If you think it’s a good idea to teach elementary school kids younger than 8 the concept of “gender fluidity,” you won’t like today’s column. Yes, I’m writing about Florida’s highly controversial “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, which Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law earlier this month. It’s a touchy subject, so let’s get started.
Here’s how the conservative New York Post framed the issue: “While ‘Don’t Say Gay,’ officially titled the Parental Rights in Education Bill, has been denounced by opponents as hateful, supporters have argued that the legislation seeks to strengthen the rights of parents and shield children from classroom ‘indoctrination.’” When he signed the bill, DeSantis, a probable 2024 GOP presidential candidate, said he had seen inappropriate “classroom materials about sexuality and woke gender ideology” in Florida elementary schools and wanted parents to have a voice in “decisions regarding their child’s well-being.” Fair enough?
But when a small group of Disney Co., employees protested the new law, Disney CEO Bob Chapek jumped into the fray by saying the company’s goal “is for this law to be repealed by the Legislature or struck down in the courts… We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family.” At this point let’s remember that we’re talking about a tiny but very vocal minority, less than 3 percent of the total U.S. population. Transgender people represent less than 1 percent of the total population.
A semi-serious question is whether we’re going to be discussing the gender identities of Mickey and Minnie Mouse with 5-year-olds. Writing for all the little kids who love Mickey and Minnie, as mine did back in the day, I sure hope not.
Wall Street Journal columnist Gerard Baker, the paper’s former editor-in-chief, answered my semi-serious question by writing that the Disney Company “needs to make urgent reparations for the pollution they have poured into the impressionable minds of young children over the first disgraceful century of the company’s existence.” He went on to recommend “establishing a large team of young managers, recent graduates in critical race theory from our most selective universities… to eliminate every noxious hint of gender rigidity from the company’s output” from Mickey to the “Lion King,” clear examples of toxic masculinity.
What a great idea. It makes me want to rush right over to our politically correct State Department – which is more concerned about diversity and inclusion than it is about Russia’s bloody war on Ukraine – and sign up for its new course on “Mitigating Unconscious Bias,” a white supremacy course being offered by State’s African-American Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, Ambassador Gina Abercrombie-Winstanley. I can hardly wait. And then I’ll take the course on gender fluidity to learn how I can choose my gender despite the reproductive equipment I was born with. I think I’ll mark “X” in the gender box on my new passport.
The gender identity issue is a political minefield as LGBTQIA25+ people claim there is basically no difference between males and females, which leads to public spectacles where biological males compete in female sports. A current example is 6-foot, 4-inch Lia Thomas, a biological male who competes against women for the University of Pennsylvania. He/she/they won the 500-meter freestyle race by half a pool length last month in the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming championship.
Southern Utah University distance runner Haley Tanne asked the right question on Fox News: “Who will stand up for me and other women being beaten by biological males like Lia Thomas?” And the answer is, no one knows. How sad.
Guy W. Farmer is the Appeal’s senior political columnist.
