Florida's first openly gay state senator on 'Don't Say Gay' passing: 'the air was taken out of...

In impassioned and tearful testimony this week, Florida state Sen. Shevrin Jones pleaded with his colleagues to vote against the state legislature’s controversial Parental Rights in Education bill, known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

Like other LGBTQ+ advocates, Jones, who is the state Senate’s first openly gay member, argued that the bill, which prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity that is not “age appropriate or developmentally appropriate” for children, would likely force LGBTQ+ students further into the closet and stigmatize the experiences of people who are not heterosexual or cisgender.

“I don’t think y’all understand how much courage it takes for these children to show up everyday,” he said, referring to the swaths of school-aged children who had gathered at the state capitol that day to protest the bill. Thousands more were staging similar demonstrations at schools across the state.

The bill passed Tuesday by a 22-17 vote after hours of grueling debate. Now, it heads to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, where it is expected to be signed into law.