Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill has been amended with a requirement for schools to out students once they learn of them being LGBTQ+.
The bill, which is part of a Parental Rights in Education proposal, was altered by Rep Joe Harding on 18 February.
His amendment states that “the school principal or his or her designee shall develop a plan, using all available governmental resources, to disclose such information within [six] weeks after the decision to withhold such information from the parent.”
This would be done “through an open dialogue in a safe, supportive, and judgement-free environment that respects the parent-child relationship and protects the mental, emotional, and physical well-being of the student,” the amendment says.
LGBTQ+ activists are fearful that if House Bill 1557 and its companion Senate Bill 1834 are signed into law, they could have the power to totally limit any discussions or lessons on identity, the community’s history and the oppression it has faced – prompting its ‘Don’t Say Gay’ nickname.
The bill states that schools “may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students”.
A previous draft of it offered protection to students who came out if “a reasonably prudent person would believe that such disclosure would result in abuse, abandonment, or neglect”.
An amendment was just filed by the sponsor of #DontSayGay to make it even more dangerous for vulnerable kids with a STATE-MANDATED outing of LGBTQ students to parents, specifically in cases of abuse, abandonment + neglect.
This will have devastating consequences for our youth.😢 pic.twitter.com/3s89rcMrMN
— Rep. Carlos G Smith (@CarlosGSmith) February 20, 2022
Rep. Carlos G Smith, Florida’s first LGBTQ+ Latino legislator, said the amendment “will have devastating consequences for our youth.”
He also claimed that the language of the bill puts all sensitive information discussed by the student at risk, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“This is about disclosure of anything a child shares with the school,” he told the outlet.
The bill, which has been condemned by President Joe Biden, is set to be debated by state legislators on 22 February.
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