A gay doctor who is one of Louisiana’s only specialist paediatric cardiologists has left the state after the introduction of a Don’t Say Gay copycat bill and a ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth.
Jake Kleinmahon, who was one of just three doctors specialising in heart transplants for children in Louisiana, chose to leave the state with his family, as they no longer felt safe.
Kleinmahon met and fell in love with his husband Tom in New Orleans, and the couple expected remain in Louisiana, even after retirement. However, he told CNN that the state’s anti-LGBTQ+ legislation made him and his family feel unwelcome and that he ultimately “didn’t have a choice”.
The article doesn’t do a good job explaining the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The bill prohibits teachers from teaching about sexual orientation before 4th grade.
Here is an article about that:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/florida-don-t-say-gay-bill-desantis-1.6400087
Close, it’s you can’t even say gay people or kids exist
No, what it actually says is: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1557/BillText/er/PDF
To quote from the bill:
As far as I can tell, the term “classroom instruction” in Florida law means a course designed to be presented to a group of students by a live instructor using lecture, video, webcast, or virtual or other audio-video presentation. There isn’t a separate definition given in the “Don’t Say Gay” law, and at a glance I couldn’t find another definition used in Florida other than the one I just gave, though there might be elsewhere in Florida law, since precise definitions are often central to what exactly is permitted.
This part, even with the “in accordance with state standards,” is a big problem. This section doesn’t restrict it to kindergarten through 3rd if no manner at all is considered age appropriate.
I also suspect “state standards” can be updated without legislature or without approval from parents.
I didn’t say it was good, but it doesn’t say you can’t admit gay people exist. I figured linking the actual law we’re talking about is probably more useful than running off either sides exaggerations of it.
A teacher got fired under the bill for telling her class she had a wife. She would not have been fired if she told them she had a husband. What’s your response to that?
Can you point me at the case? Because the closest I’ve been able to find was a Texas teacher fired after referring to a woman as her future wife, and then winning a discrimination suit for $100,000 in damages. Which seems like the system working - bigot did stupid bigot thing, got sued, damages paid out. Also not in Florida, and thus obviously not fired under a Florida law.
There was also a pansexual Florida teacher (she was married to a man) who had students create flags reflecting their sexualities and hung them up in class who was fired, but it’s a lot easier to argue that that is “classroom instruction” in an art class and it wasn’t merely telling her class she had a wife (not least of which because she doesn’t).
And also a married lesbian teacher who resigned because she felt the law would be too restrictive, but she wasn’t fired or even challenged by the district or parents regarding her status according to the articles I’ve read.
My Google-fu may simply be too weak to find the right case.
Yeah but then how we would take things out of context then? Mindless fabrication of information? Lying? Bollocks I say!
Where did you read that?
I have two words you need to take time to parse: “Chilling Effect.” EDIT: It appears you think the bill is bigoted, based on comments elsewhere. You directing people to the language of the bill like the text speaks for itself is usually something that proponents of the legislation do, hence my confusion as to your rhetorical point.
Wasn’t the bill extended to all grades?
That’s might have been in Florida, not Louisiana, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this happens.
Just like the anti-gender affirming treatment bills that were supposedly only for minors because “we’ve got to stop kids from making decisions they’ll regret.” Later, of course, some right wing areas extended those bans to adults, dropping the “protect the children” mask that we were all able to see past anyway.
I never read about that extension, so I’d need a source.