Governor Ron DeSantis is
likely entry into the Republican race
for the presidency.
Next week
brings a renewed spotlight
on what opponents called his Don't Say
Gay law.
It initially banned teacher
teaching Florida students
about sexual orientation
and gender identity
through the third grade.
That's been expanded last month
through high school.
Opponents call it dangerous and vague.
It's led to book bans that have included
authors such as Toni
Morrison, Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume.
It's part of an overall conservative
push on education across the country.
The state of Florida, we're proud
to stand
for education,
not indoctrination in our schools.
The left wing rioting and mayhem
are the direct result of decades of left
wing indoctrination in our schools.
The Democrats
believe that
parents shouldn't
have a say in their kids education.
Parents want schools focused on reading,
writing and math, not woke politics.
The left is trying to hijack
women's sports and our schools
are on the verge
of becoming breeding grounds for liberal
and progressive ideas.
The census law
also led to
his ongoing fight with Disney.
One of the people he appointed to a board
that was supposed to provide
more oversight of Disney
was the co-founder
of a group called Moms for Liberty,
which has advocated for these classroom
fights in school
districts across America.
Ellie Reeve has more on who they are
by exposing
our children to adult concepts
such as gender identity.
We are asking them to carry a load
that is much too heavy for them.
Might I suggest instead of anal sex?
Perhaps we could go back
to teaching cursive?
This book is not appropriate,
and it is in your schools.
Moms for Liberty
is a parent activist group.
It began in Florida in 20, 21
to protest public schools
being closed for COVID and mask mandates.
The group became a frequent and spicy
presence at school board meetings.
This is about more than masks
for the record.
But now there are more
than 250 Moms for Liberty chapters
nationwide, the group says.
And it has gained major conservative
allies and morphed into something else
a campaign
against supposed
indoctrination of children
on race and sexuality.
I have the right to say
I don't want my kids to learn this.
I don't agree with this movement,
and that's my rights.
So books
should fall into that category as well.
We wanted to understand
what's driving
these moms on a deeper level
than some viral videos.
So we met with the Moms for Liberty
chapter in El Paso County, Colorado,
where conservatives won majorities
on three school boards in 2021.
Leader Darcy Chaining.
Let us watch a meeting
where they talked about
how to pressure those boards
into making the policies they want.
What school
districts are most of you guys in?
What Moms for
Liberty has become most famous
for is claiming school
libraries contain books
with pornographic content
and for trying to get some books removed.
Some of those books listed
do talk about sex,
but according to the Supreme Court's
definition of obscenity,
they're not porn.
I've read a lot of criticism
of your group
people say that this is kind of
like a moral panic,
that people have an irrational fear
of what's going on.
We're not looking to to ban books.
We're not looking to burn books.
We just need to get back to a system
where parents know
what their kids are learning.
And for the most part, it's educational
and not political.
One of the books on your list is Kurt
Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five.
I mean, that's considered
one of the classics of modern literature.
I read that in high school.
Well, why would we.
Would you want that removed from.
No, you don't.
Again, Age-Appropriate,
what might not be appropriate
for a six year
old is appropriate for a 15 year.
Is someone assigning a first grader
to Slaughterhouse-Five?
No.
But again,
it's the right of the parents
to know that it's there,
that their children
have access to something,
that they may not have access to at home.
One of the big issues
right now is pronouns.
In March,
Colorado's District 11 School Board
considered a proposal
to prevent teachers from asking kids
their pronouns sparking protests.
Teachers can no longer ask kids
their pronouns. That's right.
No more grooming
kids with pronouns in de 11
The school board has tabled the proposal.
Why is asking a child
their pronouns indoctrination?
If you ask my children
who are seven and eight,
what are your pronouns?
They don't even know what that is.
So when you ask that
you're planting the seed in their minds
that they maybe
should identify as another gender,
or that identifying as another gender is
hip are cool.
Hey, my teacher is asking me.
So maybe this is what I should do.
But I certainly never felt that way
about my teachers.
