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Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. urged on Thursday the state’s superintendents, school boards and school owners to disregard federal woke guidelines on teaching gender identity and sexual orientation in the classroom.
In a letter to school administrators, Republican Diaz warns that implementing the federal guidelines would be detrimental.
On July 1, a law passed by the state Congress and signed into law by the governor, also a Republican, Ron DeSantis, went into effect in Florida, which states that a school district cannot encourage classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity.
The White House came out against this law and misleadingly labeled the legislation as “Don’t Say gay,” when the official name was “Parental Rights,” which prohibits discussion of sexual orientation in the state’s elementary classrooms.
Diaz said Thursday on Twitter that President Joe Biden and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services Nikki Fried are trying to hold vulnerable students hostage to “radical gender” ideology.
The Education Commissioner added that Florida schools are not required to follow this federal guidance.
The letter from the Miami-Dade County, Southeast Florida politician is part of Governor DeSantis’ efforts to veto “woke gender ideology” in the classroom.
In addition, DeSantis signed into law 2021 a bill banning transgender athletes from competing on women’s collegiate and women’s high school sports teams.
