Video: Florida Students Stage Massive Walk-Out Protest Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill
20:01 GMT 08.03.2022 (Updated: 21:15 GMT 08.03.2022)
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On Monday, media giant Disney defended its decision not to take a stance on Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, claiming it would turn the company into a “political football.” However, critics noted Disney had denounced other anti-LGBTQ measures and had donated funds to every sponsor and co-sponsor of the Florida bill.
Hundreds of students at a Florida high school staged a walk-out protest against a controversial bill hours before it was approved by the state’s legislature. The measure would ban discussion of all LGBTQ topics in schools.
At 9 am Tuesday morning, more than 500 students at Winter Park High School in Florida’s Orange County protested in defense of LGBTQ rights, walking out of the classrooms and rallying on a plaza outside the school building.
The students held signs and chanted slogans such as “We say gay!” and “protect trans kids.”
Students in Winter Park, Florida staging a MASSIVE walkout to protest GOP 'Don't Say Gay' bill. Video shot by Will Larkins.
— Stephiereine (@stephiereine) March 7, 2022
The bill they are protesting:
"Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in K-3 pic.twitter.com/pVzhb8Rw8Z
“We wanted to show our government that this isn’t going to stop," Will Larkins, a junior at Winter Park who helped organize the protest, told CNN. "There were walkouts all last week. This is going to continue. If this passes, there will be protests everywhere. We wanted to get the attention of our representatives, our senators, because the point is to show them that we are the ones in power. The people are the ones in power, and what they’re doing doesn’t represent us, especially marginalized groups.”
Across the Sunshine State, students have staged walkout protests, as well as chanted slogans in the halls in recent days.
Right now
— Glenna Milberg (@GlennaWPLG) March 7, 2022
Dozens have taken a decibel-bending protest to the door of the Florida Senate as the Parents Rights in Education bill hits the floor.
Senators are insulated from the volume @WPLGLocal10 #Tallahasse https://t.co/zoICu5bajn pic.twitter.com/fTLNu9kRmO
Formally known as House Bill 1557 or the “Parental Rights in Education” bill, it is better known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill because it would ban discussions of gender identity and sexuality in classrooms. This would reportedly stop LGBTQ teachers from discussing their identities or mentioning their same-gender spouses, and the children of LGBTQ parents from mentioning their parents in school.
The bill has aroused widespread condemnation, including by US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, a gay man and the nation’s highest ranking LGBTQ person.
Republican State Senator Dennis Baxley, one of the bill’s sponsors, said it aimed to address “social engineering” in the classroom, claiming that it would lead to more students coming out as transgender if they were to learn about the existence of trans people.
“Do we really think that teachers are engineering students to become gay?” Democratic State Sen. Tina Polsky asked in a floor discussion on Monday. “It’s preposterous.”
The bill passed on Tuesday by a vote of 22-17, and now heads to Governor Ron DeSantis’ desk. The Republican leader has explicitly endorsed the bill, characterizing it a banning “sexual instruction” and “a focus on transgenderism.” DeSantis’ administration has also implemented other measures against LGBTQ rights recently, including a ban on trans girls competing in girls’ sports
His spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, went even further, calling it an “anti-grooming bill” and claiming that opponents of the bill were “probably a groomer,” a term that refers to how pedophiles lure children into trusting them so they can take sexual advantage of the child.
That posturing evokes the 1970s “Save Our Children” campaign spearheaded by pop singer Anita Bryant. The movement, which started in Florida’s Dade County before spreading to several other states, aimed to revoke laws protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination. The movement’s momentum was finally blunted after gay San Francisco City Councilor Harvey Milk organized an effective effort to convince Californians to vote down a referendum banning LGBTQ teachers from California schools.
The Florida bill is one of more than 160 potentially infringing on LGBTQ rights in US state legislatures this year, according to the LGBTQ rights group Human Rights Campaign. These bills span a wide variety of topics, from banning trans girls from competing in girls’ sports teams to banning trans women from using women’s restrooms.
In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott decreed last month that gender-affirming health care or behavior for transgender children would be considered “child abuse,” directing the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate reported and suspected cases. The rule could see children taken from their parents and taught going through puberty as the gender they were assigned at birth, which has been identified by health professionals as destructive of their mental health.
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