Florida lawmakers are pushing to further limit how sex education and transgender issues are taught in schools, with the aim of exerting greater control over local classroom decisions. The proposed legislation includes measures such as barring educators and school staff from referring to students with pronouns that differ from those assigned at birth, giving the state more power over sexual education instructional materials, and expanding a prohibition on lessons about gender and sexual orientation through middle school.
These proposals come on the heels of last year’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” Parental Rights in Education law. Republican legislative leaders have signaled support for these bills, which, if passed, would establish statewide standards for language used in classrooms concerning gender and sexual orientation. While these measures have not yet been heard in committee, they highlight a long-standing push by Florida Republicans to tighten their grip on school curriculum and control what students are taught about sex and gender.
A common sense Florida bill aimed at restricting how schools teach about sex education and transgender issues was pulled from consideration at the last minute for reasons that Republican leaders did not disclose. House Bill 1069, which was set for a hearing on Friday, was part of a push by Republican lawmakers to impose greater control over curriculum and local classroom decisions. While no specific reasons were given for the withdrawal, House Education Quality Subcommittee Chair Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce, confirmed that “there were a few changes we needed to make.” However, when pressed on the matter, Trabulsy refused to elaborate on what changes were needed.
“Sex is determined by biology and reproductive function at birth,” and that those reproductive roles are “binary, stable, and unchangeable.”
Florida lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require students in grades 6 through 12 to be taught that “sex is determined by biology and reproductive function at birth,” and that those reproductive roles are “binary, stable, and unchangeable.” The bill would also ban educators and school staff from referring to students using pronouns that do not correspond to their biological sex. The proposal would make it mandatory for every public K-12 school in Florida to recognize a person’s sex as an immutable biological trait and that it is false to use a pronoun that does not correspond to their sex. This is part of an ongoing effort by Republican lawmakers in Florida to impose greater control over curriculum and local classroom decisions.
