They’re using every angle they can to legalize discrimination, what’s next, LGBT people can’t own property? Blacks are not legal voters? This is just the tip of the iceberg that FL is becoming in it’s drive towards a state rooted firmly in the 1850’s and reestablishing laws from back then. It’s incidious and creeping slowly towards pre-civil war laws and acceptance.
This is exactly what (other) fascist takeovers did. Made teaching anything contradictory to their own agenda illegal, and arrested teachers who didn’t comply.
Like, it’s not even a jump. Even if this feels tame, this is fascism, done in the frog/boiling pot fashion.
What comes next are RightThink mandatory courses to re-educate teachers about the “correct and approved” Republican party dogma, which is that white Christian nationalism is doubleplus good.
See also the influence that creationists in Texas had on school textbooks. I’m a member of NCSE and they seem to be relatively quiet these days, but…eternal vigilance and all that.
Nov. 14, 1960…
At the age of 6, Ruby Bridges was the first black child to go to an integrated school. It’s American history. Your child can learn about it.
Why is Ron afraid of allowing this knowledge to be taught?
His preference to withwashi it comes off as very racist.
Hmmmm, So far Republicans have done NOTHING on the economy, immigration, jobs. Done a lot on education though like banning books, harassing teachers, & librarians and choosing for college students what they can and cannot study even though they’re paying for it 🤨🤨🤨🤨
Great point Daddy. Imagine what will come out of the mouths of the future Florida educated workforce when they migrate to other states to work. HR departments need to prepare.
From curricula to library books to teachers themselves, queer expression and education in U.S. public schools are being slowly but surely outlawed. One of the most severe cases of this degeneration of rights is in Florida under the rule of perennial messRon DeSantis.
The governor signed what’s likely the country’s most notorious anti-LGBTQ curriculum bill into law last year, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
This week, he doubled down on his disdain for LGBTQ+ education of any sort, referring to its inclusion as “indoctrination” and “a political agenda”.
This latest denouncement came after being asked why his administration had rejected the curriculum for an advanced placement African American Studies course.
The offending material? A section on “queer theory”:
When asked about the AP African American studies course that was banned in Florida, Ron DeSantis goes in a homophobic rant that includes railing against intersectionality while doing his best Trump impression. This is about banning ideas he doesn’t like, plain and simple. pic.twitter.com/3PCVwctHPY
“This course on Black History, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory!” he exclaims. “Queer theory” is the widely accepted academic name for the field of LGBTQ+ studies, so the way he managed to make it still sound like a slur is kind of amazing.
His next question to the room proved his lack of understanding of both Black and LGBTQ+ people, ignoring the existence of a whole category of humans in one sentence:
“Now who would say that an important part of Black History is ‘queer theory’?” he asks incredulously.
Let’s think for a moment! Would Martin Luther King Jr.’s close advisor Bayard Rustin say so? How about women like Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith who helped create the genre of blues music? Do James Baldwin and Audre Lorde not exist in Black History to Florida?
This examination of the intersection of identities and how they interplay in culture and history is exactly the kind of knowledge DeSantis and co. want to keep from the nation’s youth.
“That is somebody pushing an agenda on our kids,” he rails. “When you look to see they have stuff about intersectionality, abolishing prisons — that’s a political agenda. That’s the wrong side of the line for Florida standards.”
Discussing Black history without discussing the way Black people continue to be disproportionately incarcerated seems to also be a big no-no to the governor. Makes sense coming from the governor of the state with the third highest number of inmates in the country.
“When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory,” he continues, “you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
Throughout all this attempting to cover up historical figures and contributions, he firmly asserts that he’s still here for “cut-and-dry history”.
“You learn all the basics, you learn about the great figures,” he contradicts. “I view it as American history. I don’t view it as separate history. We have history of a lot of different shapes and sizes.”
He closes by very vaguely advocating for the teaching of “people that have participated to make the country great and people that have stood up when it wasn’t easy.” The unabridged facts of who stood up and against what aren’t as important to him as making sure the LGBTQ+ community isn’t among them.
