Republican legislators in Florida have introduced a pair of parental-rights-in-education bills that create greater curriculum transparency and allow parents to review and object to age-inappropriate content. Naturally, Democrats and the media are outraged. President Biden condemned the legislation as “hateful” in a tweet. Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, tweeted at Florida governor Ron DeSantis that the proposed legislation “will kill kids.” Buttigieg claims that LGBTQ youth “won’t be able to talk to their teachers” and “will be pushed back into the closet” if the bills become law.
The media have amplified his baseless claims. Axios Tampa Bay proclaimed in a headline, “Queerness in the Classroom under Siege.” Its report concluded that the bills “could act as bans on LGBTQ+ discussions and materials.” Axios, ABC News, the Washington Post, NBC News, and other news outlets echoed gay activists’ misleading use of the term “Don’t Say Gay bill” to describe SB1834. The Miami Herald published an opinion piece labeling SB1834 “pure evil,” describing it as part of DeSantis’s “fascist agenda.” Tampa Bay’s NBC affiliate covered local protests against the bills using the chyron, “Protests against anti-LGBT Bills.”
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