On March 28, 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the infamous “Don’t Say Gay'' bill, which prohibits teachers from discussing LGBTQ+ topics and subjects with similar themes that may not be ‘age appropriate’. On July 1, 2022, this law took effect.
Now, a year following the uproar that came with “Don’t Say Gay,”DeSantis’ administration is working to expand this law to all grade levels, and is again targeting conversations surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation. The law currently impacts kindergarten to third grade students, but with the new expansion, it will reach up to 12th grade. This means that until they are 18 years old, students in Florida will not be allowed to talk about and learn about LGBTQ+ topics.
Not only does this law hurt LGBTQ+ youth that it may potentially impact, but it aids in marginalizing the presence of queer individuals in society. Using language such as ‘age appropriate’ stigmatizes the LGBTQ+ community and pushes us back in time, discarding all the progress that has been made and fights that have been fought.
Additionally, the law has increased fear among families, students and teachers who are anxious about violating the law and facing its severe penalties. Students can be cast out by their peers, and may come home to nonaccepting households. Additionally, teachers who should be there to support their students can face large fines and possibly lose their teaching certificates.
Pride events at schools have been canceled, pride flags have been taken down and LGBTQ+ history has been erased from social studies classes.
The immediate repercussions of this law have been student-led protests which demand that DeSantis’ government value equality and freedom among its youth.
When we look at the way representation has reshaped how we view media, removing queer representation from literature suppresses and eliminates narratives that threaten cisheteronormativity. Because of this, queer students will not be able to see themselves represented or discussed in academic spaces which could have offered them solace from their homophobic parents, their homophobic community or the homophobic society at large.
It’s always two steps forward, one step backward. For every advance queer liberation makes toward equity, there is some driving force there to oppose and undermine current efforts. However, if history has shown us anything, queer students will find representation in the media they’re consuming whether Florida likes it or not. The process of “queering” characters has been pivotal to finding representation for queer people that wouldn’t exist otherwise. Students shouldn’t have to imagine representation when we have so much queer content to share today. Just because you don’t say gay, it doesn’t mean queer people are going anywhere anytime soon.
