Don’t Say ‘Don’t Say Gay’

Here is the Associated Press announcing the passage of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill:

Here are some other headlines:

Florida Just Passed The “Don’t Say Gay” Bill — Time
‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passes Florida Senate — BBC News
Florida lawmakers pass ‘Don’t Say Gay’ — ABC News
Florida House passes ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill — NBC News
Florida House passes controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill — CBS News (only Republican bills are “controversial”)
‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill passes in the Florida House — NPR

To its credit, CNN ran the most accurate headline: “Florida House approves bill prohibiting schools from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in K–3 classrooms.”

“Don’t Say Gay” is the moniker partisan Democrats have given the Florida bill. It is intentionally misleading. The legislation, which never mentions the word “gay” anywhere, does, as CNN notes, prohibit public-school teachers from discussing sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade, “or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” That’s a lot different from what “Don’t Say Gay” implies.

If Republicans had decided to call the Democrats’ recent abortion bill — on demand, until crowning, paid for by taxpayers — the “Let’s Kill Babies” bill (though pretty accurate, actually), no major news agency would have allowed those words to creep into their reporting, much less used it in a headline. If liberals want to engage in hyperbole, that’s their business, but how can we trust outlets that shamelessly regurgitate their propaganda? (That’s rhetorical.)