White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is openly gay, took time to interfere in Florida’s state of affairs at Thursday’s press briefing, attacking Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over the expansion of the Parental Rights in Education law, which the left dishonestly portrays as the “Don’t Say Gay” law.
“I also want to say a word about the decision yesterday made by the Florida Board of Education to expand the state’s dystopian ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law,” Jean-Pierre said, as part of her opening remarks. “As this measure takes effect, it will prohibit all students, up to seniors in high school, from learning about our — learning about or discussing LGBTQI+ people in the classrooms.”
LIAR: Karine Jean-Pierre says a decision by the Florida Board of Education to keep sexualization and far-left gender ideology out of schools is “dystopian” — and falsely claims it somehow prevents students from “discussing LGBTQI+ people” pic.twitter.com/sAuzQSHD2h
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) April 20, 2023
The law essentially removes from the classroom queer theory and the use of sexual instruction to indoctrinate children. It was initially passed for K-3 grades and the Florida Board of Education just expanded the law to include all grades, K-12.
“Teachers in Florida have already faced the devastating consequences of the existing law. Under threat of having their licenses revoked, gay teachers have been forced to take down pictures of their spouses from their desks and censor their classroom materials,” Jean-Pierre said, distorting what the law does.
“Censoring our classes is not how public education is supposed to work in a free country,” the diversity hire continued. “Conservative politicians love to complain about the so-called ‘cancel culture,’ all while threatening teachers with losing their jobs if they teach something that the MAGA extremists don’t agree with.”
Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz addressed trumped-up concerns about the expansion this week.
“The curriculum and the standards taught in an academic classroom have nothing to do with the school’s compassion and being able to provide services to individual students,” Diaz said, according to Politico. “They’re not being shunned, none of this is being addressed here.”
“We shouldn’t be asking our teachers to be teaching mental health or providing that,” Diaz added. “They should be more of a conduit to pass that on.”
As for the false claim that gay teachers could not display photos of same-sex spouses, it stems from a June 2022 school board meeting in Orange County, according to the New York Post.
“[L]awyers for the school district advised principals to discourage teachers from wearing rainbow items and displaying photos of same-sex spouses,” the newspaper reported, adding that the district later disavowed that guidance, and said it was not “formal guidance.”
“During the presentation, administrators posed hypothetical scenarios based upon the new statutes and verbal answers were provided based on the limited guidance from the Florida Department of Education,” a district spokesman said at the time. “Once further guidance is received from the Florida Department of Education, the district will provide formal guidance to administrators and staff.”
Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from Twitter:
More false claims from Press Sec.
— Sabrina (@SabrinaNC10) April 20, 2023
What is dystopian is transgender and homosexuality.
— LostCause (@EPhotius) April 21, 2023
There is No “don’t say gay” in the law. Stop lying. Our children don’t need to learn about the alphabet crowd until their parents feel it necessary. Our children need to learn reading, writing and arithmetic. It is hardly a wonder that our children rank 28th on the world stage…
— Gigi Adams (@TerriAd26346926) April 20, 2023
The LGBTQ already has the same rights as any other American. They need nothing more.
— Steven Moore (@plugitmc) April 20, 2023
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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