Parents Ask Federal Judge to Block Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” Law

For several months, we shared a number of updates regarding Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law (what critics called the “Don’t Say Gay” bill).

From Disney’s initial response to Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s apology for how the Company handled the situation and the response from House Republicans to Disney’s stance on the bill — we’ve covered all the news so you can know the latest information. Now, we’ve got another update on what is happening with this particular law.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, lawyers for a group of students, parents, and a non-profit organization are now asking a federal judge to stop school districts from carrying out the “Don’t Say Gay” Law.

In case you’re unfamiliar with it, the law addresses when and how teachers and staff at schools can give instruction on gender and sexual orientation. The legislation prevents any instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from kindergarten to 3rd grade. It also does not allow any instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in older grades to be done “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

The lawyers have filed a preliminary injunction in the lawsuit at hand surrounding the enforcement of the law. The lawsuit was originally launched back in July and it is against the school boards of Orange County (where much of Disney World is located), Indian River County, Duval County, and Palm Beach County.

The lawsuit alleges that the law was “enacted with the purpose to discriminate and has the effect of discriminating against LGBTQ+ students and those with LGBTQ+ family members.” The lawsuit claims that there are violations of speech, equal protection, and due process rights in relation to this law.

In the motion for preliminary injunction, they argued that the law “by design, deters speech by and about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning people in schools…To achieve this end, the law employs undefined terms that restrict an absurdly broad scope of speech and activity, casting a broad chilling effect and leaving school officials to draw arbitrary and discriminatory lines in their attempts to implement the law.”

This lawsuit was filed in a federal court in Orlando and is pending before U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger.

But that’s not the only lawsuit that has been filed in relation to the law. Opponents of the law have also challenged its constitutionality through a federal lawsuit filed in Tallahassee. That lawsuit, which is pending, was filed against the “State Board of Education, the Florida Department of Education, Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. and several school boards.”

In response to the lawsuit filed in Tallahassee, the lawyers for the State of Florida have disputed the allegations and indicated that “The bill reflects no governmental preference about what students should learn about sexual orientation and gender identity…Those subjects must be taught appropriately and, for the youngest children, they may be taught by parents, not in public-school classroom settings. That is a legitimate (state) interest.”

In Disney’s statement about the bill made back in March of 2022, Disney said that the bill “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law,” and that their goal as a company would be “for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts.”

Since that time, we’ve seen the Florida Governor share his feelings on Disney’s response (saying that Disney “crossed the line”). We’ve also seen Florida’s legislators and governor repeal Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District, with some indicating that it was done in response to Disney’s “ideology.”

What will happen next with the Reedy Creek Improvement District, the Don’t Say Gay Bill, and other matters in which Disney and some legislators have not seen eye-to-eye remains to be seen. We’ll be keeping a close eye out for updates.

In the meantime, you can click here to learn about what happened when Hulu reportedly blocked political ads on some topics, or click here to learn about what one U.S. Senator had to say about Disney’s “special copyright protections.” Stay tuned for more Disney news.

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