This is another attempt to erase the LGBTQ+ from existing in public spaces, it is an attempt to remove protections and warnings to bullies that have protected the LGBTQ+ kids, and follow the further war to undo all the advances in equality and social acceptances that the LGBTQ+ have achieved over the last 50 years.   For those I have argued with that claim the law doesn’t say don’t say gay and that all it is doing is protecting straight kids from being improperly groomed and indoctrinated in LGBTQ+ propaganda the left pushes.    Sorry this is about harming and punishing the kids that are different and not straight.  Why are they doing this for all grades when the law is written for K-3rd grade?   Why is the districts doing this at all when there are those claiming that the law doesn’t require this?   It is because it gives some bigoted right wing parent the right to sue is the district seems to be protect or advocating acceptance of LGBTQ+ kids.   That hurts their god when gay kids are not bullied by their kids.  This is getting serious dangerous again for kids that are different.     Hugs

https://jaxtoday.org/2022/07/10/another-lgbtq-resource-disappears-in-duval-schools/

Duval County Public Schools removed a video teaching students how to support LGBTQ+ peers in response to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education Law. | Claire Heddles, Jacksonville Today

 

Duval County Public Schools has taken down a 12-minute anti-bullying video that taught middle and high school students how to support their gay and transgender peers, the latest in a string of vanishing LGBTQ resources in the district. 

Besides the video, the district is planning to dramatically reduce a LGBTQ+ support guide, and the School Board will vote Monday on a policy that could require schools to notify parents if students want to use different names or pronouns in unofficial records, like ID cards and yearbooks.

The moves are largely in response to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, which restricts how schools can teach about gender identification and sexual orientation. Supporters say the law give parents control of their children’s education, but critics have labeled it the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

A Duval Schools federal grant coordinator raised questions about removing the anti-bullying video, according to a Jacksonville Today review of internal district emails. “Here is what the students have access to for training,” the grant coordinator wrote to the district’s policy team on April 5, 2022. The email was marked “high importance.”

 

“I just wanted to make sure you both have a look before taking it down,” she wrote, attaching screenshots from the video detailing how to support LGBTQ+ peers, combat bullying in schools and respond when peers come out. 

The video is now inaccessible and, in response to questions from Jacksonville Today, district spokesperson Tracy Pierce said, “The materials you referenced have been removed for legal review to ensure the content complies with recent state legislation.” 

The video’s removal follows the district’s controversial takedown of a 37-page LGBTQ+ Support Guide last fall, and draft, consolidated support guidance that cuts out many of the explicit protections for transgender students. LGBTQ advocates say the disappearing resources send a dangerous message to a vulnerable student population.

“I do believe [the school system] is trying to create some kind of balance,” JASMYN CEO Cindy Watson tells Jacksonville Today. “But I don’t want to, in any way, suggest that removing all of this is the right thing because it creates a lot of uncertainty and a lack of safety for students right away.”

A training video by students, for students

The now-removed video, specifically created for students, was developed using funds from a federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant. The district consulted with LGBTQ+ students in Duval Schools about how to best communicate the anti-bullying message with their peers, according to Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts science teacher, and campus Gay Straight Alliance faculty sponsor Scott Sowell. 

He says he did not receive notification from the district about the plan to remove the video, even though some of his students helped to create it. It’s a training he’s used during monthly GSA meetings. 

“The video was co-written by some students, and so it had very student-appropriate and student-specific language that was, you know, teenagers talking to other teenagers,” Sowell says. “It’s one critical resource that is now no longer available to teachers to help support students.” 

The guidance in the video includes, “Be generally respectful of things you may not understand,” and, “‘That’s so gay’ is NOT OKAY.” According to the teacher script accompanying the video, obtained by Jacksonville Today, the training was part of a program for students to obtain an “All In for Safe Schools” badge, a marker that signals the person completed the Safe Schools training. 

The All In program is still in place for Duval Schools employees, according to the district’s website. It’s not clear whether the school district will continue the program for students in the upcoming school year. At the time of publishing, the student badge request form was publicly accessible, but the accompanying training video was not. 

According to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law,  classroom instruction “on 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.” 

The removed video was designed for students in grades 6-12, not K-3 graders, according to the script accompanying the training materials. And state guidance issued last month says the provision of the law for older students “takes effect only after the Florida Department of Education develops rules or guidance on age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate instruction.” Those rules have not yet been released, according to state officials. 

