The GOP attacks on the LGBTQ+ community are underway in the upcoming session, which begins March 7th. On February 22, Rep McClain filed HB 1069: Education which redefines “sex” as the biological role of either impregnating or gestating offspring, and those roles are unchangeable.
Nowhere is the term gender mentioned. In it, humans are defined only by their gestational role as sex. This definition not only erases Transgender and Non-binary people but also restricts a female's worth to gestating offspring.
This bill is currently in 3 committees for review. I expect this bill to be withdrawn or absorbed into HB1223 and the duplicate Senate copy SB1320. Both of these bills go further to discriminate against and erase transgender and gender-diverse people.
HB1223: Public PreK-12 Educational Institutional and Instructional Requirements and SB1320 Child Protection in Public Schools are nearly identical. Both include the definition of “Sex” from 1069. They further add genitalia present at birth.
This bill also bans using any pronoun that does not correspond to the writer's narrowminded view of gender.
It indoctrinates these beliefs by not only allowing the bullying of transgender and gender-diverse persons by allowing the intentional misgendering of staff or youth that may not fit into the writer’s viewpoint. It forbids staff from sharing their preferred pronouns if they do not align with the writer’s view. And forbids the ability to ask someone what their preferred pronouns are.
This bill further erases the LGBTQ+ community by extending the ban on their discussion to include up to 8th grade. Well into normal puberty when healthy sexual instruction is essential to the developing health of children and their transition to adulthood.
I am certain these are just the beginning of this session’s path to genocide. Last year Anti-LGBTQ+ Representative Randy Fine promised to criminalize gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth on his Facebook page.
This year while he admits he “Has no experience in the role,” he is chair of the Health and Human Services Committee. Earlier in February, anti-trans actors were flown in to provide the same testimony used to justify nearly every anti-transgender bill across the nation. No supportive testimony was allowed at this production. At the conclusion, Fine vowed more action.
Florida also has the “Reverse ‘Woke’ Act,” which would require employers to pay for detransition care for life if they offer health insurance that covers gender-affirming care.
Things will be heating up in a state that is striving to lead the country in its discriminatory and genocidal stance on the LGBTQ+ community.