This very quickly went to being a right vs left talk about abortion and even teaching girls on how not to become pregnant. Again I ask why it is so vitally important for the fundamentalist Christian maga right to prevent young girls learning how to keep from getting pregnant or learning sexual educations about their bodies !!!! Hugs. Scottie
So everything is basically reset back to where it was before this law. The only difference is teachers and schools will have to deal with fundamentalist Christian maga parents and wing nuts who don’t even live in those schools claiming that teachers are teaching gender or sexual orientation for allowing a rainbow sticker, that the schools are violating the law because the library returned the books with and about LGBTQIA characters / plots in them, and it will tie all schools up in lawsuits the state won’t help them with. DeathSantis is really just admitting he was wrong without saying it. Kaplan said that she was sure that the law would be ruled unconstitutional if they continue with the appeal, but that it would take at least two years of kids being bullied and the books out of the library. Of course DeathSantis is claiming a total win when it completely rolls back his law. Gay teachers can let the kids know they are gay, those married can talk about their spouses and post pictures. Anti-gay bullying programs are allowed again. Plus maybe the best thing, the gay straight alliance clubs are allowed again. The real thing you see is DeathSantis only pushed this as long as he was running for office, and once he was no longer needing to suck up to the fundamentalist Christians he backed down, and did not fight for it. I think he knew all along it was an illegal bill. Hugs. Scottie
*** Personal note. Was not feeling well all weekend and this morning I woke up at 4 am needing to throw up. But all I could bring up was air. Then after half a cup of coffee, I started to throw up last night’s meal. All morning I keep feeling dizzy and nauseous every 20 minutes or so. I have spent a lot of yesterday and so far today, in bed. Hugs. Scottie1`
Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, provided it’s not part of instruction, under a settlement reached Monday between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged a state law which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
The settlement clarifies what is allowed in Florida classrooms following passage two years ago of the law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attends the drivers meeting prior to the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Feb. 19, 2024.Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images file
Other statesused the Florida law as a template to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina are among the states with versions of the law.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law doesn’t prohibit discussing LGBTQ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral — meaning what applies to LGBTQ people also applies to heterosexual people — and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used in the classroom.
“What this settlement does, is, it re-establishes the fundamental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. “This shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”
In a statement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office described the deal as a “major win” with the law remaining intact.
“Today’s mutually agreed settlement ensures that the law will remain in effect and it is expected that the case will be dismissed by the Court imminently,” the statement said.
The law, formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, has been championed by the Republican governor since before its passage in 2022 by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature. It barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.
Republican lawmakers had argued that parents should broach these subjects with children and that the law protected children from being taught about inappropriate material.
But opponents of the law said it created a chilling effect in classrooms. Some teachers said they were unsure if they could mention or display a photo of their same-sex partner in the classroom. In some cases, books dealing with LGBTQ topics were removed from classrooms and lines mentioning sexual orientation were excised from school musicals. The Miami-Dade County School Board in 2022 decided not to adopt a resolution recognizing LGBTQ History Month, even though it had done so a year earlier.
The law also triggered the ongoing legal battles between DeSantis and Disney over control of the governing district for Walt Disney World in central Florida after DeSantis took control of the government in what the company described as retaliation for its opposition to the legislation. DeSantis touted the fight with Disney during his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, which he ended earlier this year.
The civil rights attorneys sued Florida education officials on behalf of teachers, students and parents, claiming the law was unconstitutional, but the case was dismissed last year by a federal judge in Tallahassee who said they lacked standing to sue. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kaplan said they believed the appellate court would have reversed the lower court’s decision, but continuing the lawsuit would have delayed any resolution for several more years.
“The last thing we wanted for the kids in Florida was more delay,” Kaplan said.
Of note, the lead attorney in the lawsuit is Roberta Kaplan, who is best known to most as E. Jean Carroll’s attorney. Kaplan was also Edith Windsor’s attorney in the landmark Supreme Court ruling on DOMA.
