(CN) — Just three days after Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis passed a state law stifling public school discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity, a group of students, parents and educators filed objections to the legislation Thursday, citing violations to their due process, equal protection and First Amendment rights.
Led by the LGBTQ political advocacy group Equality Florida, the suit marks the first legal objection to the law, also known as House Bill 1557. The suit says the “Don’t Say Gay” law, called the “Parental Rights in Education” bill by Republicans, “is an unlawful attempt to stigmatize, silence, and erase LGBTQ people in Florida’s public schools.”
DeSantis is named as the suit’s first defendant, followed by the Florida Board of Education and other state education officials.
According to the law in question, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” Notably, Florida parents could sue school districts over violations.
Roberta Kaplan, founding partner of the plaintiffs’ representing firm Kaplan Hecker & Fink, said Thursday that this law violates the right of LGBTQ Americans to identify openly as LGBTQ, to marry and to form families with children.
“With the passage of HB 1557, Florida has not only taken a giant step backwards, but it has done so at the expense of our children, the most vulnerable members of society,” Kaplan said in a statement. “It is hard to imagine anything more offensive to our constitutional system than treating one group of school kids as second class based solely on who they are or who their parents are. This law cannot be allowed to stand.”
The suit asks that a federal judge block the law and requests punitive damages.
“Through H.B. 1557, Florida would deny to an entire generation that LGBTQ people exist and have equal dignity. This effort to control young minds through state censorship — and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality — is a grave abuse of power,” notes the 80-page complaint, which was filed in the Northern District of Florida federal court.
The suit brings up numerous questions it says the law failed to address, such as whether a student who is the child of two gay parents can talk about their family at school under the law, whether that student could paint a family portrait in art class or if gay, lesbian and transgender students would be able to talk about their own experiences.
The vague wording of the law, plaintiffs say, “fails to provide a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity and fair notice to understand what students can and cannot say and do while participating in ‘classroom instruction’ (a term that is itself vague)”, noting that such vagueness will lead to “arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.”
It also points out that teachers talking about the controversy of HB 1557 in a classroom would likely violate the law itself. Moreso, it says it could put teachers who allow students to read books by LGBTQ authors or relate their individual experiences about being LGBTQ at risk for lawsuits.
Governor DeSantis had previously championed the legislation as a way to make sure “that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination.”
“The bill I signed today protects Florida parents like January Littlejohn,” DeSantis tweeted Monday, alongside a video of a mother speaking at a press conference about how school officials had created a plan with her 13-year-old daughter without her permission to help the child transition.
“School officials manipulated her daughter to ‘transition,’ calling her a male name & pronouns without January’s knowledge or consent,” DeSantis’s tweet said. “This is wrong & today’s legislation will ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
Taryn Fenske, communications director for DeSantis, said Thursday that the lawsuit is a political Hail Mary to undermine parental rights in Florida.
“Unsurprisingly, many of the parties to this suit are advocacy groups with publicly stated political agendas,” Fenske said, maintaining that children should not be instructed about gender identity and sexual orientation by those other than their parents.
“This calculated, politically motivated, virtue-signaling lawsuit is meritless, and we will defend the legality of parents to protect their young children from sexual content in Florida public schools,” Fenske said.
The law has been criticized by Democrats like Chasten Buttigieg, the husband of U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and condemned by President Joe Biden, who called it “hateful.”
Follow @@lexandrajones
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
