TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — In the latest move to build on the Sunshine State’s conservative policy gains, the Florida Department of Education (DOE) under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has approved rules extending the prohibition on LGBT material in public schools to all grade levels.
Last year, DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education law, which bans schools from teaching children in kindergarten through third grade about transgenderism and other sexuality-related issues, limits discussions of sexuality for older children to “age appropriate” content and requires parents to be informed of any changes that could affect their child’s physical, emotional, or mental well-being.
Left-wing activists and their media allies misleadingly dubbed the measure a “Don’t-Say-Gay Bill,” framing it as a hateful attack on LGBT teachers and students and scoffing at the notion that it tackles a real problem, despite scores of examples of teachers engaging in LGBT activism in schools.
Last month, the Florida Board of Education released a proposed rule to expand the new standards, which would modify Florida schools’ “principles of professional conduct” to ban lessons on gender and sexual identity in all grade levels starting at kindergarten, while in grades 4-12, such lessons would be banned unless “expressly required” by Florida academic standards or as part of a class on reproductive health, in which case parents could chose to pull their children from a class.
There is no reason for instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity to be part of K-12 public education.
Full stop. https://t.co/yVKNwqFrxV
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) March 22, 2023
Students should be spending their time in school learning core academic subjects, not being force-fed radical gender and sexual ideology.
In Florida, we’re preserving the right of kids to be kids. pic.twitter.com/9WPmbn3vhK
— Manny Diaz Jr. (@SenMannyDiazJr) March 22, 2023
The state DOE approved the rule on Wednesday, the Daily Caller reported. It is slated to take effect in roughly a month.
“We believe that the focus in education should always be teaching the basics of math, science, history, etc. in the classroom, especially when it comes to issues such as sexual orientation and gender identity,” Florida Citizens’ Alliance member Ryan Kennedy said at the meeting.
The expanded rule is the latest move in DeSantis’s ongoing efforts to follow through on the promises he made in his second inaugural address to continue getting ideological proselytization out of education and more thoroughly making Florida the place “where woke goes to die.”
He has taken numerous actions to prohibit critical race theory and age-inappropriate sexual discussions from classrooms and help elect like-minded conservatives to local school boards, as well as force compliance with state standards such as keeping restrooms sex-specific. Last month, he proposed legislation to impose new standards on colleges and universities pertaining to accountability, historical accuracy, and prohibiting ideological indoctrination or the enforcement of ideological conformity.
His proactive conservative record has generated significant interest in DeSantis as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. He has not yet announced a run but is widely expected to do so at the end of Florida’s current legislative session in May.
Former President Donald Trump currently leads national polls for the GOP nomination by a substantial margin, though DeSantis remains competitive in state polls and fundraising.