A settlement over Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law will allow students and teachers to speak about sexual orientation and gender identity in the classroom, if it's not part of a lesson. https://t.co/FTg3TWJCyo
#Florida settles lawsuit over @GovRonDeSantis' controversial parental rights law & will clarify vague wording. Plaintiffs calling it the Don’t Say Gay law say the deal will stop school districts from “overreacting.” https://t.co/E4SQGjlUYQ via @JeffSolochek
The short clip is very important for all to hear. Thank you TG for posting it. I know many here also follow Mock Paper Scissors, but for those that do not or missed the post, this is great. It is about mistreating children, it is about Nex Benedict. Hugs. Scottie
This is the teaching of ideology, republican capitalism ideology, something republicans keep claiming they are trying to wipe out in schools. We can not teach comparative ideas of systems or how anything including capitalism can be taken to unhealthy extremes. Plus this law mandates stressing how bad and harmful communism is, which means stressing how great republican strongman democracy backed by run away capitalism is. In Florida you can not teach anything in public schools that might make straight white cis Christian kids uncomfortable (or their parents unhappy) such as the truth about racism and how it still is in effect today or how some people are not straight cis or even Christian. But none of these laws including this one doesn’t apply to any private or voucher school. Just public ones? Why because poor disadvantaged kids go to public schools, so let’s force right wing Christian nationalism white supremacy on to these kids. Hugs. Scottie
Rep. Ashley Gantt raised questions about what would be included, at what point a deep dive into totalitarianism would be “age appropriate,” and why voucher-funded schools are exempted from this requirement.
Rep. Anna Eskamani noted that the Legislature had established bans for discussions of diversity and sociology, and “in the context of what’s happening in K-12 schools,” she claimed the legislation was based on “teaching that a political ideology is bad” rather than a good-faith comparative study of ideologies.
Ahead of the final passage, Democrats floated amendments the day before to try to expand the bill to include analysis of “McCarthyism” and how the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Riots could lead to communism, but these did not make the final product.
The mistakes made by the Soviets, the Chinese and other communist regimes are one step closer to being part of Florida K-12 classrooms.
The House passed by a 106-7 vote SB 1264, a “History of Communism” product previously passed by a 25-7 vote in the Senate, putting the bill on a path for a Gov. Ron DeSantis signature.
Ahead of the vote, some Democrats sought to knock the bill down, while Republicans and one Democrat loved it up.
Rep. Ashley Gantt raised questions about what would be included, at what point a deep dive into totalitarianism would be “age appropriate,” and why voucher-funded schools are exempted from this requirement.
Rep. Anna Eskamani noted that the Legislature had established bans for discussions of diversity and sociology, and “in the context of what’s happening in K-12 schools,” she claimed the legislation was based on “teaching that a political ideology is bad” rather than a good-faith comparative study of ideologies.
Rep. Bruce Antone, a Democrat, rose in support of the bill until he was reminded he was speaking during the block of time reserved for opposition.0
Rep. Chuck Brannan, closing on his bill, said the real purpose was to address concerns of Florida’s “diverse communities” of refugees from communist countries, not to “indoctrinate anybody or promote fear mongering.”
Students in traditional public and charter K-12 schools are on track to receive instruction on the history of communism beginning in the 2026-27 academic year in what is billed as an age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate way.
The bill would also compel the creation of a museum of history of communism, create the Institute for Freedom in Americas at Miami Dade College, and rename the Adam Smith Center for Study of Economic Freedom as the Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom.
There is a key party
..split on these bills among actual voters, meanwhile.
Polling conducted by Sachs Media found Republicans were overwhelmingly supportive (74%) of an effort to teach K-12 students about the “horrors of communism.” By comparison, only 41% of Democrats believe kids need a crash course on Soviet genocide.
Ahead of the final passage, Democrats floated amendments the day before to try to expand the bill to include analysis of “McCarthyism” and how the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol Riots could lead to communism, but these did not make the final product.
