The Parental Rights in Education Act, which critics call the Don't Say Gay bill,
currently applies to grades K through 3rd.
DeSantis now wants to apply it through high school.
>> That's right, we all heard repeatedly over and over and over again from
all these conservatives who said there's nothing wrong with the Don't Say Gay bill.
It only impacts students from kindergarten to third grade.
But those of us who suspected that it would go further than that, we're correct
because now Ron DeSantis is like, let me just go back to my greatest hits.
Trump is doing well in the polling.
I really need to increase my national standing with the Republican voting base.
So let me just go right back to the issue that put me on the national
map to begin with.
Now, here's some more detail into how he's expanding the so
called Don't Say Gay bill.
>> In a surprise announcement, his administration proposing that for
grades 4 through 12, instruction on sexual orientation or
gender identity is prohibited.
Unless such instruction is either expressly required by state academic
standards or is part of a reproductive health course,
which parents can opt out of.
A DeSantis spokesperson telling ABC news there is no reason for
instruction on sexual orientation or
gender identity to be part of K through 12 public education full stop.
>> Really, there's no reason for students in middle school and
high school to learn about gender identity and sexual orientation?
I knew what my sexual orientation was when I was in elementary school.
I just knew I had crushes on boys.
So if you are someone who is attracted to the same sex and you don't understand
what's going on with you, right, where would you get that education?
Especially if you're living in a right wing or red state and maybe you come from
a conservative family that doesn't wanna have those conversations with you.
I mean, I knew this was gonna happen, I knew it.
I mean, I knew it once they started banning incredibly innocuous and
innocent books like Tango Makes Three,
a book about penguins adopting an orphaned penguin.
I mean, come on.
>> All right, so first of all, whenever you hear right-wingers talking about
the children, they almost never mean it.
And I'm talking about Republican leaders and politicians, okay?
They use them as shields as they go to drive fear and hatred.
So they say, this is about the tiny children.
And DeSantis said it over and over again.
They're just tiny, I mean, and I pass third grade.
I mean, you don't want him hearing anything about gender roles and sex and
stuff like that.
Sex, I mean, we don't talk about it.
Who was talking about sex?
Nobody was talking about sex.
Whether someone is gay or straight doesn't have anything to do with sex.
It has to do with gender roles, right?
So- >> But also sorry to interrupt you, Cenk.
All right, so
they're expanding this to all students all the way up to 12th grade, okay?
So we're talking about people all the way up to age 18, okay?
Are we really pretending like teenagers?
I mean, I would rather have teenagers learn about sex,
about gender, about all of this stuff in the context of an educational
setting as opposed to the Internet, which they have access to.
Where they have access to far more explicit content
that they're purporting to be so concerned about.
>> Yeah, and you should have sex education in high school and probably junior high.
8th grader I think is around where it normally starts.
That makes sense.
Kids have already entered puberty.
You have to teach them things so that they don't stumble into stuff, etcetera, right?
But none of this is about the children.
None of it is about sex.
It's about hating gay people.
So look, I ran into a dad in Florida.
He's gay, he's raising two kids.
They're in the system, right, in Miami.
And he told me the teachers made his kids take down pictures with the rainbow
flag in the background of their house, this innocuous picture.
It just happened to be in the house, right?
And you know why?
Cuz these teachers are scared to death that they're going to be sued and
they're gonna lose whatever little money they have.
They're gonna lose their house, etc.
So any mention of their parents because they're gay is not eliminated cuz you're
not allowed to talk about gay people.
You're not allowed to talk about trans people, whatever, all that stuff, right?
Guys, what, are you pretending they don't exist?
And don't tell me you don't hate them if you say they're so
bad, we shouldn't let kids even know that they exist.
No, the Republican party is 100% driven by that hatred.
That's why DeSantis is doing it now.
So he can say, yeah, I hate people more than Donald Trump does.
I hate gay people more than Nikki Haley.
>> Right, but finish- >> I'm the biggest hater.
>> But finish the thought,
right, finish the thought because why is he doing it, right?
