With all the bad things going on in the world right now, it’s heartening to see a piece of good news, particularly when it means that children will have a better educational experience and parents will have more control over what the school is teaching. I refer to the passage of HB1557, a bill in Florida that was introduced for the dual purpose of keeping parents informed about what’s happening in the classroom and ensuring that topics related to gender and sexuality are taught at an appropriate age.

Briefly, the bill designates children in kindergarten through third grade as being too young for gender or sexual orientation studies, recognizing that such studies at that age are simply not appropriate. The bill also allows parents access to their child’s education and health records and obligates schools to notify parents about changes in their child’s services.

Currently, there are thirteen school districts in Florida with educational programs that urge teachers not to engage with parents over questions about sexual orientation or gender identification. Children who bring up such questions may have those questions answered by school staff without their parents even knowing the topic has been raised. HB1557 would change that.

Image: Young children by rawpixel. Freepik license.

The gay and transgender communities are bitterly opposed to the notion that very young children should not be taught about sex, nor do these communities want parents in the loop about what schools are teaching when the topics are homosexuality and/or transgenderism. HB1557 was quickly dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Activist groups, as well as the media, have accused the sponsor of the bill, Florida state representative Joe Harding, of trying to erase LGBTQ children from the classrooms. President Biden has gone on the record to call HB1557 a hateful bill. Despite the histrionics, the bill passed the house with a vote of 69-47. Governor DeSantis has shown support for the bill and, once it passes in the Senate, is expected to sign it.

HB1557, rather than being an attempt to erase gay people from society, is a step in the direction of getting society back on a healthy footing, one in which very young children are not indoctrinated into sexual behaviors that they do not understand. Kids deserve to have a childhood unpolluted by the agendas of adults who are more interested in furthering their own special interests than the well-being of children. Parents deserve a school that is a safe space for their children, secure in the knowledge that they are not being kept in the dark about what goes on in the classroom.

Pandra Selivanov is the author of Future Slave, a story about a 21st century black teenager who goes back in time and becomes a slave in the old south.