Miami School Board Rejects Sex Ed Textbooks Over Don’t Say Gay Law
don’t say gay” law, after initially approving it several months ago.Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial legislation into law earlier this year, and it went into effect earlier this month.The Miami-Dade School Board voted to reverse its approval of Comprehensive Health Skills textbooks, which are used for middle and high school health classes.
The reversal was because the textbooks include sections on sexuality and gender identification. The board had voted to approve the textbooks in April.The 5-3 vote came after a small group of right-wing activists alleged the educational materials violated a new parental rights law that required any discussion of sexual orientation for students in all levels of school to be age appropriate.“We are not against sexual education or human reproduction and sexual education books,” Alex Serrano, of the conservative group County Citizens Defending Freedom, told the Miami Herald. “We are for statutory compliance and age appropriateness in the content ...
and compliance with parental rights law.”The “don’t say gay” law cited by Serrano completely prohibits discussion of LGBTQ+ issues with students from kindergarten through third grade.
But the textbooks in question were not part of an elementary school curriculum.The right-wing Moms For Liberty group, though, told the Miami New Times the books contained objectionable material and suggested even discussion of contraception violated the new law’s restriction on discussing sexuality with students.“The issue that we’re having with the textbooks is the content is not age-appropriate,” said Eulalia Jimenez-Hincapie, chapter chair of Moms for Liberty Miami. “There’s content that discusses abortion, that discusses Plan B.
