Media spins DeSantis legal victory upholding parental rights law as a loss

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The Associated Press and left-wing activists are cheering for a new legal settlement that will ensure Florida’s parental rights in education law can remain in full effect, painting the governor’s legal victory as one that actually delivered him a defeat.

“BREAKING: Sexual orientation, gender ID can be talked about in Florida classrooms under lawsuit settlement,” posted the AP, who in their report, simply detailed the original legal language of the law, omitting the fact that the lawsuit didn’t change its enforcement.

The bill was dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” in the AP and other mainstream outlets, which Gov. Ron DeSantis’ communications director, Bryan Griffin, said is part of “activist scare tactics.”

“[The bill could never] punish student to student conversation,” Griffin said. “This law, the Parental Rights in Education Act, is about instruction.”

The AP reported that under the settlement, teachers and families have cleared up “confusion” about what specifically the law applies to.

As the bill explicitly stated in its passed form, the restrictions applied to “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity [in] kindergarten through grade 3 or in a matter that is not age-appropriate.”

Under the agreement, the plaintiffs are dismissing their case against the state, and the Florida Department of Education will provide the definitions of the law to local school boards, which explain that the law does not discriminate against any particular sexual orientation or gender identity, and only applies to classroom instruction – the legal language that always applies to begin with.

“Now that the activists lost in court today (the law remains in effect), they run a headline like this making it seem like something has changed. It hasn’t,” Griffin said. “Kids remain safe in Florida from radical gender and sexual ideology being forced on them by adults without the knowledge of their parents.”

Griffin scathed the AP, saying they “just can’t stop lying.”

As Florida’s Voice fact checked in 2022, the bill does not prevent the word “gay” from being uttered in classrooms, and it does not apply to or “target” LGBTQ+ students.

DeSantis’ office noted on Monday that the settlement “ensures that the law will remain in effect.”

General counsel Ryan Newman said the state “fought hard to ensure this law couldn’t be maligned in court, as it was in the public arena by the media and large corporate actors.”

“We are victorious, and Florida’s classrooms will remain a safe place under the Parental Rights in Education Act,” Newman said.

The law also requires schools to let parents give permission for health screenings and can deny any health services offered at the beginning of each year.

The governor’s office reiterated enthusiasm that children will remain “protected from radical gender and sexual ideology in the classroom.”