FL Enacts Slate of Hate as ‘God-Appointed’ Board Member Freaks Over Disney Film

5th-grade teacher resigns after showing students a Disney movie a board member described as “sexualizing,” claiming God appointed her to the board to keep minorities from “infiltrating.”

[Florida Governor Ron] DeSantis has just signed into law the largest slate of anti-LGBTQ bills in one legislative session in the state’s history. This is an all out attack on freedom. Free states don’t strip parents of the right to make healthcare decisions for their children. Free states don’t ban books, censor curriculum, or muzzle free speech. DeSantis doesn’t see freedom as a value worth defending.

— Joe Saunders, Senior Political Director of Equality Florida, from a statement yesterday

What’s it like to live in a theocracy run by extremist Christians with delusions of divinity? If you’d like to find out, try moving to Florida. Or just ask fifth-grade teacher Jenna Barbee. She recently played a Disney movie for students while their classmates finished up some standardized testing.

The kids were doing a unit on Earth sciences and ecosystems, so Barbee played the 2022 animated film “Strange World,” which addresses those topics.

Barbee had signed permission slips from all parents agreeing that she could show PG films. She had asked parents to specify any films they didn’t want her to show. None specified “Strange World.”

The day after the screening, parent Shannon Rodriguez called Barbee, outraged, complaining the teacher had “ripped away my 10 year old’s innocence.”

Barbee apologized, saying she didn’t want to make any child uncomfortable, but explained she never expected a Disney film would be an issue.

She didn’t understand what the problem was.

The parent became increasingly angry. She told Barbee she was calling state officials to report her for grooming and child abuse. Barbee soon received a letter saying she was under investigation. The State Department of Education later informed all parents with kids in Barbee’s classes that investigators would be arriving in school to interview their children in a matter that could rise to the level of a criminal inquiry.

Barbee says several of her (now former) students are confused and frightened.

The problem? The film’s lead is a teenage boy who has a crush on another boy. You’d miss that subplot if you blinked, but it’s there. Sexual content? None. Zilch. Not so much as a kiss or even hand holding. Don’t believe me? Check out this two and half minute YouTube clip of every scene in which the subject comes up. Prepare to be bored.

If you’ve never heard of the film, it’s because it flopped. Disney barely promoted it, and at least one reviewer suggests it’s because the film really is boring and Disney executives knew it. They didn’t want to throw good money after bad.

That parent who complained?

She’s also an elected Hernando County School Board member who asserted during a recent board meeting that God appointed her to “keep these minorities from infiltrating.” At the same meeting, she accused Barbee of “indoctrinating students.”

Video footage shows her losing her temper and becoming distraught — practically unhinged — over the idea of students seeing a fictional gay teen in a children’s film. One wonders (but not too much) how she treats real gay people — what she teaches her children about respecting neighbors who are different.

After the meeting, she repeated to reporters her claim that God appointed her to the board. She continued to insist it’s her job to protect children from minorities.

Barbee tendered her resignation — which the board accepted at the same meeting, unanimously and without comment — even though parent after parent had stood up to defend Barbee as a great teacher.

She bowed out of Florida’s teacher cadre with this comment:

I was never trying to indoctrinate my students by showing them something that has differences and diversity. I was showing them a movie that related to our curriculum and our earth, and that taught valuable life lessons that relate to our Florida Best standards.

A school board member, an elected official of power, who was supposed to be nonpartisan, is allowed to present to the public that she is Christian and that God appointed her to the board. And yet it is indoctrination that I showed a Disney movie?

Barbee’s departure is not an anomaly. It’s a not a bug in the system. It’s exactly what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and his extremist Christian supporters want.

Governor DeSantis just signed a “Slate of Hate” that empowers religious extremists like Rodriguez

The “Slate of Hate” that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed yesterday is designed to keep transgender, gay, and other LGBTQ people classified as despised minorities — not fit to mention in school, not deserving of the freedom to make their own parenting decisions or choose doctor-approved health care for themselves or their children.

According to Equality Florida, DeSantis signed these four anti-LGBTQ bills into law yesterday —

• House Bill 1069 expands the Don’t Say Gay law to all grade levels. When the original K-3 version of the bill passed last year, supporters claimed they were only trying to stop teachers from having detailed sexual discussions with very young children. Their masks are now off. This bill formalizes a Department of Education ruling from last month that prohibits mentioning trans or gay people in any school setting, for almost any reason. Trans and gay teachers will have to walk a tightrope if they don’t want to lose their jobs over mentioning spouses or letting slip that they are not cisgender or straight. Yes, the ACLU is already planning 1st Amendment lawsuits that they will probably win. But the legal struggle is going to be ugly and dehumanizing. Kids are going to learn that queer folks are scandalous and shameful — just like fearful kids in Barbee’s class are learning right now as they wait to be interrogated over a Disney film.
• Senate Bill 254, the Gender Affirming Care Ban, criminalizes doctors who prescribe puberty blockers or hormone therapy to trans minors. It restricts access to gender-affirming therapy for trans adults in many circumstances. The bill authorizes Florida courts to remove children from parents who facilitate out-of-state gender-affirming care for their children. It instructs courts to remove children from out-of-state parents if their children travel to Florida while receiving gender-affirming care. One advocate I spoke to yesterday after an Equality Florida press conference calls SB254 the, “Don’t even come near Florida if you have trans kids” bill.
• House Bill 1521, the Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill, restricts access to all public lavatory and changing facilities by the gender that people were born with. Transgender people who go out in public will have to choose between breaking the law or facing harassment/violence over using restrooms they obviously don’t belong in. Don’t know what I mean? How would YOU react if a burly trans man with a beard walked into the ladies room? How about a lovely trans woman in a sundress walking into a men’s room? How about effeminate cis men or butch cis women? Are they going to have to carry around their birth certificates or risk arrest?
• House Bill 1423, the Anti-Drag Bill, criminalizes organizations that allow children to attend events where drag queens perform. Several Florida cities have already canceled Pride events or barred drag queens from Pride parades. Can you imagine Pride without drag queens? I can’t.

Is it any wonder caring teachers like Barbee are quitting, that queer Floridians are fleeing the state?

The governor has declared war on LGBTQ people, and local political leaders like Shannon Rodriguez are taking point in his battle to marginalize and oppress people who are different.

Rodriguez isn’t shy about saying she despises minorities, even though her Hispanic identity means she is a ALSO a member of a minority. She proudly told multiple local TV stations that she’s on the job to keep minorities out of schools. I don’t know if she believes her own nonsense about God appointing her to do that, but she sure acts like she believes it.

De Santis went out of his way yesterday to say he’s signing these bills to restore “normalcy” to Florida, another obvious signal that minorities should not expect respect, fairness, or inclusion in the Sunshine State.

Well, Governor, we LGBTQ people are ordinary members of human minorities. We are in that sense entirely normal.

The idea that a 10-year-old child would be harmed by seeing a gay teenager in a film is just silly. As Jenna Barbee pointed out at that board meeting, the kids in her class already know about gay people, already talk about gay people, and already ask questions about gay people — questions she’s chosen not to answer because of the laws you’re passing.

But she’s on her way out anyway — over nothing. Pushed out by a religious extremist who thinks she’s on a literal Divine mission to teach kids to fear and hate those who are different.

Yay, Florida?

I don’t think so.

I think this is going to backfire on you, Governor. I don’t think you can win the presidency on a platform of hate, and I don’t think Florida can thrive while hate rules.

I think your Slate of Hate will eventually spell the end of your political career, but I think that in the meantime, lots of good people are going to suffer for no good reason.

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