Florida condo market takes a tumble in the past year, but at least kindergarteners will learn about communism, kids can get their hands on AR-15s at a younger age & you can spread measles at your leisure! https://t.co/9lNParhBCQ
— Lesley Abravanel 🪩 (@lesleyabravanel) March 6, 2024
Call me crazy but I suspect wrangling 20 five year olds is probably hard enough without educating them on competing economic systems
Florida Senate passes proposal to teach kindergarteners about threat of communism https://t.co/lANzpTmuJu
When I was a senior at Lake Worth High School, in 1964, the state of Florida required us to take a 6-week course in Americanism vs. Communism. One of the textbooks was J Edgar Hoover’s Masters of Deceit. Not a lot seems to have changed.
We aren’t allowed to explain in the classroom why Billy has two daddies because their poor innocent minds are not developed enough yet to comprehend it, but we can tell them about Communism.
The fact that kindergarten friend Johnny has two moms? VERBOTEN!
Advanced socio-political/economic theory for a system of government not a single country in the world actually practices? Totes appropriate for a 5yo, sure.
obviously, the object is not to actually teach the kids anything – it is to establish that communism == bad, so that democrats can then be accused of being communists
They will tell them that sharing is communism. I’m sure that will go over well with the parent’s. “Billy, share your toys with your brother!” “But mommy, the teacher said that’s COMMUNISM!”
So in classes where we used to teach kids that sharing and treating others with courtesy are important we’re going to tell them they’re all on their own.
Technically, that is the American way, the wholly rugged individual Fuck You nonsense. I know many (I’d like to think most) Americans don’t think that way, but it is a reputation that the US has promoted over the decades.
Brought to you by people who couldn’t distinguish between communism, Marxism, totalitarianism and socialism if their lives depended on it.
I wonder how the curriculum is going to handle the whole cult leader thing. Then again, self-awareness is not a MAGA strong suit while immunity to cognitive dissonance is.
They should also do a live-action demonstration of that cartoon about capitalism, with one guy with one cookie, one guy with no cookies and the capitalist with a pile of cookies saying to the first guy, “Hey, that other guy wants to steal your cookie!”.
Rep. Chuck Brannan, closing on his bill, said the real purpose was to address concerns of Florida’s “diverse communities” of refugees from communist countries, not to “indoctrinate anybody or promote fear mongering.”
I thought taking diversity into consideration was illegal in Florida.
Due to not feeling well and the number of videos, even though they are short so are in foreign languages so I had to use the CC for those, so it took almost a week and a half to watch these and post them. So I did not include because it caused me to trigger, like the ones where parents beat their gender nonconforming children, to make them be the gender they were assigned at birth. That is like trying to beat the gay out of a kid, you can scare them into hiding it but you can’t make it go way or change it. I simply wanted to give those that don’t understand trans kids or trans people a way to see what it is these people are dealing with. Maybe it will change some people from being haters to being trans supporters. It only take a few people to believe in a LGBTQIA persons worth to make a huge difference in their lives, maybe even save a life. I hope people will take their time and watch the videos as I did, a few at a time over how ever long you wish. If you watch only one, please watch the first one where a trans hater learns that the trans neighbor she like was trans, and well she learned and grew. Hugs. Scottie
Get Off My Turf! is a short film about a transgender woman who finds out that her neighbour is transphobic. The film delves into some of the modern depictions of transphobia and explores friendship, solidarity and conflict between two very different women.
SYNOPSIS: Clara is a girl who cannot show herself as she is. There is something that can control her, and forces her to live under a name and appearance that are not real. “I’m not him” will show the harsh reality to which transgender children like Clara are exposed, as well as the strength they have to move forward.
“A trans boy struggles with dysphoria and anxiety as he contemplates a night out with friends.”
So for my theater class, our final was to create a short film. I decided to do a film about a female to male transgender teen. I apologize for the binder, it’s really bad. I didn’t own a real binder. Ignore that please. I hope you enjoy it.
This short documentary about transgender ftm boys was created to bring more awareness to the transgender community. We don’t personally know any mtf transgender girls so please no controversy over the subject. We own all rights to this film except the music, the quote, and the statistic. This is the first film that we’ve produced and we plan on creating more shorts. We hope you enjoy it!! *** The music on this one got louder than the voices, so I turned the sound off and used the CC. Hugs. Scottie ***
A trans themed short film, created by an all trans cast production team. On remote northern Iceland two strangers connect and realize they have a lot more in common than previously assumed.
