Florida Continues Protecting Children From Radical Ideologies

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Governor Ron DeSantis signed the “Let Kids Be Kids” bill package yesterday to protect Florida children from medical mutilation, gender ideology in schools, sexually explicit adult performances, and in private spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms.

“Florida is proud to lead the way in standing up for our children,” stated Gov. DeSantis. “As the world goes mad, Florida represents a refuge of sanity and a citadel of normalcy.”

Gov. DeSantis signed a total of five bills into law which the Florida legislature passed overwhelmingly. At the top of the legislative set was SB 254, which makes it a felony offense to provide puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and genital mutilation surgeries to minors. The bill also:

• Requires adults receiving these surgeries and hormones to be informed about the irreversible nature and dangers.
• Grants Florida courts temporary emergency jurisdiction to intervene and halt procedures for out-of-state children.
• Creates a pathway to recover damages for injury or death resulting from mutilating surgeries or experimental puberty blockers given to a minor.

HB 1069 focuses on the use of pronouns and expanding parental rights in public education. The bill:

• Protects students in grades K-12 from having to declare their pronouns in public school and prohibits teachers from inquiring about a student’s pronouns. The law asserts that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait” and “it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”
• Prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in Pre-K through 8th grade.”
• Gives parents the right to read passages from any classroom material that is subject to an objection. If the school board denies a parent the right to read passages then the school district shall discontinue the use of the material.

HB 1438 is the “Protection of Children Act” devoted to protecting a child’s innocence. The measure:

• Defines “adult live performance” as “any show, exhibition, or other presentation in front of a live audience which, in whole or in part, depicts or simulates nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement, or specific sexual activities … lewd conduct … when … taken as a whole, is without serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value for the age of the child present.”
• Prohibits a person from knowingly admitting a minor to “adult live performances,” such as drag show events.
• Gives state officials the ability to “fine, suspend or revoke licenses” of any public lodging or food service establishment if they admit a child to an adult live performance.

HB 1521 ensures that Florida’s bathrooms, changing rooms, and locker rooms are safe places for women. The bill:

• States “females and males should be provided restrooms and changing facilities for their exclusive use, respective to their sex, in order to maintain public safety, decency, decorum, and privacy.”

• Requires designated separate restrooms and changing facilities based on biological sex or designated one-person unisex facilities in public buildings, educational institutions, detention facilities, correctional institutions, and juvenile correctional facilities.

HB 225 expands access to youth sports for children across the state. The measure:

• Allows private school, virtual school and home school students to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities at other public or private schools.
• Permits brief opening remarks at high school sporting events which are not to be monitored or controlled by the state’s athletic association. According to Gov. DeSantis’ office, the bill’s protections allow for public prayer within those remarks.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This expansive bill package protects our children’s precious innocence from corrosive gender ideology. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature deserve much credit for fighting this evil agenda. Irreversible mutilations, forced pronoun usage, gender confusing instruction and vile presentations aimed at kids all intend to indoctrinate children into the lie that a person can change their biological sex. Florida says ‘no more’ and all states should follow the Sunshine State’s lead.”