Disney's Stance on Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bills
- Locked due to inactivity on Jul 7, '23 3:54am
Thread Topic: Disney's Stance on Florida's "Don't Say Gay" bills
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As many of you are probably aware, Florida, among other states, has recently passed a "Don't Say Gay" bill, banning teachers from discussing or teaching about gender and sexual orientation in schools.
After the law was passed, Disney publicly opposed this, and pledged to donate five million dollars to LGBTQ+ organizations.
Following Disney's statements, Governor DeSantis passed another law which essentially allowed him to replace the members of the previously Disney controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District board with members of his choosing (Information about the board and what they do here). However, before the previous board was removed, they (along with Disney's super army of lawyers) were able to ensure that the new board wouldn't have any power for the next 30 years.
While I don't doubt that Disyney's decisions were partially, if not entirely, purely business bases, it's still nice to see a group as big as Disney taking our side in this fight. The more that people see such prominent figures taking the side of the LGBTQ+ community, the more people will realize we aren't doing anything wrong -
Florida, Tennessee, Texas.. s---s crazy
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Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Alabama, and Florida. This is beyond crazy, it's terrifying
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I am extremely fortunate, and lucky, to be living in Michigan during all of this. While it has typically been a swing state, it appears to be leaning more and more blue
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"Red 🇺🇲states" are starting to look more like "red ⚒states"
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The way redwingers have been acting over the last few years has pushed me from independent to more liberal. Right-wing libertarianism is an oxymoron. Freedom for me but not for ye.
"We're pushing back against lgbt people because we are so worried about pedophilia. That's also why we leave our children alone with their youth pastors." -
Sooo you want teachers to tell kindergarteners-3rd graders about all the different types of sexual orientation and preferences?
The “don’t say gay” bill is banning teachers from instructing young children up to 3rd grade about sexual and gender identity. This includes heterosexuality too. Why do you want to talk to kindergarteners-3rd graders about that? Have you ever interacted with a child that young before? Let alone a group of children that age? They’re still very much learning about the world and trying to make sense of it all and while yes, there are some children who are mature for their age and seem to grasp things a bit better than others, I still have to constantly answer the same exact question I just answered from another student in the class in my group of 2nd graders because there’s always at least 2-3 students who weren’t listening. Things don’t usually stick with them. Let children be children instead of trying to fill their heads with more things that they probably aren’t going to retain. -
Hi! I really like the part where you said "Let children be children," I wholeheartedly agree with that. However, allowing these things to be discussed in classrooms does not infringe upon that idea. Children are curious, they should be allowed to ask questions. Children should be allowed to be themselves, and queer children should know it's okay to be the way they are.
I'm not saying these things need to be taught, but they should be able to be discussed. These "Don't Say Gay" laws are also banning queer-relayed books from school libraries. These books aren't "forcing" anything on anyone. If a student WANTS to check one of these out, they should be able to. If not? They don't have to
Gay and trans people exist, and there are plenty of ways to discuss these topics while still keeping them age appropriate. It's important for children to learn and understand these things so that one, they don't turn into bigots, and two, queer children know it's okay for them to exist -
As a preschool teacher and early education professional, there are ways to safely and appropriately educate children on sex, even as young as that.
Sex education at this age includes discussing what kinds of touches are and are not appropriate, bodily autonomy, the concept of consent, body part names, etc. These things are important for children to know. It amazes me that you work with kids and can say "things don't usually stick with them," when that has been the opposite in my experience. Maybe the age groups are just that different, but my students absorb everything and they ask a TON of questions. You're right, they're getting to know the world around them, and that is PRECISELY why they need safe, educated adults who can help them navigate those topics in an age-appropriate way.
And that's just sexuality in general.
A scenario for you:
I am a bisexual man married to another man (I am not married to a man but let's imagine). One of my students asks me if I am married. Don't say it doesn't happen, because it does all the time. It is a very common question students ask their teachers as they are generally curious about their lives.
Am I supposed to say yes? If I tell them I'm married to a man, will one of them tell their parent? Say that parent complains to the administrator. Am I going to lose my job?
If I say no, okay. Maybe I say he's my roommate instead or maybe I just omit his existence entirely. Fine. But what about the teacher in the classroom next door, who is in a straight relationship? Will he have to lie about his marital status too? Take down the photograph of his wife and kids that adorns his desk?
Okay, so all discussion about teachers' families are prohibited. What about discussions of the children's families? Keep in mind that knowledge of others and diversity is a f---ing key developmental indicator, and building this is vital to developing empathy in young children. Should we just shut down all conversation surrounding families? Or are we only going to tell the boy with two mommies that he can't talk about his family at school, subtly teaching them that different family structures are shameful and wrong?
