As Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to stand firm on the Sunshine State’s Parental Rights in Education bill that he recently signed into law, the Biden administration has announced it will “monitor” how Florida implements the new law.
The law — which mainstream media and Democrats pejoratively refer to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill — prohibits “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” for “kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
In Tuesday’s daily White House press briefing, White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield made a surprise appearance to announce that “The Department of Education … will monitor this law upon implementation to evaluate whether it violates federal civil rights law.”
In her time at the press briefing, Bedingfield referred to a statement by President Biden, saying, “The president also put out a statement [Monday] about the tragic impact of this kind of law on an incredibly vulnerable population.” She added, “And he said that by signing this bill, the governor has chosen to target some of Florida’s most vulnerable students and families, all while under the guise of parents’ rights.”
One is left to wonder about the “incredibly vulnerable population” of “transgender” kindergartners who are suffering under the “tragic impact” of a law that simply prohibits them from being sexualized in the classroom.
As Townhall pointed out, “Education Secretary Miguel Cardona has said the same”:
And Biden is doubling down. In a brief video message commemorating Transgender Day of Visibility Thursday, Biden described bills such as Florida’s as “hateful” and said his administration is “standing up” for transgender Americans threatened by them. He said:
The onslaught of anti-transgender state laws attacking you and your families is simply wrong. This administration is standing up for you against all these hateful bills. And we’re committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom, on the playing field, at work, in our military and our housing and health care systems.
He said the policy of “inclusion” of “trans” rights — a euphemism in this case for the sexualization of young children — will be “Everywhere. Simply everywhere.”
However, even with the White House implicitly threatening to bring the full weight of the Department of Education down on Florida — and both Biden and Cardona spouting slanders that DeSantis is “targeting” vulnerable children — the Florida governor is not backing down. In a statement he released, DeSantis said:
Parents’ rights have been increasingly under assault around the nation, but in Florida we stand up for the rights of parents and the fundamental role they play in the education of their children. Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old.
One has to ask, since the Parental Rights in Education law actually only prohibits “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity” for “kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” — an idea that Americans overwhelmingly support — why is the establishment so hell-bent on pushing what this law prohibits?
In a previous article, this writer quoted DeSantis as addressing that question:
While some critics have not read the bill and are merely regurgitating talking points given by others, DeSantis said that “leftist politicians, corporate media outlets, some of these activist groups” are different, because “they actually have read the bill” and are deliberately dishonest about what is in it, because they “are opposed to providing protections for parents and enforcing parents rights.”
In that same article, DeSantis addressed Disney’s attacks on the law, saying Hollywood types “who held up degenerates like Harvey Weinstein as exemplars” are coming out against a common-sense measure to protect children, and adding, “if those are the types of people opposing us on parents rights, I wear that like a badge of honor.”
So, Hollywood, mainstream media, and the White House are all worked up in a lather to oppose a law that simply protects children from being sexualized in the classroom. And none of them minds stooping to new lows of dishonesty and smear tactics to do it. That should just about explain who is who in this battle in the culture war.
