During the “Overtime” segment of his “Real Time” show on Friday, Bill Maher said there is a “kernel of truth” in Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill in that K-3 students “shouldn’t be thinking about sex at all.” And said there is a mentality among some that “we need to protect the student from the parents with the school.”
Maher said, “I think it’s only — they’re talking about kindergarten through 3rd grade. So, we’re talking about very young kids, who, as always with this stuff, there’s — not like there’s no kernel of truth in that maybe kids that young shouldn’t be thinking about sex at all. … It’s not like you’re not allowed to literally not [sic] say gay. But they just don’t want teachers talking about it and they think it’s the province of parents.”
Author, Duke Professor, and New York Times Contributing Opinion Writer Frank Bruni responded, “I mean, that sounds reasonable on the face of it. I mean, I’m not — my main concern, as a gay man who advocates for gay rights, is not that second graders know who Harvey Milk is. That is not the key to LGBTQ equality. But, I mean, I also question, I mean, does this really need to be at the top of these politicians’ lists? … This is not going to improve Floridians’ lives. This is not an urgent problem. This is a dodge. It’s another culture war that’s meant to score cheap, easy points rather than really solving Americans’ problems.”
Maher agreed with Bruni’s assessment that the bill doesn’t need to be a top priority, and said it’s a “wedge issue.”
Bruni reiterated his point that the bill isn’t addressing any major issues by stating that it “reeks to me of something that happened on a few occasions and has been blown into something.”
Maher responded, “I don’t know about that. Same thing with the race — with the CRT thing. I feel like it’s disingenuous when the liberals say…we just want to teach history. … It’s not like you can’t mention slavery. They’re talking about something else that is going on. … I don’t know what is going on with the gender as much.”
Maher then read from a CNN article on the bill and concerns that it “could lead to some students being outed to their parents” and said, “That phrase struck me as odd, like, outed to parents, like, shouldn’t parents know everything anyway?” He added, “I think in California, it’s the school has more of those rights than the parent.”
Bruni responded, “That’s not right.” And Maher then stated, “Well, that’s not how everybody feels out here. It’s like, we need to protect the student from the parents with the school.”
Bruni then sarcastically remarked, “Yeah, that’s a political winner.”
(h/t Fox News)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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