As one commentator put it, “to see the number of Florida teachers quitting their jobs because they can’t talk to kindergarteners about sexuality tells you this law was needed a long time ago.”
The now-infamous “don’t say gay” bill in Florida, which is a left-wing propaganda name for the law, could just as well be called the “don’t say straight” bill since it bars teachers from discussing any kind of sexuality or inappropriate topics from kindergarten through third grade.
The law is entirely reasonable and it seems like you shouldn’t need a law to explicitly ban such activities or discussions in an elementary school classroom. Unfortunately, in 2022, with the number of teachers who consider themselves left-wing activists rather than school teachers, the law is necessary and prudent.
While other large companies in Florida, such as NBCUniversal, which operates the Universal Orlando Resort, have stayed away from commenting on the law, Disney decided to pull the ripcord and get involved in a debate they had no business being a part of:
The Walt Disney Co. initially took heat for not taking a public position on Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” bill — and now they are under fire for doing just that.
Others studios, though, have largely steered clear of the furor in the Sunshine State.
NBCUniversal, with its rival theme park presence in Orlando, has had no public comment on the new law. Paramount, Sony and Netflix also have not weighed in publicly.
Whether they like it or not, the issue isn’t going away, even as companies try to avoid the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t situation that has dogged Disney.
The irony which cannot be understated here is that there is nothing in the law that bans the term “gay” from the classroom. The law simply states that children from kindergarten to third grade shouldn’t be engaged in classroom discussions or have a teacher broaching sexuality of any kind or discussing transgenderism. It’s really that simple.
Disney stepped in it even deeper when videos leaked of company executives saying their entertainment programming would be featuring more transgender content aimed at “targeting” children:
The Walt Disney Company needs to “get with it” and cater to a Generation Z that is substantially “queerer” than previous generations, a company executive said in a recent clip.
President of Disney General Entertainment Content Karey Burke emphasized the importance of Disney reaching the LGBT audience in a clip posted on Thursday, the latest as the corporation pushes back against Florida legislation prohibiting discussions of gender and sexuality in early education settings.
“When I was at Freeform, it was very much in the brand ethos of Freeform to be the tip of the spear when it comes to inclusion. And we, like you, Latoya [Raveneau], we jumped up and down, we celebrated that,” Burke said in a clip posted by activist and writer Christopher Rufo. “Nobody stopped us and it felt great. In part, I think nobody stopped us because we were targeting Gen Z and millennials. We were targeting a younger, I think, more open-minded, and now we know, as my son texted me this morning, ‘Gen Z is 30-40% queerer than the other generations, Mom, so Disney better get with it.'”
When a parent reads that their child is being “targeted” with a message of left-wing indoctrination, there can be little benefit for the company doing the targeting, especially a supposedly family-friendly brand like Disney.
Opponents of the law claim that those kinds of discussions don’t take place in the classroom at all, so a law is not needed. That’s great news! Then this law will be meaningless since no one is trying to indoctrinate or “groom” kindergarteners about their sexuality in the first place.
We all know that’s a nonsense argument since very clearly some teachers use their position to influence very young children with sick and twisted ideas that have no business being discussed in any elementary school classroom.
Parents should be the arbiters of such topics, and parents alone. Polling on the issue says parents agree, even Democrats:
Florida progressives failed. Poll shows 55% of Dems support parents’ rights law, as do 60% of suburban voters and 67% of parents. #SweetFlorida https://t.co/3LJWZN5sHI
— Helen Aguirre Ferré (@helenaguirrefer) April 2, 2022
Disney is on the wrong side of this fight and they’re doing permanent damage to their family-friendly brand in the process. Anecdotally, thousands upon thousands of parents are canceling their subscription to Disney+, the company’s premier streaming service housing the entire Disney film library and hundreds of Disney shows. Exact cancelation numbers won’t be known for some time when Disney files quarterly reports, but the backlash continues to grow.
Given how Florida has led on the issue of keeping inappropriate topics of sexuality out of young elementary school classrooms, other states are taking notice.
Thanks to the uproar, now more than a dozen states are considering or have already passed similar legislation:
- Alabama advanced a measure prohibiting early classroom instruction on sexual and gender identity.
- An Arizona bill aims to change the state’s sex-ed curriculum to focus on biological sex and “not gender identities.”
- In neighboring Georgia, lawmakers targeted private schools — which the state can regulate. But it failed to get any traction this year.
- In Iowa, a Senate proposal would require that parents opt-in — in writing — to any instruction “relating to gender identity.”
- In Louisiana, lawmakers introduced HB 837. It would limit discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in some grades and prohibit it all together in others.
- A South Carolina bill is similar.
- A Missouri bill would ban “gender or sexual diversity training” in public schools.
- An Indiana bill does the same.
- As would a Kentucky bill.
- In Oklahoma, a senate bill would ban books from school libraries that focus on “the study of sex, sexual lifestyles, or sexual activity.”
- Tennessee’s HB 800 bans books and instructional materials “that promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender issues or lifestyle.”
- Ohio’s HB616 has similar language used in the Florida bill.
Good job, Disney, you turned this into an international story so more states will be doing what Florida has done!
All of these bills are aimed at the same thing: Keeping parents in charge, and keeping indoctrination out of the classroom. Children in elementary school sorely need laser-focused attention on reading, writing, math, and science. They do not need discussions about anything else related to social justice, sexuality, or gender identity.
Given the damage that teachers’ unions and school boards have inflicted on children using Covid-19 to close schools for far too long, the only focus should be on catching up on lost learning time and ensuring these children do not fall behind in later grades.
Leave your sexuality discussions at home, thanks.
