Walkouts Continue at Florida High Schools over 'Don't Say Gay' Bill

Walkouts continued this week in Florida schools, where students are showing their disapproval of a bill proposed by Republican state lawmakers that would outlaw discussion of LGBTQ+ topics in elementary school classrooms and encourage parents to sue teachers, CNN reported.

"LGBTQ advocates say the measure would lead to further stigmatization of gay, lesbian and transgender children, causing more bullying and suicides within an already marginalized community," CNN advised.

The bill in question passed the Florida state Senate on March 8, and is headed to the governor's desk, Florida news station WESH reported. If Gov. DeSantis does sign the bill into law, the measure will take hold July 1.

"More than 500 students participated in a massive walkout Monday at Winter Park High School in Orange County, Florida" on March 7, CNN detailed. The walkout was organized by two juniors at the school, Will Larkins and Maddi Zornek.

"Larkins also testified against the bill in front of the Florida Senate Appropriations Committee last week," CNN recalled. The youthful leader told the news outlet that the purpose of the walkouts is "to get the attention of our representatives...[and] show them that we are the ones in power."

Larkins went on to say that "what they're doing doesn't represent us, especially marginalized groups."

Larkins spoke to CNN prior to the bill's passage in the sate Senate. He said that the walkout he helped organize was intended to "show our government that this isn't going to stop. There were walkouts all last week.

"This is going to continue," Larkins vowed. "If this passes, there will be protests everywhere."

His fellow students seemed to share in the same spirit.

"During the walkout, students were chanting, 'We say gay!' and holding 'protect trans kids' signs," CNN said.

As previously reported at EDGE, the walkouts began last week and have taken place around the state. NBC News reported that students "waving rainbow picket signs and shouting 'We say gay!'" staged "walkouts across the state – in Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee and other cities," all in protest against the bill.

In St. Petersburg, Gibbs High School student Abbie Garretson, who is the president of the school's GSA, declared, "We as students are walking out today to say that we do not support an institution and a school system that does not support us," a report from Bay News 9 said.

"In the Orlando area, there was also a protest walkout at Seminole High School," the news channel added. "Hundreds of students reportedly gathered in the campus courtyard to show solidarity with the LGBTQ community."

The bill's adherents say that they're looking to ensure parents have greater control over what younger students hear in the classroom.

But for LGBTQ+ students and their allies, those arguments rang hollow. Instead, they indicated, what they heard was a call for their erasure. Garretson said that while the bill purports to limit classroom discussion only up through third-grade classrooms, it "affects all students because it is spreading a message from the state of Florida, from the school board, that we view queerness and gender identities as promiscuous and inappropriate...and that kind of message affects all grade levels."

Despite students' loud, proud, and unmistakable message to the state's elected lawmakers, the bill's momentum has not slowed and Gov. Ron DeSantis has indicated his support for the measure, saying, "I think it's inappropriate to be injecting those matters, like transgenderism, into a kindergarten classroom."

Meanwhile, DeSantis' press secretary, Christina Pushaw, ignited widespread criticism with a tweet in which she conflated acknowledgement of LGBTQ+ people in the lives of students with the "grooming" of children by pedophiles and called the measure the Anti-Grooming Bill.

"If you're against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children," Pushaw tweeted. "Silence is complicity."

Out Democratic state lawmaker Carlos G. Smith called Pushaw out for that mischaracterization.

"Bigoted attacks like this against LGBTQ people are the worst of the worst," Smith tweeted. "They're disgusting and dangerous and have NO PLACE in the Guv's office."

"@ChristinaPushaw must resign," Smith added.