Florida school district adopts new policy to out LGBTQ students in PE classes.

[RandySF]

After three hours of fiery public debate, the Leon County School Board unanimously approved its "LGBTQ Inclusive School Guide" Tuesday night.

The policy, which the board is calling a “guide” and a "living document" that can be quickly updated, comes after weeks of deliberation from the district’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee.

The document is intended to create guidelines for teachers and administrators to help students who need it and to outline state laws for employees, Assistant Superintendent Alan Cox told the Tallahassee Democrat.

The advisory committee was created to review the district's longstanding LGBTQ guide, which was pulled last summer after the parents of a middle school child complained that it overstepped their parental rights.

What drew the most debate was a provision that a school will notify parents — by form — if a student who is "open about their gender identity" is in a physical education class or on an overnight trip.

Some teachers and students during the Tuesday night meeting said the policy will “out” LGBTQ+ students — revealing their sexual orientation or gender identity without their permission.

The policy language does explicitly say a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression “should not be shared with others without their input and permission.”

"The notification to all the parents can create a very stressful and unwanted situation to trans and LGBTQ students," said Kailey Sandell, a Leon High School student who spoke at the meeting. "A lot of times kids assume that kids are gay or trans; they will easily be able to hurt them."





https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/education/2022/06/29/leon-county-school-board-approves-lgbtq-guide-dont-say-gay-moms-for-liberty-parental-rights/7765205001/

[TDale313]

1. Kids are going to die because of this stuff.

Either from suicide or being murdered. And the horrifying part is that that is exactly what many pushing these policies want. It’s heartbreaking.

[DBoon]

9. You can count on kids getting the crap beat out of them

[IngridsLittleAngel]

15. Sadly, it's their goal

The cruelty is the point. These small-minded, soulless monsters enjoy watching others suffer. Yes, even kids.

[Maraya1969]

2. I really hope that some enlightened parents take this opportunity to teach their kids

to reach out to the gay or trans kids to be their friends and/or protect them.

Maybe they could even create groups to counter act all the adults who are being so horribly cruel.

Actually there is a group - PFLAG

FIND A PFLAG CHAPTER
The PFLAG Chapter Network--with over 400 chapters across the country--provides confidential peer support, education, and advocacy to LGBTQ+ people, their parents and families, and allies. PFLAG chapters are in communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. With 200,000+ members and supporters crossing multiple generations of families in major urban centers, small cities, and rural areas, PFLAG has been saving lives, strengthening families, and changing hearts, minds and laws since 1972.

https://pflag.org/#:~:text=PFLAG%20National%20is%20a%20community,and%20those%20who%20love%20them.

EDIT: My mom lived in a 55+ community in FL for years and she had become pretty open minded with her straight then gay then bisexual daughter - me but the place was very conservative. One day she told me that a man there lost his wife and afterward started dressing up as a woman. I told her she had better be nice to him because he probably had to hide it all the time he was married, (at least it seemed like it since he didn't go out until she was dead). (She understood but we didn't get a chance to talk about it much more because of her own stroke then sickness and inability to talk.)

It is our responsibility to stand by people who may be attacked by others who are ignorant. That is my belief anyway.

[Maraya1969]

4. I just made a donation in honor of my trump loving homophobic brother!!!

I'm so fucking happy!!!!! I think they are going to send him an email to tell him of the donation!!!!

[NullTuples]

22. The kids in many areas are already doing so on their own.

They're much more likely to be accepting & protective than us older generations.

[chowder66]

3. The students and teachers who are being targeted should claim cis genders are LGBTQ.

....and those who support LGBTQ should also claim they themselves and any other cis genders are LGBTQ as well... in solidarity.

[Maraya1969]

5. Now that might put an end to this insanity.

If anyone gets outed everyone gets outed!!!

[SharonClark]

6. My thoughts exactly.

Non-haters should put the haters in their place.

[orleans]

13. (made me think of this scene from in & out)

[OrlandoDem2]

7. This is so weird because Leon County is a very blue county.

Who is on the school board? What is going on?

This is a county with 2 universities and 1 community college. Although it’s where DeSantis calls home as governor, this is a deep blue county.

[mentalsolstice]

10. +1

I’ve also seen on DU criticism about Gainesville and UF having so many right-wing radio stations. Yet Alachua County is pretty solid blue. I’ve been traveling through both counties 1x per month for the last six months, and have met absolutely wonderful people.

[yardwork]

19. Reading the article, the school district is struggling to accommodate the new state laws.

It sounds like this policy is an effort to tell teachers how to comply with the bigoted new laws in Florida. The school board meeting was also full of hysterical people quoting the bible and claiming that their parental rights were blah blah blah.

[OrlandoDem2]

26. Yes but this same county gave the middle finger to DeSantis and required masks in school.

Doesn’t make sense.

