What In The Hell Is Wrong With This Country?: February 24, 2022 Edition

Florida State Rep. Carlos Smith speaks against HB 1577, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics, earlier this month in Tallahassee, Fla.

Rick Wilson/AP

In today’s edition of “What In the Hell Is Wrong With This Country?”, we find ourselves in Florida. Florida's House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday that would prohibit "classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity" in the state’s primary schools.

From NBC News:

The legislation — titled the Parental Rights in Education bill, but dubbed by critics as the "Don’t Say Gay" bill — will now head to the state's Republican-held Senate, where it is expected to pass. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is running for re-election and is widely considered to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has previously signaled his support for the legislation and is expected to sign it into law.

Speaking to lawmakers on the Florida House floor, Rep. Joe Harding, the Republican who introduced the bill, said the measure is about "empowering parents" and improving the quality of life for the state's children.

"Creating boundaries at an early age of what is appropriate in our schools, when we are funding our schools, is not hate," Harding said. "It’s actually providing boundaries, and it’s fair to our teachers and our school districts to know what we expect."

Harding has repeatedly stressed that the bill would not prohibit students from talking about their LGBTQ families or classroom discussions about LGBTQ history, including events such as the 2016 attack on the Pulse nightclub, a gay club in Orlando.

But critics have said that the broad language of the legislation could open districts to lawsuits from parents who believe any conversation about LGBTQ people or issues to be inappropriate.

The attacks on queer youths and their families this week are disheartening. Florida and Texas are setting a dangerous new precedent that will be most likely be copied by other conservative states and create a scary and uncertain present and future for so many people. And when I think about intersectionality playing a part in all of this? I want to cry.

If you didn’t feel the urgency before now? It’s urgency time. It is the time to fight - with our voices, our votes, and the ways we live our lives and care for our friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors. These harmful laws and declarations cannot become the U.S. standard because if they do?

Then the future will be a dark and murky place for so many people who just want to live and thrive.

That shouldn’t be something anyone should need to spend their entire life fighting for.