If you think I'm being nitpicky, if you think things couldn't possibly go that far, think again. These might be hypotheticals to you. These might be situations you will never have to worry about. But for LGBT+ educators around the globe this is their f---ing reality. This is their nightmare. These are the questions we have to mull over, one of many hypothetical situations we have to play and play and play in our head. And if you think that isn't on purpose you're delusional. These laws are designed to push us back into the closet.
Don't believe me? That's okay, you don't have to! You get to just turn a blind eye to the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of anti-lgbt+ bills that have been proposed in the south over the past couple of years. Some of them even being passed. All under the guise of "protecting the children." Yes, please point me to the statistics where discussing gay people in front of a toddler harmed them. I'll point you towards the statistics where growing up in a society that prohibits homosexuality has actually cost lives.
One last thing, and I don't mean to be rude:
Your view of children not retaining anything says a lot more about your teaching style than anything else. I mean this sincerely. I got very heated in this discussion but I am genuinely concerned by your mentality. Maybe because the age groups are so different, but even so, it disheartens me to see another educator thinking the way you do.
I sincerely hope you gain some perspective, both for LGBTQ+ people and for the students in your classroom. -
^ right on
And even so. Desantis wants to extend that to ALL grade levels. Look at what he did to New College. This is a conservative take over. They won't stop.
Remember, they come for the teachers first. -
In Florida, they recently proposed an amendment to the law to include all grades. The people legislating these things don't care about "parental rights" or "protecting children" I used to believe that but I can see now that they only care about furthering anti-lgbt legislation.
If states were really worried about children being exposed to inappropriate content then they should go after the church. The church cared way more about what I thought about sex and did with my body at a young age than school ever did. I was indoctrinated way more by church than I ever was by people being lgbt. Learning about lgbt things doesn't make people "turn gay," no matter what age. -
i support lgbtq
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Sadly children are more likely to be exposed to predators in church than they are around members of the lgbtq+ community.
Yet they're criminalizing drag and banning books.
If you don't see it, you are choosing not to.
And by choosing to ignore it, you are actively helping further the movement. -
I meant that as a children tend to forget things easily and you have to keep reminding them on certain things. I do not believe that you only have to tell your students one time about something and they remember it. Maybe it is because I am actually teach stories to children and helping them find the thesis and topic and major details of articles and am constantly working on another teacher’s f---up of telling these students that the thesis will always be the last sentence of the first paragraph and the main idea will always be the first sentences of the body paragraphs, which is not the case at all and I actually have to explain that you need to look for these certain things in those sentences in order to find the thesis and main ideas. Because they have been taught over and over by this one teacher about how to find these things in the articles, I have to constantly explain the proper way to find them. The first day of class, I have them all write down in their notes how to find these things so they can always go back and look at it, but they will forget about it by the next day of class, and I have to remind them. It takes I would say a good 3 weeks before they’re finally able to recognize the patterns and I don’t have to remind them. That’s what I mean by things don’t tend to stick with them. I can’t just tell them one time and assume they’re going to remember for the rest of their lives because they’re probably not.
As for the married question, I get that a lot too. But why do you feel the need that you want them to know that? This is how I handle that:
Them: “Teacher, do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend/are you married?”
Me: “Do I look like I have a boyfriend/girlfriend/am married?”
Them: “yes” or “no”
Me: “okay.”
Same thing with age. They ask me all the time how old I am, and I just ask them how old do I look and they usually will be like “1078” or something ridiculous like that, so I’ll just be like “false, I’m actually 1079.”
You are acting in the place of their parents when the kids are at school. Therefore, you need to follow how the parents want to raise their children (generally speaking. Obviously if there’s something wrong, then get cps involved). Your job is to make sure everyone feels safe, so if someone has two moms, you let everyone know that some people have two moms, some people have two dads, and that’s okay, and you move on. You can then let the parent know that their child brought up that question or topic in class and if they want to further discuss it at home, then they can. You don’t need to have an hour+ long discussion about the ins and outs of marriage when another parent might not want their child to know about all of that. Hell, I still thought Santa was real until I was in 4th grade, which is around the time I started to really question stuff, so I don’t think a child can really comprehend certain topics at that age. -
As for extending the bill to all grade levels, I don’t agree with that. I think having a class in 7th or 8th grade about sex education and then one again in 9th or 10th grade worked pretty well for me. I hear all the time about people saying that their sex education in school was s--- and they didn’t learn anything, but I thought mine was pretty good. Like in 8th grade, I remember our teacher showing us a condom and how to put it on and she also talked about dental dams and we also went over consent and then in 9th grade we talked about all the different stds and things like that. Granted, I probably did take it more than the average student because I had a free period in high school and so I was a student worker for my health teacher cause he was also my coach, so I would just sit in his room, but I feel like I learned a lot even if I didn’t do that.
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