The Florida Board of Education has forbidden the teaching of gender identity and sexuality throughout all grades in K-12 public schools, extending a nearly year-old legislative ban on such lessons from kindergarten through third grade.
The board voted Wednesday to adopt a new rule that says Florida teachers in grades 4 through 12 ″shall not intentionally provide classroom instruction … on sexual orientation or gender identity” unless this instruction is required by state academic standards — it is not — or the lessons form “part of a reproductive health course” from which a student’s parent can opt out their child.
Reproductive health lessons are unlikely to mention sexual orientation or gender identity, Florida Chancellor for K-12 Public Schools Paul Burns said at the meeting Wednesday, given that “abstinence is the required expectation of what we teach in our schools” when it comes to health classes.
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Teachers who violate the ban could see their teaching licenses suspended or revoked, per the rule.
The rule builds on a law enacted in early 2022, the Parental Rights in Education Act, that outlawed classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-3 and required that lessons on these issues remain “developmentally appropriate” for older grades.
The board’s passage of the rule drew immediate outrage from LGBTQ advocates and education experts, who slammed the restrictions as likely to chill teachers’ speech, confuse educators about what they are permitted to teach across a wide variety of subjects and cause harm to LGBTQ children.
During public comment before the vote, Joe Saunders, senior political director for Equality Florida, asked the board whether its members believed it would be wrong to teach students in an 11th-grade civics course about the landmark Supreme Court ruling that granted the right to marry to same-sex couples.
“Under the vague new rules, a teacher who taught this would be fired and their career would end,” Saunders said. “This rule is by design a tool for curating fear, anxiety and the erasure of our LGBTQ community.”
But dozens of Floridians, many of them wearing Moms for Liberty T-shirts, shared support during the meeting’s public-comment period, praising it as a common-sense measure that will allow parents to better shape their child’s upbringing when it comes to sensitive societal and cultural issues.
“These decisions should be left at home for parents to decide when and if their children are exposed to this material,” said Ryan Kennedy of the education advocacy group, Florida Citizens Alliance.
The rule will not require legislative approval. It comes as the Republican-dominated state legislature is separately considering a bill that would have extended the ban on gender identity and sexual orientation lessons in a narrower way — through eighth grade.
The board voted Wednesday to adopt a new rule that says Florida teachers in grades 4 through 12 ″shall not intentionally provide classroom instruction … on sexual orientation or gender identity” unless this instruction is required by state academic standards — it is not — or the lessons form “part of a reproductive health course” from which a student’s parent can opt out their child.
Reproductive health lessons are unlikely to mention sexual orientation or gender identity, Florida Chancellor for K-12 Public Schools Paul Burns said at the meeting Wednesday, given that “abstinence is the required expectation of what we teach in our schools” when it comes to health classes.
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Teachers who violate the ban could see their teaching licenses suspended or revoked, per the rule.
The rule builds on a law enacted in early 2022, the Parental Rights in Education Act, that outlawed classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-3 and required that lessons on these issues remain “developmentally appropriate” for older grades.
The board’s passage of the rule drew immediate outrage from LGBTQ advocates and education experts, who slammed the restrictions as likely to chill teachers’ speech, confuse educators about what they are permitted to teach across a wide variety of subjects and cause harm to LGBTQ children.
During public comment before the vote, Joe Saunders, senior political director for Equality Florida, asked the board whether its members believed it would be wrong to teach students in an 11th-grade civics course about the landmark Supreme Court ruling that granted the right to marry to same-sex couples.
“Under the vague new rules, a teacher who taught this would be fired and their career would end,” Saunders said. “This rule is by design a tool for curating fear, anxiety and the erasure of our LGBTQ community.”
But dozens of Floridians, many of them wearing Moms for Liberty T-shirts, shared support during the meeting’s public-comment period, praising it as a common-sense measure that will allow parents to better shape their child’s upbringing when it comes to sensitive societal and cultural issues.
“These decisions should be left at home for parents to decide when and if their children are exposed to this material,” said Ryan Kennedy of the education advocacy group, Florida Citizens Alliance.
The rule will not require legislative approval. It comes as the Republican-dominated state legislature is separately considering a bill that would have extended the ban on gender identity and sexual orientation lessons in a narrower way — through eighth grade.
