The good news: A lawsuit against Florida's Parental Rights in Education law has been settled. The reporters who joined with the activists to call it the "Don't Say Gay" law say the settlement means that sexual orientation and gender identity can be talked about in Florida classrooms.
BREAKING: Sexual orientation, gender ID can be talked about in Florida classrooms under lawsuit settlement https://t.co/Gng2T2AxJO
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 11, 2024
Mike Schneider reports for the Associated Press:
Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law doesn’t prohibit discussing LGBTQ+ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral — meaning what applies to LGBTQ+ people also applies to heterosexual people — and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used for instruction in the classroom.
…
In a statement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office described the deal as a “major win” with the law formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act remaining intact.
“We fought hard to ensure this law couldn’t be maligned in court, as it was in the public arena by the media and large corporate actors,” said Ryan Newman, an attorney for the state of Florida. “We are victorious, and Florida’s classrooms will remain a safe place under the Parental Rights in Education Act.”
The law has been championed by the Republican governor since before its passage in 2022 by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature. It barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.
All of those teachers who were scraping the rainbow stickers off their classroom doors to avoid being arrested can rest easy now. Actually, they always could. They just couldn't lead kindergarten discussions about gender identity.
BREAKING: It was never banned to begin with.
— RBe (@RBPundit) March 12, 2024
Democrats (that includes you) lied about what the bill did.
None of this is actually breaking news to anyone who read the law. https://t.co/g1EGpRTX1Y
BREAKING: Lawsuit against Florida's Parental Rights in Education Act to be dismissed.
— Jennifer Cabrera (@jhaskinscabrera) March 11, 2024
Today’s mutually agreed settlement ensures that the law will remain in effect, and it is expected that the case will be dismissed by the Court imminently.https://t.co/ZZXvbSx86r
It's incredible that almost the entire media adopted and regularly used a nickname for this law ("Don't Say Gay") that was used by critics to intentionally mislead regarding the content of the law while the settlement just restates that the law should be followed as written. https://t.co/5hUEzW9WjR
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 12, 2024
I pointed out repeatedly at the time that media outlets were misleading their readers by suggesting the law bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity instead of classroom instruction related to those subjects....https://t.co/2H3qL9kWvF
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 12, 2024
Even now the AP presents this as a new agreement, but it's exactly what the actual text said at the time... pic.twitter.com/UFU8YEbm3B
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 12, 2024
Marc Caputo, who is a really good reporter, tried to correct the media’s misinformation campaign about this bill at the time. Apparently he was chastised by NBC News bosses at the time for doing so. pic.twitter.com/fPWMTYYq7l
— AG (@AGHamilton29) March 12, 2024
It’s not incredible. It’s an industry. They were scared. The law was perfectly reasonable and that made them nervous. They had to find a discrediting nickname and knew it would work on people that would never read the law.
— NoHoHank97 (@NHank97) March 12, 2024
I remember the idiot Democratic congresswomen marching through the halls of the Capitol saying, "Gay, gay, gay!" in protest — that's how prevalent the "Don't Say Gay" myth was.
The @AP just can't stop lying.
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) March 11, 2024
This law, the Parental Rights in Education Act, is about instruction.
They lied when it was a bill, parroting activist scare tactics that it could somehow punish student to student conversation ("Don't Say Gay").
Now that the activists lost in… https://t.co/Nr2sOSPXPc
The @AP just can't stop lying.
This law, the Parental Rights in Education Act, is about instruction.
They lied when it was a bill, parroting activist scare tactics that it could somehow punish student to student conversation ("Don't Say Gay").
Now that the activists lost in court today (the law remains in effect), they run a headline like this making it seem like something has changed. It hasn't.
Kids remain safe in Florida from radical gender and sexual ideology being forced on them by adults without the knowledge of their parents.
The AP remains a propaganda machine.
The Parental Rights in Education Law stands.
The gender cult activists: we won
— Fortified Verdad🥶 (@TheVerdadnow) March 12, 2024
Normal people: what did you win???
The gender cult activists: that we made the state clarify to normal people what we were misleading them about the law and that Florida kept the law intact too
🤣😂
They lost a 3rd time pic.twitter.com/b8Fkhler4j
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