This is what DeathSantis and the republicans in the state want. They want to remove gays from the state. They want a white straight ethnostate. They want a maga paradise. The don’t say gay bills are not about instructing sexuality or gender identity it is about denying such things exist. Nan has asked if Ron and I would move out of Florida and the answer is yes we have talked about it for the last few years. As Florida has become more and more maga and intolerant we have talked about or options. Hugs
New research on LGBTQ parents in Florida found that a majority of those surveyed considered leaving the state over its controversial law restricting classroom instruction on LGBTQ issues before the fourth grade.
Nearly six out of 10 parents surveyed by the Williams Institute said that the enacting of the legislation commonly known as “Don’t Say Gay” led them to consider moving to a different state — while 17% have already taken steps to do so.
The research — released Tuesday by The Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, a think tank that focuses on LGBTQ law and policy — also found that 11% of surveyed parents considered moving their child to a different school.
Analyzing data from 113 LGBTQ parents in the state, researchers found that nearly nine out of ten of them said that they were concerned about the effects of the legislation on their families and children.
They expressed concerns that the law would restrict them from speaking freely about their families, and as a result, it would affect their children’s sense of self and sense of safety and also create a hostile school climate.
“Legislation can have a negative impact on LGBTQ+ parent families by cultivating a climate of fear and insecurity,” said study author Abbie E. Goldberg, a professor of psychology at Clark University.
“For LGBTQ+ parents without the means to move or send their children to private schools, the stress that this legislation creates will be significant,” Goldberg added.
Surveyed parents reported that their children had already experienced a variety of consequences from the bill — including bullying and harassment because of their parents’ LGBTQ identities, fears about continuing to live in the state, and no longer having the ability to talk about their parents’ or their own LGBTQ identity at school.
Members and supporters of the LGBTQ community attend the “Say Gay Anyway” rally in Miami Beach, Florida on March 13, 2022. (CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images)
“The Don’t Say Gay bill claims to be for parent rights, but my rights have been taken away since its passage,” one parent said. “My right to send my daughter to school freely, my right to live without fear of who I am, my right to not be discriminated against based on my sexual orientation, and my daughter to not be discriminated against based on her parents’ sexual orientation.”
Slammed by critics as “hateful,” “homophobic” and “transphobic,” HB 1557 was signed into law nearly a year ago by the state’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The much-publicized enacting of the legislation — a victory for conservatives in the state — sparked a dramatic increase in anti-LGBTQ vitriol on social media, as well as in-person protests against LGBTQ youth events in the state.
How silly and thin this excuse is. Somehow it will harm kids in a advanced placement college level course to know that some black people that deserved a place in history were gay or trans. Seriously the idea that these high school teenagers knowing that gay people did some great things is harmful to the students according to the right / republicans. Michelangelo was gay. The fact is gay kids need and deserve the positive affirmations of knowing they also can achieve great things. It is about seeing representation of ones self, but the right is terrified of nearly adult teens knowing that gay people have done some incredible things. That knowledge contradicts all the right wing ideology of how bad gay / trans people are, how they are low-life scum out that never achieve anything and always look for way to assault and rape the good straight people. This is again out of the Russian playbook that outlawed anything positive about gay people while the state constantly pushes the most negative harmful narratives. There are gay people in all walks of life and their sexual orientation is part of who they are. What the right wants to do is let kids assume that all people are straight, that all people in history that did something notable were straight is total right / republican indoctrination / ideology. As for the justice system being about more than prison and punishment again other developed countries have shown that if your prisons are not punitive hellhole but having reform with rehabilitation have shown that it cuts recidivism rates. Crime goes down, and you have less prison populations. But that would interfere with the for profit prsions incomes. Hugs
DeSantis said the course was somehow being used to push a queer “agenda.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said that his state recently rejected an advanced placement (AP) African American Studies course because of the course’s “indoctrination” of the “queer” agenda.
