ABOVE: Gov. Ron DeSantis. Screenshot via Rumble.
Mere days after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, the first lawsuit against the measure has emerged, asserting the statute “would deny to an entire generation that LGBTQ people exist and have equal dignity.”
Among the lawyers who signed the complaint — filed March 31 before the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida — was Roberta Kaplan, who rose to fame for successfully arguing against the anti-gay Defense of Marriage Act before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2013, as partner at the New York-based law firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP.
“Over time and continuing today, our nation has strived to make good on its promise that everyone is entitled to be treated with equal dignity under the law,” Kaplan said in a statement. “That is true when it comes to LGBTQ Americans, who now have the constitutional right to identify openly as LGBTQ, to marry, and to form families with children.”
Other lawyers who signed the complaint against the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, known as HB 1557, are Christopher Stoll, senior staff attorney with the National Center for Lesbian Rights, and Elizabeth Schwartz, a Miami-based attorney.
“This effort to control young minds through state censorship —and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality — is a grave abuse of power,” the lawsuit says.
Under the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill, schools for children in kindergarten through grade 3 may not engage in “instruction” about sexual orientation and gender identity, or generally throughout the education system “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” Although the new law allows for internal review and resolution if a parent brings a complaint against the school for violating the measure, the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill also empowers a parent of a student who feels the law was violated to “bring an action against a school district” in court to seek damages.
A lawsuit was expected soon after DeSantis signed the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill into law amid discussion about the various legal vulnerabilities of the measure. The complaint, declaring the new law “piles one violation on top of another,” makes its primary case based on free speech and equal protection principles, by saying the measure seeks “to censor discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity that recognize and respect LGBTQ people and their families.” Other violations cited in the complaint are based on due process protections as well as discrimination against LGBTQ people based on sex stereotypes, which the Supreme Court has ruled is unlawful in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County.
In a clear nod to the precedent set by the 1996 decision in Romer v. Evans, which determined laws against animus, including those against gay people, are unconstitutional, the complaint says the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law is clearly the product of animus toward Florida’s LGBTQ community.
“The bill’s sponsor in the Senate has stated that the law is meant to prohibit discussion of sexual orientations and gender identities that do not comport with Florida’s supposed ‘core belief systems and values,” the lawsuit says. “He has also stated that the bill is intended to prevent students “coming out in school” to their peers from being treated as ‘celebrities.’ The premise of these statements is fear that LGBTQ students might live their true identities in school and be met with acceptance rather than state-sanctioned hostility targeting their protected characteristics.”
Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Equality Florida, a state LGBTQ organization, and Family Equality, a nationwide group that focus on LGBTQ parents and families. Other plaintiff are students, such as one gay student identified as “M.A” who set up a gay-straight alliance in his school, including Dan and Brent VanTice, a same-sex couple who are parents of two first-grade boys who go to public school in the area; and Hatcher Powderly, a teacher who seeks to inform her lessons with LGBTQ identity and history.
“Already, our children have told us that they are afraid that they will not be able to talk about their family at school,” Dan and Brent VanTice said in a joint statement. “We are heartbroken that our children are already feeling isolated and stigmatized by this law.”
The lawsuit speculates numerous ways schools could be subjected to lawsuits from a parent who objects to LGBTQ identities coming up in some way in classroom settings, which could be any number of ways other than planned curriculum.
“Can students ask— and teachers answer—questions about historical events involving LGBTQ people?” the complaint says. “Would H.B. 1557 ban a teacher from discussing gay-rights’ decisions, like Bostock v. Clayton County, 140 S. Ct. 1731 (2020), where the Court held that LGBTQ persons cannot be discriminated against in employment? If a student writes a paper in which they discuss their gender identity or sexual orientation — and relate it to their argument — could a teacher not grade it? If the teacher did grade it, would they be prohibited from commenting on any aspect of the paper or discussing it with the student, thus leaving LGBTQ students at a systematic educational disadvantage?”
Proponents of the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” bill have defended the measure by erroneously saying it simply prohibits sex education for K-3 children or would only prohibit school curriculum on sexual orientation or gender identity, even though there’s no limiting principle in the measure restricting its reach. In fact, Republican lawmakers during the legislative process for the measure rejected an amendment proposed by Democrats that would enumerate the prohibition in the bill was limited to discussion on “sexual activity.”
Imani Rupert-Gordon, executive director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said in a statement the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” measure is “discriminatory law” and “threatens the decades of progress we’ve made in creating safer schools for everyone.”
“While this law will endanger all students, it will be particularly damaging to LGBTQ students and LGBTQ parents,” Rupert-Gordon said. “We are filing this challenge only days after the bill was signed into law because the harms it is causing are already so incredibly clear. Every young person deserves to be safe at school and we will fight unconscionable laws like this until that is true for every student.”
The Washington Blade has placed a request with the office of Florida Attorney General seeking comment on the complaint.