Young and Trans. Watch this powerful short film challenging the stigma of what it means to be trans today. Let’s come together for a brighter future.
We have been filming transgender boy Kai since he was 9 years old. In this film, Kai is 14 and reflects on coming out and taking hormone blockers. We also hear from Alex, 18 who is also trans and has started taking testosterone. Kai meets with Tayler, 19 and they both visit the Museum of Transology, where founder E-J Scott gives them a tour.
This is 5 years of a 10 year project, filming Kai, as part of a wave of trans youth, who have been given the best opportunity in life, never having to go through ‘the wrong puberty’.
My Genderation is an ongoing film project focusing on trans lives and trans experiences. All our content is created by trans people, about trans people, for a much wider audience. Currently run by Fox Fisher and Owl Fisher.
Come As You Are follows Theo, a transgender female in a conservative household. This film is dedicated to the God of love, regardless of who you are or where you come from
Featuring young trans actors in trans roles, ‘Listen’ honestly and frankly depicts some of the myriad struggles experienced daily by trans children and teenagers, giving a much needed voice to this often maligned section of the community.
Coming to terms with who we are is hard enough to tell people, but for Sean he must come to terms with his exploration in a world that he cannot hear and a world that does not always hear him. A fascinating story of love, trust, and friendship.
I often wondered what my life would have been like if I had been a kid in the modern age where being gay was so much more accepting than it was for me in the 1970s with Anita Bryant spewing her hatred and lies about people like me. Then I remember that today there are the Libs of TikTok and the red state governors / republican fundamentalist Christian legislators who are doing to LGBTQIA kids what was done to me back in the 1970s by Bryant. Spewing lies and hate to make us hated as much as possible.
But there is another part of my thoughts. Like the boy in the short video I couldn’t find the spoken words to tell of my abuse and the signs I was showing people either they couldn’t hear or did not want to. What if I had had the words to say as a four-year-old what was happening when I was asked to go next door, that even though the man was nice, kind even, it left my butt sore, and the hell spawn I lived with would make fun of me for it. They knew, which makes me now believe the adoptive parents knew also. Maybe they pimped me to him? After all, someone had to tell me to go over there, to give me permission. Yes the man was raping me. But he was kind and nice to me. Unlike at home.
Imagine as a 6 yr in first grade, in torn clothing who had bruises all over me who in class just put my head down on my desk and went to sleep because I knew there it was safe to do so because no one would hurt me. To my little boy mind that was shattered when the teacher took me to what seemed to me a large room with some other adults. Both male and female. They asked me to remove my clothing. I started to obey as I had learned not to disobey that demand … but when they told me to remove my underpants I started to cry, to sob. I promised to be good, I promised not to sleep in school anymore, I begged them, I even said as I stood there after taking off all my clothing and they had me move in different ways while touching me to make me stand or show what they wanted to see, that I promised I wouldn’t tell as they asked me questions I dared not answer. I kept repeating that, hoping they knew that I would cooperate and not tell so they would be nice when they used me. They did not understand what I was saying when I said I promised not to tell. I knew the punishment for telling, I did not know they were trying to help. They scared me, because these were adults I did not know and the few times before with adults I did not know first what they did hurt really bad. I simply did not have the words, I did not understand what they wanted, and I had no way to tell them what they wanted to know, yes I was being abused, I was being hit, I was being … In a way that was somehow more traumatizing to me because in my 6 yr old mind I was about to be forced to please and give my body to these four or five adults … If I was lucky and they did not want to simply hit me to make me hurt even more.
If only I could have heard them, and they could understand that which I had no voice to say. I am really tired, I hate that just watching a short YouTube video can bring back such strong memories, making me feel those feelings, relive those events. Hugs. Scottie
I had to use both the CC and the ones the move provided. I would shut the CC off when it would write over / obscure the movie ones. Starting to feel a bit better, kept supper down last night. Hugs. Scottie
A.G. GancarskiMarch 6, 20244min
The sponsor says this is not ‘indoctrination.’
Scottie's Playtime 