(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . DeSantis expands "Don't say gay" to all grades [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-19 DeSantis has bungled his non-campaign for president as spectacularly as any man can. Fading in the polls , abandoned by the plutocrats , and losing support from his home team , you have to wonder why he has not pulled the plug and announced he was “just kidding.” If New York is a town where if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, Florida is a state where if you can make it there, nobody cares. And Florida is the only place that has given Ron the time of day. Two days ago, Thomas Peterffy, a billionaire Republican donor, summed up the prevailing sentiment among the GOP’s paymasters that DeSantis was done — mainly because of his authoritarian and heartless social policies. Specifically, Petterffy said, “I have put myself on hold. Because of his [DeSantis’s] stance on abortion and book banning … myself, and a bunch of friends, are holding our powder dry.” DeSantis, being the arrogant, “I know best”, limited thinker he is, brushed off that flashing warning and shot himself in the foot — again. He strong-armed Florida’s education authority into expanding his “don’t say gay” bigotry from elementary school to all grades in the state’s public schools. The AP reports: The [Florida] Board of Education approved a ban on classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades, expanding the law that bans those lessons up to grade 3 at the request of DeSantis as he gears up for an expected presidential run. The rule change would ban lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity from grades 4-12 unless required by existing state standards or as part of reproductive health instruction that students can choose not to take. That’s the time when students are becoming aware of their sexuality. In the past, squeamish parents forced their kids to get sex-ed from the playground rumor mill. Today, equally ignorant kids will have their curiosity satisfied by the misinformation they find online. More importantly, LGBTQ+ youth will suffer the mental anguish of bigotry through ignorance while they lack the adult support and guidance to navigate their perilous journey to adulthood. DeSantis is an exponent of callous sadism and a practitioner of cynical politics. He has few equals in inflicting pain on the young. But his reputation for political acumen — celebrated after his smashing victory in his 2022 reelection — has evaporated in the heat of the national spotlight. DeSantis is book-learned — he double Ivied, with a BA from Yale and a law degree from Harvard — but he is either politically tin-eared or too committed to hurting people to quit. Ron’s enablers in the Florida legislature are giving him more rope. Today they also passed a bill to make it a felony to provide gender-affirming health care to transgender minors. As always, there was a sanctimonious git ready to drag God into the carnage. Republican Rep. Chase Tramont explained. “In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. Folks this is rock solid, irreversible, validated by science and our medical community. Period. You are either male or female. This is not subject to one’s opinion. It is demonstrable fact.” Unlike Tramont, I am not on speaking terms with God, so I cannot offer an opinion on His intentions. Although I think God would appreciate that if you keep one of the rules in his book, you observe all of them. Chase does not. He breaks the commandment “thou shalt not bear false witness.” His assertion that “science and our medical community” has validated this divine state of existence is bullshit. The American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics all recognize gender dysphoria as a condition that needs care. It is also not always apparent anatomically or even genetically what sex a newborn is. The Legislature did not stop with medical interference, it also passed a bill banning kids from drag shows. And a bill that bans people from entering bathrooms other than the one of their sex assigned at birth. There is always some clown who can get away with saying outrageous things. Don Rickles — a decent human being — made a career out of it. And Trump — an indecent man — has made it his shtick. But most people acting as hatefully as DeSantis does will lose a lot of friends — as Ron has discovered. 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