Florida parents’ rights bill would dash ‘pick-your-own pronouns fantasy’ in schools

Two Florida state representatives proposed a bill on Tuesday that would expand Florida’s current Parental Rights in Education law.

Rep. Adam Anderson, R-Tarpon Springs, and Rep. Randy Fine, R-Brevard, introduced HB 1223, which defines biological sex and would update K-12 sex education guidelines in Florida.

“This bill promotes parental rights, transparency, and state standards in Florida schools,” said Anderson, according to local NBC affiliate WESH 2. “It requires that lessons for Florida’s students are age-appropriate, focused on education, and free from sexualization and indoctrination.”

HB 1223 would prohibit instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from pre-K to 8th grade, expanding the restriction under current law which only extends to 3rd grade.

The proposed law would also define “sex” as “the binary division of individuals based upon reproductive function.”

“It is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex,” the bill reads.

The legislation also clarifies that school employees cannot be required to refer to someone by pronouns that don’t correspond to their biological sex.

“Florida is not going to be in the stupid pick-your-own pronouns fantasy that the woke left wants to waste our time with,” said Fine. “We’re going to keep gender identity and sexual orientation discussions all the way out of middle school. These are not discussions that young children should be having.”

LGBT advocates view the bill as an attack and responded in kind.

“Don’t Say LGBTQ policies have already resulted in sweeping censorship, book banning, rainbow Safe Space stickers being peeled from classroom windows, districts refusing to recognize LGBTQ History Month, and LGBTQ families, preparing to leave the state altogether,” said Jon Harris Maurer, public policy director for Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBT civil rights organization.

Although there are anecdotal accounts of families considering moving due to the new parental rights laws, migration patterns reveal that Florida is still attracting far more residents than its losing.  

Data from 2022 showed that Florida ranked 5th in overall inflow, behind North and South Carolina, Tennessee and Arizona. On the flipside, states with the most outflow included blue dates such as California, Illinois and Michigan.  

If passed, HB 1223 would take effect on July 1.