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4 March 2022

Florida students stage mass walkouts over ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill

Jack Petocz, the student who organised the statewide protests, has been suspended.

By Alastair James

Words: Alastair James; picture: Twitter, Tampa Bay Times

Students in Florida have staged mass walkouts in protest of the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill which is currently making its way through the state’s legislature.

The bill – officially called the Parents Education Rights bill – would ban the discussion of sexual identity or gender identity in some school settings that proponents of the legislation say is not “age-appropriate”.

Those who have put the bill forward argue that it’s about giving parents a greater say over what their children learn about. 

In footage captured and shared online by Equality Florida, a group fighting for LGBTQ equality, students in Tallahassee can be seen walking out of schools across the state chanting slogans such as “We say gay!”

In another video, the openly gay state representative, Carlos Smith, thanked students for standing up for the LGBTQ community and told them defiantly “I am gay, gay, gay!” to mass cheers.

Other footage showed similar protests at schools across the state.

Jack Petocz, a high school senior at Flagler Palm Coast High School in Palm Coast, who organized the statewide protests, told NBC News: “The language and the supporters of the bill and the rhetoric around the bill really shows what this bill is, and it’s an attempt to hurt queer people like me.”

NBC also reports that Jack, who is gay, has since been suspended “indefinitely” after being called into his principal’s office. Supposedly, his principal had avised him not to give out 200 rainbow flags, which he did.

“I believe this attempt to threaten me and remove me from campus is riddled with homophobia and bigotry. You’re silencing a queer student standing up for what he believes in, in his rights, and you’re disciplining him for challenging you on the allowance of pride flags in a gay rally? It’s ridiculous. It truly is.”

The bill passed through Florida’s House of Representatives last week and is now headed for the Senate to vote on, where sadly, it is expected to pass.

Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, who is thought to be a 2024 presidential candidate in the making, has supported the bill and expected to sign it into law. 

Previously, a horrifying amendment was added before being removed that could have forced schools to ‘out’ LGBTQ pupils within six weeks of knowing a pupil was LGBTQ.

Attitude’s new-look March/April issue is out now.

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