Sowell says it’s disappointing the district removed the video preemptively, without notification or detailed explanation. 

“If the district or individuals in the legal team are being held to a specific law, or piece of legislation or mandate that they have to change and edit this, then hopefully, they’ll be as transparent and communicate those changes to everyone involved so things just don’t just disappear,” Sowell says. 

Another LGBTQ+ resource removed

The training was not the only LGBTQ+ support resource to disappear last school year. Six months prior to the video’s removal, Superintendent Diana Greene directed her staff to remove a decade-old LGBTQ+ Support Guide from the district’s website, amid rising right-wing backlash against similar support guides across Florida following a lawsuit in Leon County. 

In an October 22, 2021, email obtained by Jacksonville Today, Greene told School Board members the guide was never intended to be a public document.

“As the document was not created for external use, it has been removed. Additionally, since the support guide has not undergone a comprehensive review in several years, I have instructed staff to work with the Officer of General Counsel to conduct a comprehensive review of the guidance,” Greene wrote last fall. 

At least a dozen districts had similar support guides in place last year, but more than half of them have since removed them from their websites, according to an Equality Florida lawsuit. Duval Schools announced a plan last month to cut back most of the former support guide. 

“Consolidating training and guidance documents for staff shouldn’t reflect on our commitment to supporting students,” Dr. Greene said in a recent press release. “The proof is in our actions, and we will continue to do all we can to help students thrive.”

But parents of trans students, like Duval mom Josinda York, fear fewer guidelines could hurt kids like hers. York’s son, now in middle school, told her he was a boy when he was 4. Josinda started transitioning him at school in the second grade. 

“This would have been a direct issue for him had they not had everything in place already, because that gave the school all the tools they needed to help him with his transition,” York tells Jacksonville Today. “Specifically because the School Board had these guidelines, they had something to go by.” 

York says the level of detail about trans students’ federal rights and frequently asked questions in the former support guide, stripped out in the consolidated draft guidance, were an important part of her family’s experience in Duval Schools. 

Without the former support guide, York says, “I think the principal still would have supported us, but I don’t know if they would have had the education to properly support us.”

Hundreds of parents have shown up at recent Duval School Board meetings to comment on the support guide, some to push back against the proposed changes and others advocating for throwing out the support guide altogether. According to the district, the proposed changes were not required by Florida’s new laws, but were a choice by district staffers.

“We are taking these steps to streamline our training and internal communication with staff even though it is not required under the law,” a district spokesperson wrote in an email to Jacksonville Today.

Monday’s vote could bring more changes

In addition to the disappearing training materials, Duval School Board members are also set to vote on a policy change — drafted in response to Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law — requiring schools to send emails to parents if there’s a change in student services, which would include if students want to change their name or pronouns in unofficial school records, like ID cards and yearbooks, according to proposed district guidance. According to the draft policy, schools would send the email to parents, unless there’s a risk of “abuse, abandonment or neglect.”

The new policy would likely affect trans kids and their parents, like Dawn and David Clapp. The two were decked out in LGBTQ+ pride gear at the last School Board meeting, David in a pink and blue shirt that reads, “Trans rights are human rights” and Dawn with a “Love Wins” headband. They’re, by all accounts, affirming parents to their transgender daughter. 

Even with supportive parents, their daughter was first comfortable coming out to her friends and a teacher at her Duval charter school. She told her parents she was a girl later on when she felt ready. 

“We were supportive of her,” Clapp says. “It was surprising, and it’s been a lot to deal and adjust with, but she’s become this amazing, blossoming human being because she’s felt safe at home and safe at school to be who she wants to be.”

Dawn and David are among a group of parents of transgender kids, and other LGBTQ+ advocates, who oppose sending an automatic email to parents that “outs” kids without their consent, instead of letting kids like the Clapp’s daughter change their name on class rosters, but tell their parents when they want to, as the policy currently permits. 

“My children’s friends that don’t have as supportive parents, it scares me for them, that they would have that taken from them,” Dawn Clapp says.

District staffers say the new policy is necessary to comply with Florida’s new law.

Unbordered American • 4 hours ago

They really want us dead. By any means possible.

Ščŏŧŧ Ċ – 🇺🇦 🕊 Unbordered American • 4 hours ago

Our existence is a problem for them. We don’t fit neatly into any of their pigeonholes.

Boreal Unbordered American • 4 hours ago • edited

Yup, right out in the open. Not a shred of pretense anymore like they used to try with love the sinner, hate the sin bs.