“We have guidelines and standards in Florida: We want education, not indoctrination,” DeSantis said during a news conference. DeSantis was asked why his state Department of Education had refused the course, which is currently being offered by the College Board in a pilot program at 60 schools nationwide.
DeSantis said that when he heard that the class didn’t meet the state’s educational standards, he figured the course involved critical race theory (CRT), a college-level curriculum about the effects of institutional racism throughout history.
“It’s way more than that,” DeSantis continued. “This course on Black history, what’s one of the lessons about? Queer theory. Now, who would say that an important part of Black history is ‘queer theory?’ That is someone pushing an agenda on our kids.”
Queer theory examines societal responses to non-heterosexual and non-cisgender identities. It’s an essential part of Black history both because of notable Black LGBTQ+ figures and the criminalization of Black sexual identities throughout history.
Nevertheless, DeSantis also criticized the course for having a “political agenda” because its current form includes content about intersectionality and abolishing prisons. Intersectionality examines how overlapping personal identities result in social privileges or disadvantages. Prison abolitionists want restorative justice and rehabilitation programs instead of just prisons.
“We believe in teaching kids facts and how to think, but we don’t believe they should have an agenda imposed on them,” DeSantis added. “When you try to use Black history to shoehorn in queer theory, you are clearly trying to use that for political purposes.”
DeSantis is asked during a news conference about the state's rejection of an AP African American history class. He says "this course on Black history, what's one of the lessons about? Queer theory … that's the wrong side of the line for Florida standards." pic.twitter.com/HzKnWsyUb3
Last Friday, Florida’s Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. wrote that the state had “rejected an AP course filled with Critical Race Theory and other obvious violations of Florida law.”
Specifically, the department said it objected to “the inclusion of readings from many major African American scholars, activists and writers, who explored subjects like Black queer studies, Black feminist literary thought, the reparations movement and intersectionality,”The New York Times reported.
Florida’s education department said it objected to readings from professor Angela Davis for being a “self-avowed Communist and Marxist”; professor Kimberlé Crenshaw “the founder of intersectionality”; and bell hooks for using language like “white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy.”
Though the College Board didn’t comment on Florida’s rejection, it noted that the course is still being revised based on feedback from African American scholars, the Times reported. The final framework of the course will be publicly posted before becoming widely available in U.S. high schools.
Critics have also pointed out that Florida high schools offer AP European History courses, which reinforce a narrative of predominantly white cultures colonizing and enslaving non-white countries in order to benefit capitalist and industrialist regimes.
It’s hardly surprising that DeSantis’s administration rejected the Black history course. Last year, he signed the Individual Freedoms Act (known as the Stop WOKE Act) which limits how racial issues are taught in public schools, public universities, colleges, and workplace trainings.
Last year, he also signed the Parental Rights in Education bill (known as the Don’t Say Gay law) which restricts teachers from acknowledging the existence of LGBTQ+ people in public schools. Heworked with far-right media outlets and book-banning groupsto help promote the law.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized Florida’s rejection of the course.
“These types of actions aren’t new… especially from Florida,” Jean-Pierre said. “Sadly, Florida currently bans teachers from talking about who they are and who they love.”
“They didn’t block AP European history. They didn’t block our music history. They didn’t block our art history. But the state chooses to block a course that is meant for high achieving high school students to learn about their history of arts and culture,” she continued. “It is incomprehensible.”
According to the College Board, the pilot version of the AP African American Studies course will expand to hundreds of additional high schools in 2024. The final course will be offered in schools that same year, with the course’s first exams being offered in Spring 2025.
Teachers in Manatee County, Florida, are being told to make their classroom libraries — and any other “unvetted” book — inaccessible to students, or risk felony prosecution. The new policy is part of an effort to comply with new laws and regulations championed by Governor Ron DeSantis (R). It is based on the premise, promoted by right-wing advocacy groups, that teachers and librarians are using books to “groom” students or indoctrinate them with leftist ideologies.
Kevin Chapman, the Chief of Staff for the Manatee County School District, told Popular Information that the policy was communicated to principals in a meeting last Wednesday. Individual schools are now in the process of informing teachers and other staff.
