Alabama lawmakers push for broader 'Don't Say Gay' legislation amid debates
One week ago, the Florida Board of Education reached an agreement with civil rights attorneys about changing and easing the "Don't Say Gay" law signed by Governor Ron DeSantis a year ago. Alabama lawmakers have also made some decisions about this bill, but unlike Florida, they prohibited certain things regarding LGBT discussions in schools.
6:44 AM EDT, March 21, 2024
One year ago, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill called by media as "Don't Say Gay," prohibiting class discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity with students from kindergarten to third grade, later on also expanded to prekindergarten to eighth grade. However, after a long debate with civil rights attorneys, DeSantis agreed to let teachers talk to the students about LGBT issues "as long as it is not instruction on these topics."
After the Florida Board of Education signed the original bill, many other states took it as an example and also wanted to incorporate this document into their laws. One of them is Alabama, where lawmakers advanced legislation expanding the prohibition of teaching about LGBT in all grades, not only in elementary school, as it used to be.
The House Education Policy Committee accepted the bill and will now be handed to the full Alabama House of Representatives. The new law will prohibit not only teaching and discussing LGBT in classes but also displaying LGBT flags in schools. As the sponsors of the bill state, this change will prevent students from "indoctrination." On the other side, the opponents of this document underline that this is an example of bullying.
"We’re bullying a certain class or group of people because they don’t have the representation to fight back," said House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, quoted by NBC News.
Sources: NBC News
