Hi, welcome back to the show.
There's a lot on my mind right now.
Politically, yes, but also, more importantly,
the second season of "Bridgerton."
Somehow, they pulled off the horniest season of television
I've ever seen while also showing an adult man repeatedly
sniff the person he loves.
Sniffing is usually the grossest thing
you can do to another person.
But on the subject of very gross things--
NEWS ANCHOR 1: Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick
has sent out a campaign email calling
for the state to replicate Florida's controversial
"Don't Say Gay" law.
NEWS ANCHOR 2: Ohio now making national headlines as two state
lawmakers introduce a bill mirroring
a controversial Florida law restricting
how schools talk about sexual orientation
and gender identity.
Ohio is a lot more like Florida than you think.
They even share manatees.
Unfortunately, Ohio was treating those young manatees
for alcoholism.
Damn those Florida sandbars.
They never check ID.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed
the OG, or Originally Gay-bashing, bill into law
last week.
The Parental Rights in Education bill
limits instruction on sexual orientation
and gender identity for students in kindergarten
through third grade.
This is in Florida and other places'
schools for very young kids.
The Genderbread man.
So this is trying to sow doubt about kids,
about their gender identity.
It's trying to say that they could
be whatever they want to be.
This is inappropriate.
Sorry, I'm stuck on Ron DeSantis saying kids can't
be whatever they want to be.
I wish someone had told him that so he wouldn't
be about to run for president.
In addition to being vague and subject to interpretation,
Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law is blatantly homophobic.
It bans instruction of gender identity
and sexual orientation, which could
mean eliminating books with LGBTQ characters
or historical figures.
It also bans classroom discussion,
which is so broad it could keep a teacher from referring
to gay families, even in classes where
some students have gay parents.
I have a little girl this year who has two moms.
And the kids are curious about her two moms.
They're going to come to me.
I am afraid.
For myself, my colleagues, and my students.
Teachers shouldn't be banned from talking about a child's
two moms anymore than they should be banned
from talking about my two dads.
Some say this was Paul Reiser's best work.
Not anyone I know, but somebody.
And now, it's clear that "Don't Say Gay"
exists for an even more homophobic reason.
NEWS ANCHOR 3: The spokesperson for Ron DeSantis, however,
on her personal Twitter account has
called it something very different:
the Anti-Grooming Bill.
There is an assertion that LGBTQ people,
simply by existing, are a threat to children.
That is bigotry.
It's at the core of this bill.
Of course bigotry is at the heart of this.
I don't even know why they try to hide it.
Marjorie Taylor Greene pledged to introduce a national version
of the law by declaring she would,
"Do anything I can to protect kids."
[BLEEP] off, Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Do you know how hard it is to be the worst [BLEEP]
person on earth that does CrossFit?
It's an achievement.
You don't give a shit about protecting kids.
If the way you stalked Parkland survivor David Hogg
is any indication, we need to protect kids from you.
It is incredibly dangerous to paint
LGBTQ people as threatening to children just for existing.
Our society already makes it difficult
for them to live their lives.
20% of hate crime victims were targeted because
of their sexual orientation and last year, 42% of LGBTQ youth
seriously considered attempting suicide.
These are very real people whose lives are going
to be destroyed by this law.
The conservative tactic of weaponizing gender identity
and sexual orientation to make people seem threatening,
of course, is not new.
Just like pet rocks and Henry Kissinger,
the myth that LGBTQ teachers want
to groom kids or turn them gay is just another piece
of garbage from the 1970s.
Once upon a time, in 1977, there was a Christian singer
and spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus
Commission named Anita Bryant.
But instead of writing hit songs about oranges and Jesus's love,
Bryant was a hateful bigot who lobbied
for the repeal of a Miami ordinance
barring anti-gay discrimination.
Bryant argued it would, "Allow homosexuals
to provide role models for the impressionable,"
and, "Enable homosexuals to recruit youths."
Bryant's homophobia soon inspired
California state senator John Briggs
to marginalize LGBTQ educators.
The Briggs Initiative was a measure on the '78 ballot
of California that would have outlawed,
first of all, hiring gays and lesbians
to teach in the public schools.
This proposition is a referendum statewide
on the rights of parents.
But what it does do is give school boards new authority
to remove from the classroom a teacher
who is pushing homosexuality.
What about teachers who push heterosexuality?
I had a teacher who said cool beans all the time.
He indoctrinated me to say cool beans.
Cool beans.
[GROANING]
[SIGHING]
Republicans have been running with
this hypersexualized and homophobic excuse for crushing
LGBTQ rights ever since.
But the "what about the children?"
panic tactic isn't new, either.
It started way before QAnon, with scare campaigns
against everything from the dangers of young people
reading novels to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s
to the Santana Panic of 1999.
You weren't there.
Suddenly, every weatherman in America had the same joke.
In some ways, it makes sense that conservatives addicted
to fictional versions of real events
would be totally fine manufacturing
incidents of pedophilia.
Republicans are far more sympathetic to fictional child
victims than they are to actual victims.
We can't let Republicans get away with perpetuating these
disgusting lies that smear the LGBTQ+ community and put
a target on their backs.
And in the case of the state representative who introduced
Ohio's own version of the "Don't Say Gay" bill,
I literally mean we can't let her get away.
I've got to go to the Senate.
Please don't harass me.
Oh, so inspiring to see and hear
Republicans run away from taking any accountability
for their shit ideas.
The GOP sees targeting LGBTQ people as a winning strategy
for the midterms, but we cannot let them win and we especially
can't let them pass even more restrictive
anti-gay laws in the future.
We'll be right back.
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