On Thursday night's episode of All In, host Chris Hayes devoted the tail end of his show to fearmongering over the newly passed Parental Rights in Education law in Florida which bans the teaching of sexual identity or orientation to children in grades K-3. He was joined by senior writer at Slate Mark Joseph Stern to panic over how much success the Conservative movement has enjoyed by waging culture wars.
"I want to just read the language at issue in the Florida bill because there has been a lot of back and forth on it," Hayes started off this portion of the segment, claiming that the language in the bill "is incredibly vague." He then read from the allegedly controversial portion:
Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade three or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.
After reading that provision, Hayes went into meltdown mode over teachers not being allowed to sexualize five-year-olds in Florida claiming: "that’s a huge-huge-huge ban on like real basic stuff like Heather has two mommies, or like the gay penguins in Central Park children's book", further insisting it is "100 percent age-appropriate."
Stern replied in agreement that the law is "designed to chill a maximum amount of speech in the classroom" because parents would be allowed to sue teachers if the law is violated.
Whining: "what reasonable teacher would even have Heather Has Two Mommies on her shelf in third grade knowing that a parent could sue her for thousands of dollars, and she might be placed in a months-long investigation, having her reputation dragged through the mud, and ultimately be terminated even if she’s exonerated?"
Shifting the conversation toward the overall culture wars that conservatives are supposedly waging, Hayes bemoaned the fact that conservatives are starting to challenge same-sex marriage asking: "the tactical retreat on gay marriage and gay equality, the really vicious culture war on trans issues. Why do you think that tactical retreat is giving way now on things like a bread and butter marriage equality?"
Stern lashed out claiming that "Republicans have had extraordinary success attacking and vilifying trans people and eroding rights that seemed secure even a few years ago." After going off on a rant about how conservatives have started challenging transgender bathroom laws and preventing transgender children from joining sports teams, he admitted "[conservatives] are on this winning streak and they are a little bit drunk on their success."
Stern ended by demagoguing "what’s next? And what they [conservatives] settled on is this idea that LGBTQ families have to be erased from public schools. And that will certainly not be the end of this."
Nobody wants to "erase" LGBTQ people from public schools, this is a typical scare tactic that the left uses. They know they can't defend the teaching of sexual orientation to kindergarteners so they have to concoct straw man arguments.
This unhinged segment on MSNBC was made possible by Fidelity and Applebee's. Their information is linked.
To read the relevant transcript click "expand":
MSNBC’s All In
3/31/2022
8:46:33 p.m. EasternCHRIS HAYES: The right has declared war on Disney just since yesterday morning, Fox News mentioned the company more than 252 times. Their crusade is based on that new law signed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida prohibiting instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in early elementary school classrooms. Under the guise of protecting children from being sexualized, the law essentially bans the discussion of gay-ness. Obviously an enormously stigmatizing situation for the thousands and thousands of Florida children with LGBTQ family members. Opponents of the legislation have dubbed it, the don't say gay bill. They have pushed for Disney, which of course is a huge presence in Florida, to weigh in. On Monday as Governor DeSantis signed the bill, Disney released this strongly worded statement saying, the bill quote, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislator or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. Now that really sent everyone on the right side into the stratosphere. The most unhinged faction of the right, which as you heard on Fox News, is now vilifying Disney as some sort of like creepy, qanon adjacent nefarious group of sexual deviants. But all that obscures what I think is really going on here. We’re seeing, and it really gathered steam in the last month or so, a seismic change in our politics. The conservative movement restarting its war against gay people. A Republican congresswoman recently revealed that ugly truth. I will tell you what she said next.
[Cuts to commercial break]
(...)
HAYES: As President Joe Biden marks transgender day of visibility today the Republican Party has set its sights back on the LGBTQ community. A lot of the language the right has adopted around discussions of being gay, or gender identity is focused around what they are calling grooming. Now, that’s a term that's associated with abusers and molesters of children, who coerce their victims into the abuse. In Florida, before the don't say gay bill was signed into law, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s press secretary called it the anti-grooming bill.
Now, just again, what's she’s saying there is that the only reason to talk about sexual orientation or gender identity with children is because a person wants to molest them. She later clarified that it’s just her personal view, and not the Governor's. The suggestion here is that any discussion about the fact that people are gay or trans is an insidious attempt to sexualize or sexually groom young children. It’s not only false, it’s obviously offensive. But lately, the Republican Party seems emboldened to make all kinds of rank, old-school bigoted comments about gay, lesbian, trans people.
(...)
HAYES: I want to just read the language at issue in the Florida bill because there has been a lot of back and forth on it. Just so people can hear it. It is HB 1557, it is incredibly vague. Right? So, classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade three or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.
Now, I have a hard time parsing that, but like, it says classroom instruction on sexual orientation may not occur in Kindergarten through grade three. Like, that’s a huge-huge-huge ban on like real basic stuff like Heather has two mommies, or like the gay penguins in Central Park children's book, but like is 100 percent age-appropriate that talks about the fact that there are different kinds of relationships in the world.
MARK JOSEPH STERN: Right, and in grades, four through 12, any discussion of LGBTQ people have to be in accordance with state standards. And those standards do not exist. And Republicans have not indicated that they will draft them. And that leads to, I think the most important thing to understand about this bill, it is not enforced like a regular law, it is modeled after the Texas vigilante abortion bill. In that it allows parents to file lawsuits against school districts that allegedly violate its provisions.
They can collect money damages and attorney fees if they can prove in court that a teacher violated this law. So it is designed to chill a maximum amount of speech in the classroom. What reasonable teacher would even have Heather has two mommies on her shelf in third grade knowing that a parent could sue her for thousands of dollars, and she might be placed in a months-long investigation, having her reputation dragged through the mud, and ultimately be terminated even if she’s exonerated. So this is not a normal law. It is a gag order. And it is enforced in the most disturbing sort of vigilante narrative possible.
HAYES: And to go back to your point here, and this is a back to the future when Heather has two mommies, was a cultural fight of my youth, when I was 12 or 13 in New York City, right? this was like, oh my God. This was the example of the ridiculousness of the liberals. This bifurcation, the tactical retreat on gay marriage and gay equality, the really vicious culture war on trans issues. Why do you think that tactical retreat is giving way now on things like a bread and butter marriage equality?
STERN: I think Republicans have had extraordinary success attacking and vilifying trans people and eroding rights that seemed secure even a few years ago. As recently as 2016, it seemed pretty clear that the issue of trans school children using the right bathroom was settled. Many courts had agreed upon it. It didn’t look like Justice Kennedy wanted to deal with it. It seemed like okay, we can let trans kids pee safely at school. And now here we are, and we are seeing state after state pass these odious bans keeping kids out of bathrooms, keeping kids off sports teams if they are trans, and also prohibiting them from getting basic gender-affirming care. They are on this winning streak and they are a little bit drunk on their success. And trying to see where they can push next. What’s the next frontier? This culture war, you always have to be feeding the fire. I think they are looking around at these gay issues, and they’re saying, we left some stuff on the table there. You know these arguments for religious liberty exemptions for non-discrimination laws, those are gaining steam in federal courts. What’s next? And what they settled on is this idea that LGBTQ families have to be erased from public schools. And that will certainly not be the end of this.
