“Don’t Say Gay or Trans rally at Orlando City Hall in February 2022. (Photo by Jeremy Williams)
ORLANDO | LGBTQ rights groups filed a lawsuit July 25 on behalf of Florida teens and their families against four school boards in the state, arguing that the Parental Rights in Education law — also known as the “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law — silences and erases LGBTQ individuals in schools.
“The law is profoundly vague and requires schools to ban undefined broad categories of speech based on undefined standards such as ‘appropriateness,’” the lawsuit states. “The law demands that school districts implement its terms, and it empowers any parent to directly sue the school district if they are dissatisfied with its implementation of the law. And it simultaneously saddles school districts with the cost of litigation and the risk of paying plaintiffs’ attorney fees.
“This vigilante enforcement mechanism, combined with the law’s intentionally vague and sweeping scope, invites parents who oppose any acknowledgment whatsoever of the existence of LGBTQ+ people to sue, resulting in schools acting aggressively to silence students, parents, and school personnel,” it continues. “The law, by design, chills speech and expression that have any connection, however remote, to sexual orientation or gender identity.”
The suit was filed by Lambda Legal, the Southern Poverty Law Center and Southern Legal Counsel, as well as private counsel Baker McKenzie. The suit names the four school boards in Orange, Indian River, Duval and Palm Beach Counties as defendants.
Will Larkins, a student from Winter Park High School and one of the plaintiffs in the suit, went viral earlier this year when videos of Larkin teaching their history class about the Stonewall Uprising were posted to Twitter.
LGBTQ American history is not taught in Floridas public schools, so I took it upon myself to explain the events of the Stonewall Uprising to my 4th period US history class. #SayGayAnyway pic.twitter.com/A73TKPlWXF
— Will Larkins☮️ (@ProudTwinkie) April 3, 2022
“I am concerned that this law will eviscerate any hope of healthy and important discussions about LGBTQ+ issues or historical events, which are already lacking in our schools. Because of the vague language of the law, closed-minded parents are emboldened to become vigilantes to force their beliefs upon other people’s children by suing the school district over anything they disagree with,” Larkin said in a statement released by Lambda Legal.
The “Don’t Say Gay or Trans” law — which went into effect July 1 — has drawn intense national scrutiny since its introduction in the Florida Legislature at the start of the year and has served as a frequent talking point of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is widely considered to be a potential 2024 presidential candidate.