Teachers in Manatee County lamented the news on social media. “My heart is broken for Florida students today as I am forced to pack up my classroom library,” one Manatee teacher wrote on Facebook.
Another Manatee teacher called the directive “a travesty to education” that interfered with efforts to “connect with books and develop [a] love of lifelong learning.”
In an interview with Popular Information, Chapman said that the policy was put into place last week in response to HB 1467, which was signed into law by DeSantis last March. That law established that teachers could not be trusted to select books appropriate for their students. Instead, the law requires:
Each book made available to students through a school district library media center or included in a recommended or assigned school or grade-level reading list must be selected by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students.
In Florida, school librarians are called “media specialists” and hold media specialist certificates. A rule passed by the Florida Department of Education last week states that a “library media center” includes any books made available to students, including in classrooms. This means that classroom libraries that are curated by teachers, not librarians, are now illegal.
The law requires that all library books selected be:
1. Free of pornography and material prohibited under s. 847.012.
2. Suited to student needs and their ability to comprehend the material presented.
3. Appropriate for the grade level and age group for which the materials are used or made available
Chapman says that school principals in Manatee County were told Wednesday that any staff member violating these rules by providing materials “harmful to minors” could be prosecuted for “a felony of the third degree.” Therefore, teachers must make their classroom libraries inaccessible to students until they can establish that each book has been approved by a librarian.
In response to the policy, some teachers packed up their classroom libraries. Others covered up the books students are no longer allowed to read with construction paper.
Restoring student access to classroom libraries is a complex process. First, someone must cross-check each book in their classroom library with the district library catalog. If the book is available in the district libraries, that means it was approved by a media specialist and can be made available to students again. But any book not currently held in the district libraries must be individually evaluated and approved by a librarian.
And that’s just the beginning. Materials prepared for an upcoming Manatee County School Board meeting include a 21-point list of procedures to ensure that classroom libraries comply with the new rules.
As a result, one Manatee teacher reported being forced to take Sneezy the Snowman and Dragons Love Tacos off the shelves pending review. Other teachers, fearing criminal liability, are telling students not to bring in “unvetted” books from home:
Chapman said he was not aware of teachers being told specifically to prohibit students from bringing books from home but, as a policy, “all materials we use in a classroom are all state approved.”
One high school teacher in Manatee County told Popular Information that they would not comply with the new policy. The teacher has spent the year carefully curating books donated by parents or sourced from their personal collection. “I’m not taking any books out of my room,” the teacher said. “I absolutely refuse.” The teacher spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing that speaking out about the policy could put their job at risk.
Librarians in Manatee County are now expected to review thousands of books in classroom libraries to ensure compliance with the new law. Manatee County has 64 public schools and 3,000 teachers, many of whom maintain classroom libraries. Chapman said that every school in Manatee County has a media specialist but that the process could take a while because it is “one person” and “they are human.” Any book approved for K-5 students must also be included on a publicly available list.
Similar policies will be implemented in schools across Florida. Some Florida schools do not have a media specialist, making the process even more cumbersome.
That review must also be consistent with a complex training, which was heavily influenced by right-wing groups like Moms For Liberty and approved by the Florida Department of Education just last week. Any mistake by a librarian or others could result in criminal prosecution. This process must be repeated for any book brought into the school on an ongoing basis. But librarians and teachers are not being provided with any additional compensation for the extra work.
Stephana Ferrell, a co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, said the new policy followed “a pattern of fear-based decisions that prioritize staying in good favor with the Governor over doing the right thing for our students.” Ferrell said she blamed “the Florida Board of Education that passed this rule change last Wednesday without an ounce of consideration for its impact.” Now, “thousands of students are without classroom access to fun and engaging literature.”
Ironically, Manatee County is making thousands of books inaccessible to students just in time to celebrate “Literacy Week” in Florida, which runs from January 23 to 27. Only about 50% of students in Manatee County are reading at grade level.
