If Florida’s top republican lawmaker gets her way, kids in 4th through 6th grade will not be able to talk about sexual identity or LGBTQ issues in Florida schools.
Those topics have already been banned in K-3rd grades, and further banning it has many parents concerned.
Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo said she is open to expanding parental rights in education law. That’s the bill the governor signed into law this past spring which limits kids from talking about LGBTQ issues. It was coined “don’t say gay” by critics.
Talk of expanding it has many parents and educators speaking out after Passidomo said she personally wanted to know what was going on in schools.
“I don’t think I’d be supportive of high school kids…hopefully they’d be more mature…at least they should be. But middle school or maybe going to 6th grade or something like that,” she suggested.
Crystal Czyscon is the youth director of visuality, a group that helps support LGBTQ teens in SWFL.
“As we know, the 6th grade to 8th grade is usually the initial onset of puberty for many children, and it’s when children really recognize who they are and how they feel,” Czyscon said.