Like I didn't learn
I was heterosexual
from my health teacher.
It was from like watching nineties
movies with Brad Pitt in it. Yeah.
Yeah.
Well,
but and I think that's
how most of us,
our children can get on there.
We wanted to hear what
some of the more liberal parents
had to say.
Some of them
sat in on the meeting
and one passed me this note,
calling it a hate group.
The next day we met with those parents
for the record.
Have any of your kids
ever come home and said, I'm
feeling peer pressure to be gay or trans?
No, no.
Naomi Lopez is a speech pathologist
and works in a District 11 school.
First of all,
we're not going around saying, Okay,
now I want you to think about it.
What gender are you like?
That's not happening
before it's happening.
It's not my personal beliefs.
My personal viewpoint on the world
does not come into the classroom.
We are professionals with
degrees in pedagogy.
And she's also the
mom of a transgender student.
So
I'm sorry, can you ask me again?
Because I'm getting pissed off.
What we want to talk about that first.
Why does it make you emotional
to talk about this stuff?
So I get emotional
when other people who don't have children
who are transgender or queer place
on assumption on it for the
for the sake of persecution.
Based on their own belief.
When you're putting all of this
curriculum everywhere
and you're telling kids, hey,
you can come talk to me
behind your parents back,
I got your back.
I mean, there's a clear move
to bring more of that into our schools.
And it's just not the school's place.
So what I feel like you're
strongly implying
and I would like to get your take on
because I don't want to attribute
something that you don't think,
but to me,
it sounds like you're saying there's
some kind of high level
coordinated effort
to make more children trans and gay.
Yeah.
Well, who's directing that?
Teachers unions and
our president
and a lot of funding sources and teachers
unions are also heavily
backing the curriculum
that we're bringing into schools.
Why would they want more kids
to be gay and trans?
Because it breaks down the family unit.
What's breaks down?
Traditional conservative values?
It breaks down a lot of things
in this country
that it changes
the way that people think.
It changes
the way that people handle politics.
Of course,
there's no evidence of a coordinated plot
to make kids trans
When I hear those thoughts
about like some sort of concerted
effort to make people gay,
does it sound like a conspiracy theory
to you?
It's not a conspiracy theory that
this state,
whether you're talking about Colorado
or the federal government,
is taking a stronger and stronger hand
in public education, in raising our kids.
So do I think that
for some reason people want
everyone to be gay?
That's a mischaracterize ization
of what I think.
I think that people will use,
you know,
the people
that want to erode away
at parental rights,
the left, the teachers unions,
they'll use LGBTQ or whatever
may be the case all the time.
Those are just tools to erode away
at parental rights.
The last D11 meeting of the school year
was mostly
about student awards and performances
The board seemed to anticipate
the few Moms
for Liberty members in the crowd.
As we reflect over the last year
removing rogue work clubs, teachers
woke teachers
and what counselors from D11 is a must.
And a couple of students push back.
If you are
teachers ability to ask for pronouns,
you will move the ability
for safe spaces to exist.
Taking away the safety of your students.
I want to recognize our students
and the support staff
that are
supporting our students out there.
My child thinks it's ludicrous
that it's such a big deal
because to them
it's just normal to their friends.
They don't care how my child identifies.
They love them for who they are.
And Larry joins me now.
Is it
is it clear to you
which side of this debate
has the most support or momentum in
that school district?
Well, to be clear,
Channing's
kids have never gone to public school.
She says she doesn't want them
to make her kids
don't go to public school.
No, they have never been.
She hopes
maybe by high school
the schools will be
good enough for her kids.
The other liberals
we talked to the liberal parents
whose kids do go to that school.
They say it's not the majority opinion.
So, for example, one parent
complained about five books
and that meant that the district
had to create committees
to determine
whether those books were obscene
or they could stay.
And in the end, all five stayed.
But one parent who served on that
committee said
it was just a huge waste of time
and resources.
Ellery, thank you
really fascinating report.