(UnitedVoice.com) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has repeatedly passed laws and policies to blunt the influence of LGBTQ people in his state. The conservative leader has done so under the view that parents ultimately have the right to determine whether their kids should be exposed to same-gender couples and transgender people. Recently, he made it clear he wouldn’t comply with a new federal mandate.
On April 25, DeSantis said Florida “will not comply” with President Joe Biden’s new Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 rules. Those are provisions of the civil rights law that specifically deal with education.
DeSantis released a video telling Floridians that he wasn’t going to allow Biden “to inject men into women’s activities.” Further, he said he wouldn’t permit the president to “undermine the rights of parents […] abuse his constitutional authority” to impose his non-discrimination rules on Florida.
The governor’s defiance stems from a recent announcement by the administration that it reinstated protections for student survivors of sexual harassment and assault that former President Donald Trump rolled back during his tenure. Biden’s new rules also increase protections for LGBTQ students by expanding the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
The administration believes it’s within its rights to expand the definition because of the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, where the justices ruled Title VII (employment provisions) protections cover an employee’s gender identity or orientation.
Catherine Lhamon, the Department of Education’s assistant secretary for civil rights, told the press the new rules would give schools the ability to effectively respond to “all sex discrimination, not limited to sexual harassment.”
Human Rights Campaign spokesman Brandon Wolf, who survived the Pulse massacre in Orlando, told The Hill that Republicans in many states are “leaping to oppose crucial protections for students in America’s schools.” He accused DeSantis and others of trying to bolster their political profiles at the expense of kids.
Republicans believe discussions of this nature have no place in schools. Kids are there to learn, not be indoctrinated.
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