“Err on the side of caution”
Popular Information asked Chapman if Manatee County librarians and teachers were expected to remove books that violated the Parental Rights In Education Act, known by critics as “Don’t Say Gay” or the Stop WOKE Act, which limits classroom discussion of racial issues. Chapman did not answer the question directly, saying only that librarians are expected to apply the “specialized training for media center specialists” approved last week by the Florida Department of Education. That training, Chapman says, includes “new definitions of inappropriate material.”
The Parental Rights In Education Act prohibits all instruction on “sexual orientation or gender identity” in K-3 classrooms and instruction in other grades that is “not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate.” But the law applies only to “[c]lassroom instruction by school personnel or third parties” — not library books. Similarly, the Stop WOKE Act is limited to classroom instruction.
The teacher training approved by the Florida Department of Education, however, does not inform librarians that the Parental Rights in Education Act and Stop WOKE ACT do not apply to library books. Rather, librarians are told: “There is some overlap between the selection criteria for instructional and library materials.” One slide says that library books and instructional materials cannot include “unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination.”
A subsequent slide provides a list of “unsolicited theories that may lead to student indoctrination,” which includes information about “sexual orientation or gender identity.” It also includes a variety of topics related to race, including “Critical Race Theory” and material that might make someone feel “guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” as a result of their race. The training instructs librarians to “err on the side of caution.”
As Popular Information reported earlier this month, Manatee County schools have already removed several books from school libraries because they contain LGBTQ characters or themes.
This interpretation of the law runs directly counter to the arguments the DeSantis administration is making in court. In federal court filings, lawyers representing DeSantis insist that the Parental Rights in Education Act does not apply to library books. Nevertheless, the DeSantis administration, through its media specialist training, is encouraging a much more expansive interpretation of the law.
Kirk is a well know republican racist bigot. So he thinks a white centered white straight history is the only history to be taught. Hugs
“I am enthusiastically behind Ron DeSantis saying that Black-centered education has no place in Florida schools, obviously. It’s bigoted from its premise.
“First of all, Western culture is better and it’s a thoughtcrime to say it out loud. Number two, Blacks were sold into slavery by other Blacks. Can’t say that out loud, Thomas Sowell wrote that in great detail.
“Number three, when Blacks were given opportunities to return home, they did not want to return home. Blacks didn’t want to leave.
“I mean obviously, slavery is reprehensible and terrible and awful, but there’s a lot more to that story than people would ever want to acknowledge and admit, which is more Blacks have come to America voluntarily than ever came in the slave trade.
“More Blacks have come to America voluntarily since the 1980s, whether it be from West Africa, from the Caribbean, than ever came in the slave trade.” – Charlie Kirk, on yesterday’s show.
It doesn’t matter who sold them into slavery, and it doesn’t make it alright if black tribes sold members of other black tribes into slavery. SLAVERY IS WRONG. Also, the history courses are pretty much WHITE-CENTRIC. Why is THAT OK? Why shouldn’t black AND white children learn about black history? It’s as much a part of our nation’s history as white history. Go pop your zits in private, Charlie, and leave the rest of us alone.
“Number three, when Blacks were given opportunities to return home, they did not want to return home. Blacks didn’t want to leave.
WTF? Charlie, were first generation slaves offered the chance to return to their homelands? I think not. If this even happened it would have been generations later. That would be like someone offering anyone of us whose families have been here for generations the opportunity to return to the motherland. Ones family and life are now here. The lunacy of these bigots drives me crazy.
It’s how Liberia was setup, but they had to be able to pay to return there. It wasn’t a ‘free’ trip. So that’s why most Black people wouldn’t have ‘wanted’ to leave. Not to mention that people don’t like forced migrations… Once moved, why move again?
If someone wanted to “return” me to Scotland, I might take them up on it. I’d love to live where it rains most of the time, everything is deep fried, and men wear skirts to special events.
But if they just wanted to “return” me to a random chunk of Europe carved out as a dumping ground for anyone of European descent, where a non-English language was spoken by the locals and all the customs were foreign, that would be a completely different matter.
And that’s the kind of “return” that was offered to African Americans after the War of Secession.
