MTV comes out against DeSantis: Promotes Florida progressive who calls parental rights bill harmful and discriminatory

MTV comes out against DeSantis: Promotes Florida progressive who calls parental rights bill harmful and discriminatory



MTV News recently promoted progressive Florida House member Michele Rayner-Goolsby (D), who attacked Florida's Parental Rights in Education law for being "deliberately vague," saying that it is discriminatory and harmful.

The controversial Florida law, HB 1557, prohibits teachers from teaching topics like gender ideology and sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through third grade.

Rayner-Goolsby, who says her pronouns are "she/they," says that the law is meant to "discriminate and harm a whole community of people."

"The bill does not use the term 'gay,'" Rayner-Goolsby admits, but she says the law "specifically prohibits classroom education on sexual orientation and gender identity from ages K through three. But then the part of the bill says 'or age appropriate.' So, what does that mean?" she continued.

The state representative blames the bill's vagueness for what she deems to be regressive acts happening in schools across the state. "Teachers have to remove 'safe space' stickers. You have books that are being banned. You have classroom instructions being stopped," the progressive explains.

Citing several different media clippings, Rayner-Goolsby says the bill "was never about giving parents rights. This bill was always about targeting LGBTQ people."

One example used referenced Pasco County Schools eliminating "safe spaces" and removing safe space stickers. The stickers read: "This is a safe space for all, including all genders, orientations, identities, abilities, cultures, and backgrounds."

Another reference is made to a Miami-Dade school board rejecting a proposal to recognize October as "LQBTQ history month," which a board member said was "in direct violation" of the parental rights bill.

A final headline cites a Florida education commissioner's decision to pull LGBTQ "support guides" from Hillsborough County schools. The guide reportedly contained directives that a board of education member said would violate the law.

Specifically, the board member referred to one of the guide's directives that read: “With the limited exception involving the imminent fear of physical harm, it is never appropriate to divulge the sexual orientation of a student to a parent."

Rayner-Goolsby is a former local counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund and was endorsed by the group Equality Florida for being the state's first queer black woman elected to state legislature.

Equality Florida promotes several different LGBTQ initiatives including transgender surgery for "youth."

\u201cFlorida's #DontSayGay law prohibits classroom education on sexual orientation or gender identity for grades K-3 and in any grade when not deemed "age-appropriate" @MicheleForFL spoke to MTV News and @Logotv about the dangers presented by the bill's "deliberately vague" language\u201d
— MTV NEWS (@MTV NEWS) 1672942920


NYC mayor desperately tries to lure LGBT Floridians to New York with a flamboyant billboard campaign



Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams has decided to capitalize on the progressive outcry over Florida's new Parental Rights in Education bill in a desperate attempt to reverse the tide of New Yorkers fleeing the city for more conservative localities.

What are the details?

In a press release issued Monday, the mayor's office announced the launch of a flamboyant billboard campaign in five Florida cities that attacks the Florida legislation — which has been profusely and inaccurately dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by media critics — as ant-LGBT and anti-free speech.

Its aim is clearly to woo LGBT Floridians to leave Florida and come take up residence in New York City.

BREAKING: @NYCMayor announces a new digital billboard campaign in five Florida markets denouncing the hateful #DontSayGay law and inviting Floridians to move to New York. https://twitter.com/NYCMayor/status/1510997656209866759\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/1Dqbxmzqjo
— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYC Mayor's Office) 1649086041

Featured digital billboard ads will run in Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and West Palm Beach roughly through the end of May. They will contain messages such as "Come to the city where you can say whatever you want," "When other states show their true colors, we show ours," and "Loud. Proud. Still allowed."

"People say a lot of ridiculous things in New York. 'Don't Say Gay' isn't one of them," another message reads, according to documents provided by the mayor's office.

In a statement, Adams said, "I am the mayor of New York City, but I have a message for Florida’s LGBTQ+ community — come to a city where you can say and be whoever you want. Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill is the latest shameful, extremist culture war targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Today, we say to the families living in fear of this state-sponsored discrimination that you will always have a home in New York City."

What else?

Only time will tell if the campaign proves successful, though there are reasons to be skeptical at the notion that people will ditch the beachy income-tax-free Sunshine State in exchange for residency in pricey, crime-ridden New York City — especially over a bill that has widespread support among all voters, including Democrats.

The much-maligned Florida bill has been grossly mischaracterized by left-wing media pundits and cultural figures. Some have argued it will result in the deaths of Florida children, while others seem to genuinely believe it outlaws saying the word, "gay."

In actuality, the bill sets forward a popular rule: the barring of classroom discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms with scaleable guidelines for discussion on the controversial subject matter in grades thereafter.

That, according to the NYC mayor's office, amounts to "a targeted attack on the LGBTQ+ population."