‘Don’t Say Gay’: Five Things to Know as Controversial Bill Becomes Florida Law

Three months from now, Florida’s controversial law that strips primary school curriculum of any mention of gender or sexual orientation will go into effect.

Despite fierce efforts from Florida’s LGBTQ+ community to convince Gov. Ron DeSantis to veto House Bill 1557 — officially called Parental Rights in Education but also known as the ‘don’t say gay and trans’ bill — DeSantis signed it into law on Monday.

Opponents of the bill, including community activists, concerned parents and their LGBTQ+ kids, rallied against the bill as it darted through the Legislature. They showed up in Tallahassee to give impassioned speeches about the harm it would cause LGBTQ+ students and the precarious position it would force teachers into. DeSantis says he is defending parents’ rights to ensure kids “get an education, not an indoctrination.”

Here are five things to know about the issues around the law.

When will the law go into effect?

The law will take effect July 1, one year before it requires the Education Department to update its standards to provide guidance on how to comply with the bill.

In other words, the law will have been in effect for an entire school year before the Education Department guides teachers and school staff on how they should comply with the law or provide standards for what vague terms in the law mean.

Until state officials provide comprehensive standards explaining and defining the bill’s vague language, experts say teachers will likely need to use their judgment during the next school year.

Why is the law so controversial?

Opponents have repeatedly warned that the law will stifle important conversations in classrooms. The law’s vague language — which critics have argued is intentional — leaves many parts of the law open to interpretation.

For example, the bill states that instruction of “sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” The law does not define “age-appropriate” or “developmentally appropriate,” and while the language of the bill highlights the youngest students, all grades would be affected by the provision requiring gender and sexuality to be discussed in ways that are “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.”

Parents, school staff and students are likely to clash over what those vague terms mean.

Parents are allowed to sue school districts for anything they feel may violate the law. The law does not define parameters of what specific content or instruction would violate the law, leaving it open for interpretation.

One parent’s interpretation took issue with a book she said was read to her second grader in a class at a Palm Beach County public school.

Erin Lovely described how her son’s class was assigned a book to read called “Call Me Max” by transgender author Kyle Lukoff. Amazon describes the book as “a sweet and age-appropriate introduction to what it means to be transgender,” intended for grade levels 2-4 and ages 5-8 years old.

During a news conference with the governor on Monday, Lovely said parents weren’t given permission slips or a heads up that their child would be reading the book.

“After [his teacher] finished the book — so he had to sit there and listen to the whole thing — he raised his hand and he said, ‘No, this isn’t right. This is not who God made me to be,’” she said about her son. “And she disagreed with him and said, ‘No. You could be whatever you want to be. You just have to have an imagination.’”

Lovely said she told him, “God doesn’t make mistakes and He didn’t make a mistake when he made you,” adding that she had him moved to another class.

The law comes as several cities in Florida, through the years, have moved to ban anti-gay conversion therapy. When LGBTQ+ kids come out to an adult who may not understand or support their LGBTQ+ identity, they’re at risk of being subjected to questions about their sexuality, brushed off as ‘just confused’, or in certain cases, subjected to conversion therapy, the practice of mental health counseling aimed at “curing” teenagers with unwanted feelings of homosexuality or questions about their gender identity.

Though cities in South Florida have tried to outlaw such conversion therapy, a federal ruling in 2020 cleared the way for psychologists in the southeastern U.S. to continue the practice.

Why was the bill nicknamed ‘don’t say gay’?

Though it’s officially called Parental Rights in Education, parents of LGBTQ+ children or LGBTQ+ parents themselves are pushing back against what they say is basically a lie — that the law gives parents more power over what their children are exposed to in school.

They argue that the law protects the rights of certain parents, such as cisgender, heterosexual parents who don’t want their children learning about LGBTQ+ history or even the existence of LGBTQ+ people in school. Parents of LGBTQ+ families say it leaves their rights out of the conversation entirely.

Opponents were quick to nickname it ‘don’t say gay’ and argued that today, being LGBTQ+ isn’t illegal or inappropriate, and that it’s appropriate for students of any age to learn about love and different types of families.

DeSantis has framed the bill as a matter of parental rights, and as a way to protect kids. His press secretary, Christine Pushaw, described it as an “anti-grooming bill” on Twitter. The terminology drew criticism, given that “grooming” is a term commonly associated with child predators who manipulate youth before sexually assaulting them.

DeSantis has not only framed the bill as a matter of parental rights, but as a way to protect kids.

“For kindergarteners or first-graders or secondgraders, the classroom instruction they’re getting should not be involving sexuality. … If you’re protesting this law, you’re in favor of injecting sexual instruction into 5-, 6- and 7-year-old kids,” DeSantis recently told WPTV.

What will the law actually do?

Law professors and experts say that the vague language will be enough to drive teachers to overcensor their speech in order to protect themselves from being accused of violating the law and to avoid a potential lawsuit.

In other words, it’s likely to have a chilling effect on any instruction or discussion about LGBTQ+ people, culture, history, or families in classrooms, they say.

High school students who’ve spoken out against the bill say it sends the wrong message to kids, that it’s taboo or wrong to be gay. Some said they believe that mindset will only increase anti-LGBTQ bullying and harassment they already face in every grade.

Earlier this month, Ellie Zucker, an eighth-grade student in Broward County, spoke out about how LGBTQ+ kids are disproportionately bullied in school, and noted that the bill would make school feel even less safe for LGBTQ+ youth.

“Right now there’s a certain stigma that we can’t be who we are,” she said. “This law being passed basically says we are not allowed to speak to teachers in class who can help me find my way when I’m really lost and really sad about being myself.

“I feel like my rights are being taken away as a human being.”

Can teachers still talk about gender or sexual orientation in class?

Technically, yes. Whether they will feel comfortable enough to do so given the vague language of the bill is another question.