Rules amended for teachers when talk turns to identity roles

ORLANDO, FLA. — Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual ori- entation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, pro- vided it’s not part of instruc- tion, under a settlement reached Monday between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged a state law which critics dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”

The settlement clarifies what is allowed in Florida classrooms following pas- sage two years ago of the law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Opponents said the law had created confu- sion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ+ or if they even could have rainbow stick- ers in classrooms.

Other states used the Flor- ida law as a template to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender iden- tity or sexual orientation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indi- ana, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina are among the states with versions of the law.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instruc- tions to every school dis- trict saying the Florida law doesn’t prohibit discussing LGBTQ+ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orienta- tion and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alli- ance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral — meaning what applies to LGBTQ+ people also applies to heterosexual people — and that it doesn’t apply to library books not being used for instruction in the classroom.

The law also doesn’t apply to books with incidental ref- erences to LGBTQ+ charac- ters or same-sex couples, “as they are not instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity any more than a math problem ask- ing students to add bush- els of apples is instruction on apple farming,” accord- ing to the settlement.

“What this settlement does is, it re-establishes the fun- damental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. “This shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”

In a statement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s office described the deal as a “major win” with the law formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act remaining intact.

“We fought hard to ensure this law couldn’t be maligned in court, as it was in the public arena by the media and large corporate actors,” said Ryan Newman, an attorney for the state of Florida. “We are victorious, and Florida’s classrooms will remain a safe place under the Parental Rights in Education Act.”

The law has been championed by the Republican governor since before its passage in 2022 by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature. It barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.

Republican lawmakers had argued that parents should broach these subjects with children and that the law protected children from being taught about inappropriate material.