[obamanut2012]

29. Many of those people do not even live in Leon County

It is all pretty awful here now.

[obamanut2012]

28. I wondered that too!

It's blue, and the demographics are very different than, say, the Naples area.

[NullTuples]

8. This is terrorism, both direct and stochastic.

Sending a notification to all parents if a kid is found out to be trans or nonbinary is going to result in ruined lives. And maybe worse, loss of lives.

It's horrific and terrifying how much Republicans glee out of having power over others.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

16. It's like Drumpf and nukes

"What's the point of having nukes if I can't use them?" Well, "What's the point of having the power to hurt others if I can't use it?" I really do think many of these monsters are more interested in being elected to hurt others now than they are getting elected to enrich themselves.

And no doubt... Outing kids to their parents is going to cause them a great deal of harm, if not death. My own experiences after being outed to my "family" were a living nightmare. And I know that's not unique.

[NullTuples]

17. There was a Tweet yesterday that said,

(paraphrased)

"Straight people/LGBTQ allies: don't be surprised if over the next few years you start to notice significantly fewer LGBTQ people as part of society"

That's the goal, to erase us from public life and terrorize us all back into the closet. All so that Christians can live in a pretend reality where sex and gender only exist as a single pure binary.

It's oh so much easier to enforce a sex-based hierarchy - ie a patriarchal society - if people can be convinced there are only two categories. One superior, one inferior and with absolutely no overlap or gray area, ever.

[yardwork]

20. I've seen it here on DU.

Posters ask "Why does a teacher have to mention their same-sex spouse? Can't they keep that secret?"

[NullTuples]

21. Only mentions of spouses that reinforce the Christian patriarchy will be allowed.

Of course, that assumes that a few years from now any other sort of legal spouses still exist.

[yardwork]

23. Yes, and I agree with the rest of your post.

This is all about propping up patriarchy. Affirming the existence of any other reality is deeply threatening to proponents of white male patriarchy. That's what's at the heart of everything that's happening. That's why Trump was elected. He tapped into that fear.

[obamanut2012]

30. It makes me so angry every time I see that

I saw it at least once yesterday.

[yardwork]

32. I know! But we push back.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

27. They're right, sadly

This is the goal... To drive us back into the closet. To silence us. To "convert" us. Or even to get us killed. Just so long as we're gone and they can "Make America Cishet Again."

A pretend reality is right. Because the reality they want is not real, and never will be. On top of that, I wish someone would grow a set and tell these Christofascists that they have the right to whatever religious beliefs they want... they don't have the right to force them down everyone else's throats.

It's not only a case of them wanting a patriarchal society... It's that their small, narrow minds can only see in black and white. No shades of grey. Nothing outside the lines. Either/or thinking. The very either/or thinking that's gotten us into this nightmare to begin with.

[yardwork]

31. Well, I'm not going. People who've had rights don't give them up easily.

[Haggis 4 Breakfast]

11. Like this won't get out of hand in a heartbeat.

[sakabatou]

12. That policy is fucking dangerous.

It will gets kids injured if not outright killed.

[IngridsLittleAngel]

14. "Don't Say Gay"... Except of course to out others

Then it's perfectly okay to point out innocent people. "That one's gay" or "There's a gay" or "*gasp!!!* That one's transgender!"

Because let's face it. The law isn't about saying gay... It's warning people "Don't BE Gay in Florida... OR ELSE!"

This is going to wind up hurting a lot of kids - both LGBTQ and straight. As far as Governor Elevator Shoes is concerned, mission accomplished. After all, the cruelty is the point.

[yardwork]

18. So no student can be openly male or female?

This makes no sense. It's obviously aimed at the tiny population of transgender kids, but the way it's written, literally any student identifying as any gender should be reported.

Obviously, it won't be enforced 99% of the time. It will only be enforced for transgender kids.

Isn't there a constitutional amendment that outlaws treating people so differently? I guess the Trump Supreme Court just eliminated the 14th amendment, on their way to restoring the U.S. to the 1840s.

[Montauk6]

24. I'd rather see a robust policy or effort

to out any closet cases on these absurd advisory committees.

[Oneironaut]

25. The point is to treat LGBTQ criminals like sex offenders, and, use social shame to closet them.

The notification is supposed to invoke shame - a typical Christian method of control. If something were to happen to these kids, that’s an extra bonus for them.

It’s a hunting list for bullies and parents alike. It’s supposed to create a sense of otherness, and, “Eww! I don’t want them around my kid!”

[RANDYWILDMAN]

33. Florida is so backwards

let me know when they join us in the current century and I might consider going back

[Initech]

34. This is some seriously Hitler-esque shit.

Thanks Fox News and Ron DeSantis. Satan has a special circle in hell waiting for you.