As the school year starts, LGBTQ+ groups want queer students to know they’re not alone.
LGBTQ+ media advocacy organization GLAAD, ( the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) and Equality Florida recently released a video showing Florida families and educators speaking out against Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation that went into effect this summer.
The video addresses Florida House Bill 1557, which opponents call the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, and focuses on the testimonies from a 10-year-old transgender girl, her family, a gay kindergarten teacher and Nikole parker, Equality Florida’s director of transgender equality.
“I think people really need to understand that Florida has become the battleground,” Parker said in the video. “There are over 200 anti LGBTQ bills around the country, but here in Florida, we’re seeing LGBTQ students be attacked just because radical politicians are not understanding the LGBTQ plus community and using them as political pawns.”
Under the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, any conversation of LGBTQ+ topics, including books and flags are banned in classrooms kindergarten through third grade.
According to a poll published earlier this month by GLAAD, 71% of LGBTQ+ and ally voters in Florida believe the new laws intend to attack LGBTQ+ people and 70% say the laws are emotionally damaging to children and parents.
“Florida’s LGBTQ and ally voters must send an unmistakable message that they are not going back in the closet or back in time,” said GLAAD President and CEO, Sarah Kate Ellis in a press release. “Discriminatory, defamatory and dangerous rhetoric and behavior must stop now.”
This story originally appeared at Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.