FAILING STATE! Unbordered American • 4 hours ago

No, first they want to use us to secure minority rule. Then, they’ll get rid of us.

HomerTh • 4 hours ago

If he becomes president the anti-LGBT executive orders will be endless, and the Supreme Court will say they are perfectly legal.

Houndentenor HomerTh • an hour ago

They are already starting at the state level and will just get worse from here.

What, me worry? NotYourBoo • 4 hours ago

I wish that Disney would leave that hell hole of hate. But Disney doesn’t really care about us either. They just want to pretend that they do.

Houndentenor David in Palm Springs • an hour ago

At some point they are going to have to unless they want to rebrand it was Walt Disney’s Magical Underwater Kingdom.

rednekokie • 4 hours ago

It’s not only LGBT students — it is anyone who doesn’t follow the norm — whether sexual or any other difference which is normal between humans.
Blacks, browns, Asians, Jews, Muslims, any of several other religious sects, diet habits, dress, you name it — it is an attack against humanity itself.

Ah the republicans are salivating over this.   They dream of going this far.   We all knew this was coming in Russia where they are basically making being LGBTQ+ illegal.     Just existing as a gay person will be against the laws.     That is the end results of the don’t say gay bills.  It has been a long time goal of the religious right to return the culture to the past where only white Christian cis males have right.  I can not believe in a time where around the world the smaller right wing countries are opening up and recognizing gay rights as human rights two of the largest countries are hurting backwards and establishing theocracies.   Notice the wording describing just showing gay people exist as propaganda and promotion of non-traditional sexual relationships.   All to make seem gay people were trying to molest, groom, teach sex to kids.   The current laws states anything LGBTQ+ can not be seen by minors and that means anywhere from online, TV / movies, public spaces, cars, anywhere a minor might be able to see it.    Now they want to extend that to basically anywhere anyone could see it.    The entire country is off limits to display or show anything positive about LGBTQ+ yet the hate groups can still attack those people freely.   They are trying to make being non heterosexual and non cis illegal and open for attack.   The law maker even bragged that attempt to legalize same sex marriage is a thing of the past.    That is what the right salivates to happen here.   In Russia when they tried democracy LGBTQ+ acceptance was becoming very supported by the public.   Laws were being changed to be more accepting.  Then the religious leaders went to Putin and offered to back him, install him as the countries leader if he gave them what they wanted.    He agreed and the rest is history.   It is a history being repeated in the US.  Why does the right wing media love Russia / Putin?   Why does Fox hosts praise authoritarians worldwide especially Putin?   Because these leaders / countries are hurting the same groups they hate, giving their church official status in the government / laws.  Please help us defeat these people and these red state hate laws.     Hugs

Gay rights activists march in Russia’s second city of St. Petersburg May 1, 2013. (OLGA MALTSEVA/AFP via Getty)

Russia lawmakers have proposed extending the country’s existing “gay propaganda” law to include people of all ages later this year. 

The existing legislation was signed by Vladimir Putin in 2013 and banned any “promotion” of “non-traditional sexual relationships” among minors. Anyone found guilty under the law can be sentenced to heavy fines or imprisonment.

The hateful measure has been used to clamp down on LGBTQ+ advocates, prevent kids from accessing inclusive literature and stop minors from watching LGBTQ-themed content on streaming platforms.

 

But Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma’s information committee, said the 2013 law for minors is now “insufficient”, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. He said lawmakers would consider pushing the legislation further to ban depictions of the LGBTQ+ community for “audiences of all ages” in the media and online.

“We propose to fully extend the ban on that sort of propaganda among audiences of all ages (offline, media outlets, the Internet, social media, as well as in cinema theaters),” Khinshtein wrote on Telegram.

Under the proposed changes, any event or act seen as an attempt to promote the LGBTQ+ community could incur a fine, Reuters reported. 

Khinshtein said his committee will consider the proposed amendments and even imposing stricter punishments for any violations of the so-called “gay propaganda law” when they are back in session in the fall.

 

Russia’s parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the country would be banning the promotion of “non-traditional value” since it broke ties with the Council of Europe, the continent’s foremost human rights watchdog.

“Demands to legalise same-sex marriages in Russia are a thing of the past,” Volodin said. “Attempts to impose alien values on our society have failed.”

Russia withdrew from the Council of Europe in March in the wake of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.