Why is he putting his hand in the cookie jar again?
It's because he sees this as politically advantageous.
And that's what makes our politics so
sick that it's not about representing the best interest of people.
It's not about making people's lives better.
It's all about, I'm Ron DeSantis and I want more kudos on a national
level by going back to the greatest right wing hits.
And this is what he does.
It's all about his political future.
That is why he's doing this.
Doesn't matter who he hurts.
It doesn't matter how many kids are harmed by it.
Doesn't matter the kind of discriminatory practices that come from it.
He's gonna do it because it's politically advantageous.
And remember what they told us over and
over again when the first iteration of the Don't Say Gay bill was released.
Let's take a look.
Let's remember.
>> Some of the lawmakers behind this bill, their argument is kids have their whole
lives to sort out their sexual orientation or gender identity, so
they don't need to have those conversations now.
>> Opponents worry that it could have a chilling effect
on discussion of those topics in any grade.
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis left no questions as to whether he will be
signing the bill into law.
>> I think it's in appropriate to be injecting those matters like
a transgenderism into a kindergarten classroom.
We're gonna make sure that parents are able to send their kid to kindergarten
without having some of this stuff injected into their school curriculum.
>> The law that was passed is to me common sense that in those lower grades,
you shouldn't be teaching sexual orientation and
those matters that should not be covered in at that age.
>> Or any age now, apparently.
So it was a lie from the very beginning, it was, okay?
This was meant to eventually impact all students in public schools in Florida,
and now it's happening.
>> Okay, Republican voters, instead of accusing you, let me ask you.
If you don't like this, then don't vote for the people that are pushing it.
So if Ron DeSantis thought this was gonna hurt him in a Republican primary,
he certainly would not have done it.
When Nikki Haley said he didn't go far enough and
that he should go to higher grades.
When Donald Trump attacks him for not being hateful enough, he would think, no,
Republican voters are wonderful human beings.
We're just worried about the children, but they love gay people and trans people and
they're open to everybody, equality and justice.
Then he would go in the opposite direction.
But he thinks Republican voters want the fear and hatred.
So Republicans, it's up to you.
Do you want it or don't you want it?
If you keep telling your politicians you want it, they're gonna give it to you.
They're gonna give it to all of us and drive that hatred all the way through.
>> Yeah, and it's more divide and conquer garbage as well because while,
I don't know, you might get your rocks off by discriminating against people.
Has it improved your life?
Has your life gotten better?
Now, just a few more details about what this new effort means,
how it's gonna be accomplished.
So apparently, the proposal doesn't even require legislative approval,
although it doesn't matter.
Republicans have a super majority in the state legislature in Florida.
It's scheduled for a vote next month before the State Board of Education and
has been put forward by the State Education Department.
Both of which are being led by the governor's appointees.
So his hand-picked right wing appointees.
And again, the initial law that DeSantis championed last spring bans lessons in
kindergarten through third grade.
The change was first reported by the Orlando Sentinel.
The proposed rule change this year also signals the governor's
willingness to bypass even the compliant state legislature.
And instead, leverage state boards in order to accomplish his high profile
political goals.
Late last year, at DeSantis' urging, state medical boards voted to ban children
from receiving hormones or undergoing surgeries to treat gender dysphoria.
>> All right, I love our members.
Vicky reminded me of a point I wanted to make.
She wrote, and Don't Say Gay bill done.
Now, what about food insecurity and homelessness among those same children?
Yeah, so these Republican politicians that pretend to care about the children,
as AR-15s are ripping through the bodies of our children, they say, no big deal.
No, we shouldn't change the law at all, at all, because the weapons manufacturers
need to make more money and funnel more bribes to me.
Plus some of my voters like the hobby.
So it kills your kids, I don't care, right?
They're hungry, feeding them, I don't care.
They shouldn't have free lunches.
They shouldn't have this, they shouldn't have that.
You shouldn't have paid family leave so
that you could take care of your newborn baby.
They don't give a damn about the children.
They always use it as an excuse and a prop so
they could drive hatred towards whichever community that they are targeting.