I’ve made it a rule to not listen to dropouts tell me what to be ought included or excluded from school curriculum. I only listen to dropouts talking about school when they’re talking about ways to keep people in school.
Florida rejected a proposed Advanced Placement course focused on African American Studies because it included study of topics like the Movement for Black Lives, Black feminism and reparations, according to a list of concerns provided to CNN on Friday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office.
The state also said the course framework for the study of reparations – the argument to compensate Black Americans for slavery and other historical atrocities and oppressive acts – includes “no critical perspective or balancing opinion in this lesson.”
The state Department of Education on January 12 informed the College Board, the organization that oversees the Advanced Placement program, that the course violated state law and rejected its inclusion in Florida schools.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration has concerns with six topics of study on the syllabus for the new AP African American Studies class, according to a list provided to CNN, including the study of the Movement for Black Lives and reparations,https://t.co/Nbhi350j3W
I wrote up an acceptable black history curriculum for Florida:
– Once upon a time, there was a kind of embarrassing practice where some people were forced to do jobs — even though it wasn’t as bad as some people like to say. And the same thing existed in Africa too, so it wasn’t the Americans’ fault.
– All of the divinely-inspired Founding Fathers wanted to end it.
– Eventually, the North invaded the South, and the South fought back valiantly. But the North overwhelmed it by throwing overwhelming, sacrificed bodies of soldiers at the brave defenders — who only wanted to be able to have their own laws and culture without woke, federal interference.
– Then the North told all those workers they didn’t have jobs anymore.
-The North tried to make those people serve in government for about 10 years, but everyone agreed that it was a disaster, and things went back to normal.
– Those people liked to call themselves “colored.” Some of them had some good qualities like Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass, who were both Republicans and loved guns. They opposed the Ku Klux Klan, which was created by the Democrat Party.
– Eventually, there was a guy named George Washington Carver. He invented peanut butter. He was also a Republican.
– Not much happened for a long time. Eventually there was the great Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a Republican too. He taught everyone that it is wrong to talk, or even think, about skin color.
– Then Obama became president and brought Democrat racism back.
Neo-Confederates in the US have been pushing their bizarre ,revisionist history of the Civil War and slavery for as long as I can remember.. This is the first tine a state government has turned those lies into an official state sanctioned history..
The thing is, every revisionist lie about slavery, and the cause of the Civil War they tell is contradicted by contemporary documents from the Civil War: the articles of session by the various states, the constitution of the Confederacy, the Congressional record of the Confederacy, public speeches by confederates, such as the infamous Cornerstone Speech.
If the media examined what happened in the Nazi murder camps using the “both sides” approach they’ve adopted today, they wouldn’t denounce the Holocaust as evil. They’d tell us what happened and then insist on getting the Nazis’ “point of view.”
A previous draft version of the concerns sent to CNN by DeSantis’ office included an objection to the study of “The Black Power Movement and The Black Panther Party.” The draft version asserted that “The Black Panther Party (BPP) was based on the ideology of Marxism- Leninism. Goal of the BPP was to fundamentally change or overthrow the American government.” However, in an updated version of the state’s concerns, the references to the Black Panther Party were removed and replaced with an objection to the study of “Black Queer Studies.”
There is NOTHING in education, especially higher education, that students should not be exposed to so they have a good knowledge of WHAT IT IS. That is what education is about, for Christ’s sake, not keeping people in ignorance! Any student of history, certainly of U.S. history, should know what the Black Panther Party was. Any high school student should be familiar with what it was, should know what Marxist-Leninism is! And why should they not be made familiar with contributions made to society by gay people in the Black community?!
Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. By Ta-Nehisi Coates
I went to university at one of NYC’s city colleges and it was possible to major in religion. In fact it is possible to major in religion at many public universities. I probably disagree with much of what is taught in thise departments, but I would never approve of the state banning the classes. Which is just another example of how the right wing engages in cancel culture and stifling free speech. Yet the media would have us believe the left engages in it.
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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)Photo: Shutterstock
