How new anti-LGBTQ laws echo an infamous conservative activist’s campaign from 1977

The bill dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by its critics, and signed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis, is reminiscent of the opposition to LGBTQ rights seen in the 1970s. Reality Check’s John Avlon speaks with activist and Oscar-winning screenwriter of Milk, Dustin Lance Black, about how the law could hurt some of the kids it says it wants to help.

59 comments

  1. As someone who is gen z it is quite disturbing seeing a society that is indoctrinating people my age and I’m afraid what the future has to bring.

    1. @Mad Max tell me you failed grade 6 math without telling me you failed grade six math.

      Pro tip: never try to bake a cake. You’ll guck up the ratios and add 11 cups of water and 1 egg

    2. @Robert Campomizzi
      So you don’t explain where I was wrong and then start talking about cakes or something?

      Cry more groomer.

    1. Hey, at least it’s a holiday weekend. Try to enjoy a burger and stay cool…or honey if you prefer

    2. I feel like that’s something the real Winnie the Pooh would say. Then, he’d take a nap in his favorite chair

  2. When I was a kid in the ’70s, only when my teachers got married and changed their names was that even an issue. Women used the title Mrs. so we knew they were married but it was never mentioned. My 3rd-grade teacher caused a stir by going by MS. It was 1974 and Women’s Lib was all the rage. I remember my mother explaining that you can’t tell if men are married because they’re always MR. That made sense to me. But back in the day, unmarried women didn’t necessarily want to advertise that fact. That is how it should be. A teacher’s private life should be kept private–even for heteros!

    1. @#SuperOldGameSaturday where? Where’s the groomer? I have a matted dog that needs a good shaving.

    2. @Clay Music OFF The point is that traditionally we never knew the spouses of our teachers. I remember flirting with the soon-to-be husband of my 2nd-grade teacher. He was cute! 🤣 But had they already been married, I doubt I would have known he existed.

  3. its a simple argument now the republican groomers dont want kids to even know there being molested or why else would they not want to teach young kids about such things ……because if the kids dont know better they will not tell mom and dad what other republican groomers or people like them are touching them

    1. Exactly. If they don’t explain it, they’ll never know. And that is exactly how REAL pedophiles ( the majority of which statistically DO pose as hetero sexual and are married + or have kids of their own ) I tell my kids everything so they know what they are getting into with ANY and all adults. They need to know the basics in order to protect themselves.

    1. Your entire rebuttal boils down to “no you”, but they’re discussing something that was actively done by ‘your side’, so your contention, which you provide no support for, is clearly a fallacy in context. The underlying assumptions implicit in your position, venemous as they are have not been substantiated.

  4. I remember my mom having to get permission for contraceptive because her ONGYN recommended after 5 c-section it would be a risk to her of she got pregnant . I remember when I was younger homosexual or lesbians kicked to the streets by their parents and the people with AIDS they would start a gossip if you were heterosexual they would start saying the person had same sex intercourse. It looks we are going back centuries or backwards.

    1. @Ivan Villamil I saw some are going back to laws from the 1800’s that are still on the books.

    2. @Stacy Carlton Laws classifying consensual adult homosexual intercourse as illegal sodomy were struck down nationwide on June 26, 2003. But these laws outlawing consensual adult homosexual intercourse were in effect during the _entire period of time_ since the establishment of the state. It is this entire period of time that the OP is referring to.

  5. Teachers have no reason to discuss their private lives with their students. And if some teacher passes on an opportunity to talk about his husband with his 6 year old students – well, parents can live with that.

  6. intelligent and inspiring young man; gives me hope as the mom of someone who hasn’t figured anything out yet. he shouldn’t be forced to live a lie of conformity, he should be comfortable with whomever he chooses to love, with mutual respect and value for each other.❤

    1. Correct me if I’m wrong,but isn’t he past the 3rd grade? Kids should not be taught about gender ideantity so young by teachers so biased.

    2. Academy Award-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black is 48 years old. He is married to Olympic gold medalist diver Tom Daley, OBE since 2017. They have a four-year-old son.

  7. I have always wondered why those ‘claiming to be the most religious’ would say that what god created, and here I mean a child, is a mistake. It has been shown to me throughout my lifetime, that there are many types of people born with all different types of preferences. And this fact shows they are wrong. Why is this desperate lie so important to the ‘church’? Money, money, money, power, and control.

    1. Not sure what religion has to do with this. Don’t think us atheists believe any of this trans bologna any more or less than the Bible thumpers.

    2. @Ryan Elliott Because it is the religious Right of our 2-part government system that are targeting our freedoms now in this Country. A friend that I have known since kindergarten confided in me the lifelong torment of being trapped in a body that didn’t match up with what the brain knew was correct. Years of being bullied for being different sure did not help. If you do not ‘believe’ it, oh well. Someone else being different does not make them wrong. We are ALL different.

    3. @Julie Miller – and what ‘freedoms’ do you think that the ‘religious right’ and / or conservatives want to take away from you? _This_ ought to be good! 🍿🍿🍿

  8. 6:30 ive met gay people. I eaten dinner with some. I dont hate them. Still think its wrong to be gay. Now i just feel sorry for them

    1. Heck, I’ve have dinner with quite a few people that I think are wrong to be straight, considering their contribution to to gene pool.

    2. i had dinner with a couple back when they just wanted to get married…now you have to use pronouns and trans women want to compete in cis women sports.. never again

  9. This was back around the time when Joe Biden said “I don’t want my children growing up in a racial jungle” when speaking about desegregation.

  10. What don’t u get?
    Be whoever u want to be.
    But u can’t make your own rules or infringe on other people’s rights. Like in women sports. Well done DeSantis. 👏

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