The signing of Florida’s “don’t say gay” bill encapsulates all that’s foul about Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ reign.
Autocracy. Disdain for differences. Personal profit over the public good — and more.
With the country watching — and even international media covering the ambitious governor’s anti-gay slap and Florida’s general descent into fascism — DeSantis surrounded himself at the event with a group of preppy-uniformed, private-school-educated children.
The scene was ironic on several levels.
Some of the children were wee young, but here they were, props for a governor signing a measure to censor a subject, sexual identity, that they’re not supposed to be hearing about.
Not very bright of the DeSantis team.
The law quashing classroom discussions related to sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade also inflicts a chilling effect on instruction for older kids. But the speech ban applies only to public schools.
Yet, there’s DeSantis shoving his straight-white-man discomfort down Floridians’ throats at a West Coast charter school. Classical Preparatory School was started in 2014 by the wife of DeSantis’ education commissioner, Richard Corcoran.
He’s a former House speaker who, along with other charter-school employees and owners turned lawmakers, constantly benefited private education to the detriment of public schools.
For this and being a yes-man, DeSantis rewarded him with the top education post, from where Corcoran has done nothing original for Floridians. He’s known only for acquiescing to DeSantis’ whims, whether those against COVID mask mandates for public schools or this “Parental Rights in Education” bill that violates free speech and discriminates against a sector of the population.
In essence, the Legislature, education commissioner and governor are imposing private-school dogma, religious beliefs and the values of exclusion on public education. Keeping future generations ignorant and unquestioning is the goal.
It’s another move to weaken public education in Florida, constantly being diminished by content and funding decisions made by people running the government who also profit from public investment in private education initiatives.
And the anti-gay law is also what Sen. Gary Farmer, a Fort Lauderdale Democrat, calls “DeSantis’ 4H agenda: hateful, harmful, hurtful and homophobic public policy.”
But it pays off handsomely. A charter school gets free publicity for letting DeSantis use its children as props on the Florida Channel.
The show, however, wasn’t flawless.
While there were mostly white, giddy kids eager to please — two of them holding placards that said “Protect Children” — two young girls next to the governor didn’t look enamored of DeSantis.
And at the conclusion of the signing, they didn’t join the others feverishly applauding the governor.
May they grow up to be independent, critical thinkers (maybe they already are) despite early indoctrination. (It didn’t work with me either.)
Interestingly enough, the kids’ signs spoke volumes — and contradicted the governor, who argued that the “corporate media” had misunderstood, miscast and mislabeled the “intent” of an education bill that allows parents to sue school districts.
It doesn’t say “gay” anywhere, he and others argue.
It’s not discriminatory, they say.
So, from whom do these children need protecting, if not from gayness?
Not to mention that the bill’s Republican sponsor in the Senate, Dennis Baxley, of Ocala, pretty much admitted his anti-gay feelings while defending it on the floor. He bemoaned that children were declaring themselves gay because it’s the “trendy” thing to do.
The political intent is clear, not only of this law but of others the governor has signed or will sign, including the 15-week abortion ban and the ban on teaching critical race theory, which is a college-level course not taught at any Florida public school.
DeSantis is growing his national profile using the same modus operandi as former President Donald Trump did: catering to the bigoted and to the extremist, religious right dissatisfied living in a world of diverse thought and ways of living.
Autocracy, not bipartisanship, is their language, and DeSantis speaks it so well they’re convinced he’s the new political messiah. And, if he happens to throw millions in public subsidies to their educational perspectives, all the better.
Hurting Florida’s gay children doesn’t matter, unless they’re zygotes in a woman’s womb. Only the parents matter and their right to sue school districts, making money off a poorly paid teacher’s attempt to help a kid in need.
What kind of Florida is being shaped by the anti-gay, anti-Black and anti-women bills passed by radical-right lawmakers and engineered by DeSantis and his “yes, sir” team?
One granted permission to hate, exclude and always, always, put self first.
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