President Joe Biden weighed in on Florida’s controversial bill barring discussions of sexual identity and gender in state primary schools. The president called the bill “hateful” and shared his support for children who might be impacted by the bill.
“I want every member of the LGBTQI+ community — especially the kids who will be impacted by this hateful bill — to know that you are loved and accepted just as you are,” he wrote on Twitter. “I have your back, and my Administration will continue to fight for the protections and safety you deserve.”
The response came after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed the bill twice this week. The bill is part of a larger push toward what the GOP calls “transparency” from public schools. What the bills running through both houses of Florida’s legislature amount to is a way to open up teachers, curriculum and school libraries to censorship and legal action.
“Schools need to be teaching kids to read, to write, they need to teach them science, history. We need more civics and understanding the U.S. Constitution — what makes our country unique — all those basic stuff,” DeSantis said in Miami on Monday. “Hiding things from the parent, you’re injecting these concepts about choosing your gender — that is just inappropriate for our schools, and so I don’t support that going on,” he said, adding: “I don’t think it’s going on in large numbers.”
When asked specifically about the bills being advanced the next day, DeSantis admitted he hasn’t “looked at any particulars” but still decried teachers doing “stuff with like a gender ideology.” Eloquent.
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This article appears in Feb 9-15, 2022.