HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. – With a Tampa Christian school as a backdrop, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a raft of education and health bills Wednesday, including several bills considered to be anti-transgender.
DeSantis was joined by Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. and Jason Weida, secretary at Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration.
“We never did this through all of human history until like, what, two weeks ago? Now this is something? They’re having third graders declare pronouns? We’re not doing the pronoun Olympics in Florida,” DeSantis said to applause.
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Most of the bills represented a large chunk of DeSantis’ legislative priorities, supported by a supermajority of Republicans in the Florida Legislature.
With a sign on his podium that said “Let Kids Be Kids,” DeSantis signed the following bills:
HB 1069: A bill that expands the Parental Rights in Education law to ban classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity from Pre-K through eighth grade, and bans the use of preferred pronouns in schools.
HB 1521: A bill that requires people to use public restrooms based on their sex at birth.
SB 254: A bill that outlaws sexual reassignment surgery or puberty blockers for minors, and allows the state to take custody of a child undergoing sexual-reassignment treatments under certain circumstances.
SB 1438: A bill banning children from attending a live performance considered to be “adult” in nature, including drag shows. It allows state agencies to fine or revoke the license of venues that host adult entertainment and allow children in the audience.
He also signed HB 225, which gives the governor the power to remake the board of the Florida High School Athletics Association, an independent association that governs high school sports in the state, and expands the ability of home education, charter school and virtual school students to compete in interscholastic athletics.
It also allows school teams to pray before high school games.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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