DeSantis calls 2022 the year of the parent, praises parents’ rights bill

“This really was the year of the parent in the state of Florida,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week, celebrating the parental rights bill passed by the state legislature. 

“We in Florida showed a commitment to education, not to indoctrination, and I want to thank the Florida legislature for doing that,” the governor said. “As the parent of three kids that are aged 5 and under, thank you for letting me and my wife be able to send our kids to kindergarten without them being sexualized.” 

The legislation essentially prevents Florida school employees or third parties from giving classroom instruction regarding “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” to children in kindergarten through third grade.

DeSantis also responded to criticism of the bill.

“People actually said that if you don’t have classroom instruction on sexual matters in grades K through 3 that somehow businesses don’t want to be in Florida,” he said. “I think people need to get out of their bubble and actually talk to parents in this state, because they do not want this in kindergarten or first grade or second grade. We want our kids to be kids.”

Liberals have slapped the misleading “Don’t Say Gay” moniker on the bill, causing uproar among the left. When a reporter used the label in a question to DeSantis, he fired back, demanding to know from the reporter what grades and ages the bill applies to:

For who? For grades pre-K through three. Five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds. The idea that you wouldn’t be honest about that and tell people what it actually says, it’s why people don’t trust people like you because you peddle false narratives. And so we just disabused you of those narratives.

Chief among the opponents of the bill is President Biden, who called the bill “hateful,” further promoting what DeSantis describes as a false narrative surrounding the bill. 

According to DeSantis, the bill does not target any people or groups, but ensures policies are enacted to “reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children in a specified manner.”

DeSantis also said there’s “zero chance” he will back down from supporting the bill, which passed in the state Senate this week after passing in the House last month.

The bill includes multiple other provisions that place more decision-making power back in the hands of Florida parents, inspiring the governor’s “Year of the Parent” remark.  

“In Florida, our policies have got to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations,” DeSantis said a week ago.