Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law the Parental Rights in Education Act on Monday, which expands parents’ oversight of their children’s education and prohibits the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten through third grade.
The bill, which does not say the word “gay,” was misrepresented by establishment media, Hollywood, and other leftists as the “don’t say gay” bill.
“In Florida, we not only know that parents have a right to be involved, we insist that parents have a right to be involved,” DeSantis said at a press conference.
The Sunshine State governor defended the bill against leftist critics, saying that many had likely not even read the bill and were promoting “fake narratives.”
“They support sexualizing kids in kindergarten, they support injecting woke gender ideology into second-grade classrooms, they support enabling schools to ‘transition’ students to a ‘different gender’ without the knowledge of the parent, much less without the parent’s consent,” DeSantis said.
One story highlighted at the press conference was that of Jeffrey and January Littlejohn whose daughter was being secretly “transitioned” into a male gender identity by their Tallahassee school district — something the new law prohibits. The Littlejohns are currently suing the school district.
After the Littlejohns’ daughter informed them of a secret meeting in which school officials asked her which restroom she would like to use, January contacted the school board and was told she was legally not entitled to any information regarding the meeting.
“School officials asked my 13-year-old child her permission as to whether or not my parental rights would be honored,” January said.
The school moved forward with a full-fledged transition plan for the Littlejohns’ daughter without parental knowledge or consent.
The parental rights bill has received harsh backlash from leftists across the country.
Earlier Monday, the Walt Disney Company issued a statement, once again falsely identifying it as the “don’t say gay” bill, arguing it “never should have passed and should never have been signed into law.”
Promising to work toward the repeal of the law, Disney said they will support organizations working to challenge it in court.
Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.