According to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll, more than three-quarters of Republicans (76%) support Florida’s new “Don’t Say Gay” measure, which seeks to silence any discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in public elementary school classrooms by allowing parents to sue if they believe teachers have broached those subjects.
Widespread support for the law among Republicans is not surprising given that it was Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who championed it and Florida’s Republican Legislature that passed it.
What may be more unexpected is that the new survey of 1,618 U.S. adults, which was conducted from March 31 to April 4, found that nearly a quarter of Democrats (24%) also think it should be “illegal” for “teachers or other school personnel to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity when teaching children in kindergarten through grade three,” despite weeks of objections and outrage from party leaders and activists.
At the same time, another 24% of Democrats say they’re “not sure” how they feel — leaving only about half (52%) in explicit opposition.
In contrast, just 1 in 10 Republicans opposes the ban.
The resulting imbalance — with conservatives united in their support and liberals largely divided — helps explain why the GOP is leaning into the “Don’t Say Gay” debate as it seeks to rally its base and drive a wedge between Democrats ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
It also explains why Democrats may struggle to respond. Overall, just 27% of Americans say discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity should be “legal” in K-3 classrooms — while nearly half (49% for sexual orientation, 48% for gender identity) say they should be “illegal.”
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This is no accident. As critics of “Don’t Say Gay” have pointed out, the actual text of the law — “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards” — is vague enough to encompass nearly any reference that offends certain parents, including a passing mention of a student with two mothers or fathers.
In response, Republicans have only ratcheted up their rhetoric, conflating orientation and identity with sexual activity itself in an effort to smear opponents as so-called groomers bent on sexualizing children and even enabling pedophilia — a charge that seems to presume that mentioning “two moms” is somehow more sexual for young children than mentioning “a mom and a dad.”
“The bill that liberals inaccurately call “Don’t Say Gay” would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill,” DeSantis press secretary Christina Pushaw recently tweeted. “If you’re against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity.”
Source: yahoo
