expands through 12th grade the state’s controversial 2022 Parental Rights in Education law. Critics dubbed the law “don’t say gay,” arguing it wrongly silences all mentions of LGBTQ people in school and unfairly suggests teachers were acting inappropriately.
The newly amended rule, approved at the board’s meeting in Tallahassee, says teachers in grades 4 to 12 “shall not intentionally provide classroom instruction” on sexual orientation or gender identity unless “expressly” required by state standards, such as in a health education class.
The 2022 law bared such instruction in kindergarten through third grade. GOP lawmakers this year are moving a bill that would ban the topics through eighth grade.
Under the new rule, teachers who violate the prohibition could face suspension or revocation of their teaching licenses.
More than 25 people spoke at the board’s meeting, many denouncing the rules as homophobic but others praising them as an effort to keep inappropriate subjects out of classrooms.
Joe Saunders, senior political director with Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ civil rights group, said the new rule “stretched the impact of this terrible law” and was “curating fear” among students and teachers.
Several speakers, including members of the conservative Moms for Liberty group, urged the board to vote “yes” on the amended rules. They echoed GOP lawmakers and education officials who argue the law and the new rules uphold the rights of parents to decide when and how to introduce sensitive topics with their children.
Yvette Benarroch with Moms for Liberty’s Collier County chapter said “gender identity indoctrination” has “harmful long-lasting effects on children” and allowing it in schools amounts to “educational malpractice.”
The vote on the rule and two others was an effort to make sure there was no “agenda pushed on our impressionable young children,” said board member Esther Byrd. “What the board is doing today, we’re providing clarity on what students are expected to learn. It’s not any more complicated than that.”
The seven-member board, made up mostly of members appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, also voted to remove four required topics from the state’s standards for high school psychology classes, saying those also violated the 2022 law.
Those standards all dealt with sexual orientation or gender identity.
One deleted standard, for example, said, “Compare and contrast gender identity and sexual orientation.” Its replacement says, “Examine how perspectives affect stereotypes and treatment of minority and majority groups in society,” according to the two versions of Sunshine State Standards for social studies, the first adopted in 2021 and the other adopted Wednesday.
It’s unclear how the new rules might impact Advanced Placement psychology courses, whose standards are devised by the College Board, not the state. AP psychology includes a unit on gender and sexual orientation. Nearly 27,000 Florida high school students are enrolled in that AP class this school year, according to the Florida Department of Education.
The prohibition on instruction about gender identity and sexual orientation combined with a third rule the board approved Wednesday that says teachers must provide lessons that are “age and developmentally appropriate and aligned to the state academic standards” at least raise questions about the viability of teaching AP psychology.
The education department did not immediately respond to an emailed question about the AP class. The board, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz and his staff didn’t explicitly mention the changes to social studies standards during the meeting.
Diaz said the rules clarify that teachers should focus on the state’s academic standards and do not aim to harm certain groups of students.
“They’re not being shunned,” he said at the meeting.
Last month, Diaz tweeted this explanation for the rule changes: “Students should be spending their time in school learning core academic subjects, not being force-fed radical gender and sexual ideology. In Florida, we’re preserving the right of kids to be kids.”
Paul Burns, chancellor for public schools at the education department, told the board the rules make clear “what is supposed to be taught, which is our state academic standards.”
He also said the rules do not prevent school counselors from talking about “sensitive issues” with students.
Critics of the rule and the law say they are vague, unfairly suggest gay and transgender people aim to sexualize children and make teachers uncertain about what they can say without running into trouble. They also said they make it hard for gay teachers and for all teachers who want to be accepting of LGBTQ students or children who live in families with same-sex parents.
“This rule is based in hate,” one woman said. “It’s homophobic. It’s a disgrace.”
“Why are you putting teachers in the crosshairs?” asked another.
One man, holding his young daughter as he addressed the board, said he feared his child would not be able to share about her two dads when she started school. “Not stories about sex, stories about her family,” he said.
Since the law’s passage, the Miami-Dade County School Board rejected recognizing October as LGBTQ history month and districts across the state removed books from their campuses.
The Lake County school district, for example, earlier this school year cited the law when it yanked “And Tango Makes Three” from schools. It is a picture book based on a true story of two male penguins in the Central Park Zoo who, given a fertilized egg, incubated it and then fed and protected the chick when she hatched.
Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, blasted the new rule, saying it wasn’t about protecting children but about helping DeSantis’ expected bid for the White House.
“If they truly wanted to protect kids,” Jones said in a statement, “they would make sure ALL kids are protected, especially our vulnerable LGBTQ young people who experience high rates of mental health challenges and are three times more likely to commit suicide.”
____
