Florida’s biggest school district decides recognizing LGBTQ history is illegal now
The Miami Dade School Board on Wednesday night voted against a proposal that would recognize October as LGBTQ History Month.Last year, the district voted 7-1 in favor of a similar proposal, but fearing it would now violate the state’s Parental Rights in Education law, aka the “Don’t Say Gay” law, every board member but one voted against it this year.
That’s despite the fact that the board’s own attorney said it was on solid legal ground.The law was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, and went into effect July 1.
It bans the discussion of LGBTQ topics mainly at the primary grade level, but also limits discussion when “not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students” in all grade levels.Related: Florida teen warned not to ‘say gay’ during graduation speech finds perfectly shady solutionLucia Baez-Geller, the board member who introduced the proposal — and assumedly the lone ‘yes’ vote — called it a “symbolic gesture” that succumbed to “ugly falsities” and “just plain disinformation.”Another part of the proposal would have given 12th grade social studies teachers resources to include “important landmark civil rights” like Obergefell v.
Hodges and Bostock v. Clayton County in their curriculum. Those cases grant the right to same-sex marriage and prohibit employers from discriminating against workers on the bases of sexual orientation or gender identity, respectively.
