The state of Florida, with its legislature controlled by Republican fascists, and with rabid reactionary Ron DeSantis at the helm as governor, is unleashing a fascist assault on the rights of LGBTQ students and youths. On Tuesday, March 8, the GOP-controlled Florida State Senate passed HB1557, a bill which has become known popularly as the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill, which prohibits ANY teaching about gender identity and sexual orientation through grade 3, AND limits teaching or discussion at all grade levels, in the words of the bill itself, to that which these fascist legislatures and parents deem “age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students"¹

Yes. The language really is that vague. And intentionally so. The aim is nothing less than to intimidate students and teachers into silence, and force LGBTQ people as a whole, but especially youth, back into the closet. And taken together with the attacks on teaching the truth about the history of slavery, systemic racism, and the oppression of Black people in America, this bill and others like it being drafted in fascist-controlled states are part of rearing a whole generation of unthinking white supremacist, male supremacist, homophobic Hitler Youth to inherit and govern a Fascist America.

Chillingly, the bill also requires forced outing—revealing a student’s sexual orientation to their family without the student’s knowledge or consent—should a student reveal they are LGBTQ to school staff. For many of these youths, school counselors are often their only source of mental health services. Forced outing can lead to deadly consequences, from violent or otherwise abusive reactions from backward or fascist family, to the prospect of being sent to conversion therapy or camps where gay youths are often tortured, and many die from suicide as a result.

These Republican fascists cloak their anti-gay program in supposed “concern for children”—and some proponents of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, including Governor DeSantis’ press secretary, have tried to paint all opponents of the bill as “groomers”—adults who “groom” or “prepare” children to be sexually exploited.²

LGBTQ rights group Equality Florida wrote in a statement that “Governor DeSantis’ spokesperson said the quiet part out loud: that this bill is grounded in a belief that LGBTQ people, simply by existing, are a threat to children and must be erased…”

The reality is that it is the anti-LGBTQ Christian fascist crusaders who are the danger to children, and to society. They seek to impose a regime in which any discussion or acknowledgement of the reality of homosexuality and gender identities outside of the prescribed patriarchal “norms” is shrouded in shame and secrecy—a “closet” enforced by an increasingly open theocratic state power. Even short of the most extreme effects, the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, and others like it, would prevent students from learning about the very real history and ongoing experience of the oppression of LGBTQ people, including events like the horrific massacre at the PULSE nightclub in Florida in 2016.³ It would muzzle students who have family members or parents who are part of the LGBTQ community from even talking about them without fear of censorship.

Activists are not being hyperbolic when they say that this will kill gay and transgender kids.

Imagine being a youth today in Florida, or anywhere in the U.S. for that matter, who is trying to figure out their sexuality or gender expression. Already you’ve grown up in a patriarchal society where everyone and every institution, including your peers, to varying degrees, slots you and others just like you into strict gender roles. In intimate relations and in general, boys and young men are socialized and trained to be “dominators” and girls and young women to like being “dominated” or “owned”... males to be masculine, and females to be feminine, without little to no room for anything different, or outside of that binary… and now the state appears poised to close down any discussion of anything subversive of this whole oppressive setup. When those who have the most power over you and your life insist that a key part of who you are is wrong, deviant, sinful, what do you do?

Although some space has been carved out, through ferocious struggle, in the last few decades, for the assertion of gay rights and identity, the fact remains that these gains have been partial, and are at very real risk of being taken away with the imposition of a fascist form of rule in this country. Things can be slammed back, and violently so. The current fight over the right to abortion is demonstrating that dramatically. And like ripping away abortion rights from women, decimating the rights of LGBTQ people is a battering ram for the fascist movement.

Students Stand Up, Walk Out in Defiant Protest

Response from many students across Florida has been a resounding “fuck you” to the Christian fascists, with thousands of students across the state walking out of school in protest, carrying signs and Pride flags, chanting “we say gay!”

Hundreds of students walked out of a single high school in Orange County, Florida, on Monday, March 7.⁴ Jack Petocz, one of the student organizers of the statewide walkouts, was “indefinitely” suspended from his school in Palm Coast, ostensibly for distributing Pride flags during the demonstration. Petocz, a gay high school student, said that in addition to the suspension being an act of homophobia, that he believes that “they were upset that I was organizing this to begin with, and they just used this as a crutch to go ahead and remove me from campus.”⁵

Much more resistance of this kind is needed. And it’s very promising that students and youths themselves are taking charge of organizing and leading this resistance. All decent people in this country should take heart at this, and take their lead. NOW is the time to raise unholy hell, and not give the fascists an inch of space from which to launch their assaults, and to come together to defend people—students, teachers, school officials, and others—who come under attack from the fascists for standing up against this assault. In these highly charged times when revolution is possible, this is an important aspect of fighting the power, and transforming the people, for revolution.

The more that we do this, and organize the advanced in this struggle to raise the radical pole of the new communist revolution to break ALL of tradition’s chains, the more that this resistance can build towards something truly emancipating.