A new poll shows that Florida Democrat voters support the Republican Legislature’s “Parental Rights in Education” bill, despite a campaign from the radical left to falsely label it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The bill, which passed the Florida House in early March, would order that a “school district may not encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” Despite the outcry from Democrats and journalists, the bill does not mention “gay” or any specific sexuality.
NBC News reporter Marc Caputo drew attention to a poll in a Twitter thread on Thursday from Floridians for Economic Advancement, which found that Florida Democrat primary voters support the bill 52 percent to 36 percent. The survey structured its question similarly to how the actual bill is written, asking respondents: “Should students in Kindergarten through 3rd Grade be taught about sexual orientation in the classroom by their teachers?”
Caputo posted a slide from the poll, which was originally covered in a Florida Politics article — though Caputo called out the publication for omitting the question about the bill from its story.
“Poll shows FL DEMOCRATIC primary voters support the GOP Legislature’s “Parental Rights”/LGBT education bill by 52-36%. FL Capitol Dems opposed it & made it a top messaging priority. (This is unmentioned for some reason in the story I QTd. This poll jibes w/others I’ve seen),” he wrote.
“This isn’t my poll & the publication should explain its sourcing & also why these poll #s weren’t addressed in the poll story, considering the issue of the bill was in the penultimate paragraph (last slide),” he continued.
The publication has since added a paragraph to its story, acknowledging the poll results that show Florida Democrats are not buying into the “Don’t Say Gay” propaganda, according to an archived version of the article.
Caputo compared the results of the Floridians for Economic Advancement poll to an exclusive poll released by the Daily Wire on March 14. The Daily Wire’s poll found that 62 percent of Florida Democrats “support the Florida bill’s ban on classroom instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3, or at any level if it is not presented in a manner that is age or developmentally appropriate.” Caputo pointed out that both polls used either similar or actual wording from the legislation when asking respondents about the bill.
“Bonus thread! As noted above, we need more good polling. So far, most of the polling has been national,” the reporter continued, in what could be seen as an out-of-character assessment for an employee of a far-left media company. “To those who think the text of the legislation should be polled, the conservative Daily Wire found majority support w/Dems, Rs and Indies.”
“Some will dismiss DW because it’s conservative (I’m not, but I get the criticism). So here’s Politico Morning Consult, which didn’t ask the text of the bill, but it message-tested pro/con & used “Don’t Say Gay,” he continued.
Even in the Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted nationwide in mid-March, 50 percent of overall registered voters support the bill and only 34 percent oppose. Broken down by political affiliation, more liberals opposed the bill than supported it, but greater majorities of conservatives and moderates supported the legislation.
Notably, the poll phrased its question with less emphasis on the reality of the legislation’s language:
It reads:
As you may know, the Florida legislature has passed a bill – labeled by opponents as the ’Don’t Say Gay’ bill – limiting the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to Florida school students. Some say that limiting these discussions will protect children from inappropriate classroom topics, while others say it will block important conversations about LGBTQ issues.To what extent do you support or oppose the following items in the bill? Banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten through third grade
Another far-left poll released around the same time from ABC News/Ipsos tried to claim that 62 percent of the country is opposed to the legislation. However, some deeper diving reporting from Ed Morrissey at Hot Air revealed that the poll panel oversampled LGBTQ respondents, which is “not a demographic that typically gets oversampled in polls.”
“Are we to believe that it’s a coincidence that ABC/Ipsos just so happened to oversample this community on a polling question that directly relates to them?,” Morrissey queried. “Especially given the smaller sample size for a national poll (622 adults, not registered voters), it would appear that the pollster focused on specific localities where one would normally find a greater-than-usual percentage of LGBTQ respondents.”
Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter.
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