Don't Say Gay?

[Bengalzona]

(03-23-2022, 07:12 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: I haven't been posting much of late, but I was surprised there was no thread on this issue, as it has been national news for some time.  I am, of course, speaking about the Parental Rights in Education bill, labeled by opponents as Don't Say Gay.  I'm sure some of you remember that my little brother is gay, my favorite uncle is gay, that I supported same sex marriage well over a decade longer than Obama, always supported the right of homosexuals to serve in the military and have zero issue with homosexuals having the same protections, rights and privileges as any other person.  I have to say though, I find some of the reaction to this law extremely perplexing.  The law, quite literally, states the following;

The measure bans “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through third grade. It also prohibits such teaching “in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students,”

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/dont-say-gay-bill-florida-senate-passes-controversial-lgbtq-school-mea-rcna19133

Now, I can see taking issue with the vagueness of the underlined, laws should be as specific as possible and that part is obviously open to interpretation.  What I cannot understand, at all, is being upset about not teaching children under nine years old about this topic in school.  I realize I grew up in the 70's and 80's, but I literally didn't even know what sex was, let alone same sex relationships, until later elementary school (which not inconsequently coincided with a friend of mine having a dad with a huge Playboy collection).  I could absolutely see this as discriminatory if hetero sex education was taking place for that age group, but that's not the case.  I can also absolutely see a parent wanting to be in control of that particular topic, most especially for young children.

I'm certainly not as liberal as I was in my youth, probably as a result of the extreme politics in this state coupled with my profession and being a well established home owner.  But I absolutely cannot understand the extreme reaction this law is getting, or the apparently deliberate misrepresentation of what it entails by many of its detractors.

Good explanation. Frankly, I had not given this legislation much thought or attention (outside of hearing it called the "Don't say 'gay'!" bill and thinking to myself, "That don't sound right.").

I'm like you, a child of the 70's and 80's. Didn't know what sex was until my older brother explained it when I was 11 or 12. Like most things that asshole explained, 50% of it was factual and the other 50% was some messed up shit he made up just to f*** with me (which is why I am now a strong advocate for sex ed in schools!).

That said, societal expectations of sexual and gender roles were firmly imprinted on me long before that. Mostly through TV, I suspect. But until the 80's, there really wasn't much that disputed that. Girls dated boys. Men married women. They somehow had kids (lol!). Men got jobs. Women kept house and raised the kids (unless they were 'Womens libbers', and then they were suspect). Everyone was happy! Etc. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. And that was okay with me because I felt I fit into that mold. I started finding girls attractive when I was in the fourth grade. Had no idea what I would do with one outside of kissing if she also found me attractive. But I knew that was where those interests lay with me. And, of course, I thought everyone else must be like me.

I didn't start hearing about gay people until the late seventies. The gay movement was starting to get publicity in the nightly news. The Village People were 'discovered' to be gay (lol!) after "YMCA" became popular and after filming their recruiting ad for the Navy (which was rapidly pulled from circulation). And the boys at school started calling each other "gay" or "fxx", etc. That was pretty derogatory, you didn't want to be called that. More because of the way it was said rather than the words themselves. Someone was calling you that to get under your skin. But this also added to the reinforcement of the idea that gay people were different, like aliens. Lesbians were okay because they were in the sex magazines and because they liked women too. Bisexuals could not exist because everything at that age had to be black-or-white (some folks never mature past this ideology). And transgender or asexual people were beyond weird.

So, it is probably from my experiences that I find this bill's wording to be an issue. The bill (or law by now, I guess) isn't about sex education, per se. It bans instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity. That's a bit different from teaching people about doing the naughty. And while it seems that this bill/law targets the LGBT (and whatever other letters are now added to that) community, it also seems to me that this is a double-edged sword. Conceivably, people from the "normal" community would be banned from instructing K-3 students on their concepts of gender and sexual norms. Is that good or bad? I don't know. But I do see a Pandora's Box of lawsuits opening in the near future and further potential legislation.

I guess I am supposed to assume that by the creation of this bill/law that activists from ACT UP and other groups are routinely infiltrating the elementary schools of Florida with missions of indoctrinating the younger children into their particular sexual orientation or gender identity, thus undermining the freewill of the kids to choose their own orientation and identity with the assistance of their parents when the time is appropriate. Wow! Who knew? Things are more f***ed up in Florida than I ever could have imagined, eh! What a backasswards state!