In two separate efforts, Florida is moving to expand the scope of the Parental Rights in Education act, which critics have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and to prohibit the required use of preferred pronouns in the state’s educational system.
HB 1223 (pdf), a new bill moving through the Florida Legislature and sponsored by Republican state Rep. Adam Anderson, would extend the ban on teaching about gender and sexual orientation to students in pre-K through eighth grade.
The current ban on instruction about sexuality and gender applies only to kindergarten through third grade.
The bill would also prohibit employees, contractors, and students in Florida’s educational institutions “from being required to use, from providing, and from being asked to provide certain titles and pronouns; prohibiting students from being penalized or subjected to certain treatment for not providing certain titles and pronouns.”…