Miami-Dade School Board’s anti-LGBTQ vote shows chilling effect of parents’ law, some say
Last year, when the Miami-Dade School Board overwhelmingly supported a measure to recognize October as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) History Month, some board members said their decision was rooted in another step toward civil rights for all people.
At the time, Vice Chair Steve Gallon III said he was “obligated to support the item because my DNA compels me to support inclusion. It compels me to support equity, it compels me to support equality.”
The nine-member board passed the proposal in a 7-1 vote, with Board Member Christi Fraga dissenting and Board Member Lubby Navarro absent.
This year, though, during a marathon and contentious meeting Wednesday, the board voted 8-1 to reject recognizing October as LGBTQ month. Only Board Member Lucia Baez-Geller supported the observance; she put forth the proposal, both last year and this year.
POLL: Did the Miami-Dade School Board get it right when they rejected the LGBTQ measures?
This time, Gallon said, his personal beliefs must be divorced from his obligation to follow the law, despite his “love for all humanity, my commitment to inclusivity and access to representation.”
READ MORE: After debate citing indoctrination and Nazis, Miami-Dade School Board rejects LGBTQ month
He expressed concern that Baez-Geller’s measure “did not fully comport with the law,” referencing Florida’s new Parental Rights in Education law, dubbed by critics as Florida’s “Don’t say gay” bill. In March, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law, prohibiting instruction related to gender identity or sexual orientation in kindergarten through third grade and potentially restricting such instruction for older kids.
READ MORE: ‘It’s a sad day for education.’ Miami teachers react to passing of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill
Gallon and seven other board members voted no on the October observance and no on allowing the district to explore teaching two landmark Supreme Court decisions impacting the LGBTQ community to 12th-grade students. To some, the board’s vote on Wednesday underscores the chilling effect the law is having on school boards in Florida.
“Nearly every board member opposing the resolution voiced their belief that the proclamation violated the Don’t Say LGBTQ Law, further evidence of the sweeping censorship of this law,” said a news release sent by Equality Florida, a civil rights organization that works with Florida’s LGBTQ community.
READ MORE:These Miami-Dade School Board members flipped their votes and rejected LGBTQ History Month
School board attorney Walter Harvey told the board Wednesday that he believed the measure was in compliance with the state law because it did not have changes to curriculum or instruction.
Board members, however, believed otherwise.
Law’s potential chilling effect
Throughout the hours-long meeting Wednesday, Baez-Geller tried to debunk what she called “disinformation” being promulgated by people at the podium.
For one, she said, the item included an opt-out for students on the Supreme Court lessons in addition to language that required any recognition be pursuant to state law.
Nevertheless, speaker after speaker opposed to the measure said the recognition would indoctrinate students; in some cases, speakers likened the resolution to child abuse.
“What I think is happening, [following] the removal of members of Broward County and the language and rhetoric from the right, it’s a scary time for allies ... and people who would have voted in favor of this in the past may now be thinking twice,” she told the Herald Thursday. “The law is vague on purpose and as we saw, the law is meant to have a chilling effect, and I believe the law has been successful in scaring people away from topics that are potentially controversial or that could bring a lawsuit.”
Last month, DeSantis removed four elected Broward County School Board members following a grand jury report that cited the members for “incompetent management” and “neglect of duty.” He replaced the four members with four men — the four he suspended were all women — who had ties to him or to the Republican Party.
READ MORE: DeSantis suspends four Broward County School Board members, appoints replacements
For Rodney Wilson, credited with founding Gay History Month in 1994, which became Equality Forum’s LGBTQHistoryMonth.com, the legislation is creating less of a chilling effect and more of a freezing, given its limits remain unclear. No one wants to be the first to test the waters “until they know how deep the waters are and how strong the current is,” said Wilson, a Missouri high school teacher.
“We live in a litigious society, and school boards are apt to settle on a course of action that is likely to be least problematic, bring on the least amount of controversy or bring on legal action,” he told the Herald Thursday. “This legislation creates an environment where school board members and administrators are less likely to take positive, progressive action.”
At the end of July, opponents to the law sued DeSantis, the Florida Board of Education and Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. in federal court in Tallahassee, challenging the law’s constitutionality. The case is pending.
A packed house, polarized crowd
Most of the speakers Wednesday spoke against the measure.
Patricia Moore was greeted with cheers from the packed auditorium after she said schools “are not here to indoctrinate with the LGBTQ agenda. We should not expose our children to this in school.”
Michael Rajner, however, was among those who spoke in favor of the measure, telling the board he knows what it’s like to have parents who told him not to tell others he was gay, including his siblings.
“Our struggle is real. Our struggle is history,” Rajner told the board members.
Flipping last year’s vote
This was the second time the recognition had come before the board.
In 2021, the measure made no changes to the curriculum or lesson plans, but instead served as a symbolic gesture.
This year’s item, though, asked to “observe and recognize” the month and also called on staff to explore whether two Supreme Court landmark decisions — Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015 (recognizing same-sex marriage) and Bostock v. Clayton County in 2020 (finding an employer can’t fire someone for being gay or transgender) — could be added to 12th-grade social studies materials.
Students in grade 12 already learn about Supreme Court decisions.
Still, Fraga, who was the single no vote last year, said the move likely violated the parents’ rights law, “if not so directly, in spirit, it is. Because this is saying a full endorsement in the entire district of this month — that includes kindergarten through 12th grade.” She also raised concerns about how the measure would be implemented and what observations would look like for students.
To Gallon, the proposal offered insufficient, specific guardrails for teachers in the classroom who may be charged with “celebrating” or “recognizing” the month, or school administrators who would be charged with supervising any planned activities or events.
Such a move, he argued, could potentially “expose the district to alleged violations and some teachers being accused of crossing the line.” As written, he added, the measure pertained to all students, not just those in grades four and up.
The Parental Rights in Education law gives parents the ability to sue the district or teachers if they feel that the law is being violated.
For her part, Baez-Geller told the Herald the item “absolutely had all the safeguards in place.”
When asked about the disconnect between what Harvey , the school board attorney, said and board members’ understanding of the law, Gallon said he believed Harvey’s representation “understandably focused on what was written while he raised concern about the implementation of it.”
“With matters such as these, implementation, at least for me, must be crystal clear,” Gallon told the Herald.
