‘Unlawful Attempt to Stigmatize, Silence, and Erase LGBTQ People’: Equality Florida Sues DeSantis Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is the leading defendant in a massive 80-page lawsuit by Equality Florida against the “Don’t Say Gay” law he signed this week. Roberta Kaplan, one of the nation’s top civil rights lawyers, who successfully argued the Supreme Court case that effectively overturned the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), is the lead attorney on the case.“Florida House Bill 1557 (widely known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law) is an unlawful attempt to stigmatize, silence, and erase LGBTQ people in Florida’s public schools.
It seeks to do so by imposing a sweeping, vague ban covering any instruction on ‘sexual orientation and gender identity,’ and by constructing a diffuse enforcement scheme designed to maximize the chilling effect of this prohibition,” the lawsuit begins.“Through H.B.
1557, Florida would deny to an entire generation that LGBTQ people exist and have equal dignity. This effort to control young minds through state censorship—and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality—is a grave abuse of power.
The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that LGBTQ people and families are at home in our constitutional order.
