While laws are rules of the highest caliber of sorts that are all formal and official and stuff, that doesn’t mean they can’t be wrong or ridiculous. Or both.
A recently passed Parental Rights in Education bill in Florida fits the above description as people continue to react to it in ridiculous ways, including this one satirical letter, which has already led people to believe (or rather assume) things, so let’s clear it up.
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Teaching kids is hard without having to impose a bunch of rules on it, but someone always does, and it's Florida this time around
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So, there’s this bill—CS/CS/HB 1557 — Parental Rights in Education—that has been recently passed by the Florida Senate, and which will come into force on July 1st, 2022, which is also being dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
In a nutshell, the bill aims to enforce a parental fundamental right to make decisions on the upbringing of their children in public schools. And while all seems fine and dandy with that, there’s one part that doesn’t bode well with people.
The part we are referring to is that the bill also forbids any classroom instructions on sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through grade, or which is not developmentally or age-appropriate to the kids.
After the passing of the "Don't Say Gay" bill in Florida, a letter started circulating the internet maliciously complying to the rule
Image credits: Moms4Liberty
In particular, it effectively is a template for teachers to use where they explain that they will get rid of anything that is gendered in their classroom, including the words they use
Image credits: Moms4Liberty
Why is this an issue? As the unofficial name suggests, the wording is so vague here that it could be used to justify silencing any LGBTQ+ talk in schools, and since it was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, who is part of the Republican Party, a traditionally conservative side of the political spectrum, you can guess where this is going.
This prompted a slew of reactions, including this one template letter to be distributed by teachers in protest of this bill.
The letter includes a bit of context, explaining that there’s a bill that prohibits classroom instructions on sexual orientation or gender identity to primary school kids. So, in response to this, the teacher "writing" this letter has hence decided to abstain from using any gendered pronouns or words that signify gender.
This in turn prompted many responses and even debates on Twitter after Moms for Liberty shared it
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And it’s not just he and she, but Mr. and Mrs., as well as mother, father, husband, and wife. Also, all books and instructions that even indicate any gender will also be taken out of the classroom. Think of it as a certain kind of malicious compliance to purge the classroom so hard, it becomes gender-neutral.
The letter soon took off online, most notably being picked up and shared by the Moms for Liberty, a parental rights organization in the US. In their tweet, they explained that they got this template letter from a teacher from Palm Beach Florida, and explained that it is being shared among K-3 teachers. The tweet also urges folks to take a stand and asks for their opinion on the matter.
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One person even suggested making improvements to the template, focusing more on how it's a prohibition and not a choice
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Turns out, an internaut from Detroit, Michigan wrote and released this letter into the world as a piece of satire in hopes of helping people see the hypocrisy of this law, but it—to some extent—became a creation that started angering people who don’t understand satire, and was covered by the Huffington Post with the title “Memo Circulated to Florida Teachers Lays Out Clever Sabotage Of 'Don't Say Gay' Law.”
Regardless, it did generate a discussion, or at the very least a slew of reactions from people on Twitter. For the most part, people were applauding the malicious compliance aspect of it, aggressively avoiding any gendering whatsoever with the use of they/them and Mx., and how it turned back at the legislators because, technically, heterosexual is also a sexual orientation, so you can’t even talk about that. Technically.
The letter is said to be originally written by a Detroitian, but it quickly found its way among Florida teachers
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There were also those who genuinely wanted to use this letter, whether they understood the satire or not. And yet others were debating the logic and the wording behind the bill. Whatever the case may be, the tweet by Moms for Liberty got nearly 10,000 likes, and this is after it has went viral in other locations.
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You can check the tweet in context here, but before doing that, share your thoughts on the matter in the comment section below!