Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP
ORLANDO, Fla. — Students and teachers will be allowed to discuss sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms unless it is part of the lesson, according to an agreement Monday between Florida education officials and civil rights lawyers who challenged a state law that critics called a “money.” can. “Don’t tell me you’re gay.”
The agreement clarifies what is allowed in Florida classrooms after a law was passed two years ago banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to elementary school students. Opponents said the law created confusion about whether teachers could identify as LGBTQ+ or even display rainbow stickers in their classrooms.
Other states have used Florida's law as a template for passing bans on classroom teaching about gender identity or sexual orientation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, and North Carolina are among the states with varying laws.
Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education requires all school districts to ensure that Florida law does not prohibit discussion of LGBTQ+ people, does not prohibit anti-bullying policies based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and that the Straight Alliance group.
The agreement also states that the law is neutral – that what applies to LGBTQ+ people also applies to heterosexual people – and that it does not apply to library books not used for educational purposes in the classroom.
Additionally, the law does not apply to books that make incidental references to LGBTQ+ characters or same-sex couples. We agreed to “farm.”
“What this agreement does is re-establish a fundamental principle that we hope all Americans will agree to: that every child in this country deserves to feel safe, have their dignity respected, and be educated in public schools. Plaintiffs “It’s a place where their families and their parents feel welcome,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the defense, said in an interview. “This should be non-controversial.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' office described the deal in a statement as a “big win” as it would keep the law, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, intact.
“We fought hard to keep this law from being maligned in court as it was publicly by the media and big corporate actors,” said Ryan Newman, a Florida attorney. “We won. Florida’s classrooms will remain safe places under parental rights to education laws.”
The law had the support of the Republican governor even before the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature passed it in 2022. Sexual orientation and gender identity education was banned from kindergarten to third grade, but was expanded to all grades last year.
Republican lawmakers argued that parents should talk about these topics with their children and that the law protects children from learning about inappropriate material.
But opponents of the law say it has a discouraging effect on classrooms. Some teachers said they were unsure whether it was okay to mention or display photos of same-sex partners in the classroom. In some cases, books featuring LGBTQ+ topics have been removed from classrooms and lines referencing sexual orientation have been removed from school musicals. In 2022, the Miami-Dade County Board of Education decided not to adopt a resolution recognizing LGBTQ History Month, despite having adopted it a year earlier.
The law also sparked an ongoing legal battle between DeSantis and Disney over control of the Walt Disney World management area in Central Florida after DeSantis took control of the government in retaliation for opposition to the bill. DeSantis touted his fight against Disney during his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, which he finished earlier this year.
Civil rights lawyers sued Florida education officials on behalf of teachers, students and parents, claiming the law was unconstitutional, but a federal judge in Tallahassee last year dismissed the case, saying it lacked standing to sue. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Kaplan said he believed the appeals court would overturn the lower court's decision, but continued litigation would delay a resolution by several more years.
“The last thing we wanted for the kids in Florida was more delays,” Kaplan said.