I have thoughts on what's going on in Florida right now. I mean, I'm probably preemptively blocked from like 95% of tumblr so I doubt the people who actually should read this will, but here it goes.
A brief disclaimer: part of this is my own personal opinion, part of this is the opinion of moderates, republicans, and democrats. I'm trying to bring you the perspective you probably aren't getting from the internet. Really, I'm trying to save the left from itself. I say a lot of this with love. Some of it with annoyance.
I'm seeing a future where Ron Desantis is the next president of the United States and everyone's gonna act like they took no part in setting the foundation.
I really think whoever is raging out about this bill actually needs to read it. Here's a link, its only like 3 pages.
Okay, so first of all. The actual title of this bill is the parental rights bill.
The prohibition of classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity is only applicable to grades K-3. It further goes on to say that children who are being sent for mental health services within the system must legally have their parent's notified by the school. Parent's can sue if they feel that the school is withholding potentially serious info about their kids. (I WONDER WHICH GROUP HAS ADVOCATED FOR CHILDREN TO BE GIVEN SECRET TREATMENT FOR CERTAIN CONDITIONS......)
The vast majority of Floridians support this bill. While yall are out here calling it the "Don't Say Gay Bill", supporters (many of whom are Republican, but there are also a ton of Democrats on board) are calling it the Anti-Grooming Bill.
You seriously need to consider if this is the hill you want to die on. You will not win this fight.
Because there is absolutely no way for you to argue this to people with children under the age of 9 years old without coming off as a child predator. The questions you will be asked are:
-Why do you want to teach young children about sex before they can even read?
-Why do you want children under the age of 9 to learn about transgender theory?
-Why do you think its okay for the state to bypass parental involvement in their children's mental health?
And whatever answer you give is going to sound an awful lot like child grooming. "But the child is being abused, we have to keep it a secret from their family". If a teacher suspects abuse, they call CPS and or police. They're mandated reporters. This is clearly not about parental abuse.
I have a lifetime of experience with Florida schools, both as a student and as a parent of a student in the age group this bill was designed for. Can I speak to whether or not these things were happening to the level that necessitates this bill? Maybe. A lot of people, myself included have felt that the school systems have cut our involvement out of the process to the point where we don't even know what our kids are doing. They're not bring home any homework, they haven't had conferences in years, academically they're falling behind, and our kids are telling us things that are deeply concerning(about teachers and other students). Things that should have maybe warranted a phone call. At the respect of not making this post far longer than it needs to be, my experience this past year was a total shit-show. I pulled my daughter out last month and have been homeschooling her ever since.
Republicans used the slogan of gays coming for your children for 50 years to deny you human rights.
Now parents are in a world where not only is the left arguing to teach sexual orientation and gender identity lessons to kids as young as 5 years old, they're arguing to medicalize children as young as 10-12 and offer them hormones and gender-affirming surgery for dysphoria. Don't say its not happening, because it obviously is. You are, quite literally at this point, coming for their children.
You're making the republicans look like prophets. You're making them look down-right reasonable. You're making Ron Desantis a serious contender for 2024.
And the more you reeee about this bill, and the more people read it, the worse you are going to look. You have been fucking played.