Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed a controversial bill on parental rights in education, which opponents of the bill have dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay Bill.”
While the bill doesn’t include the word “gay,” it does include a section that says, “Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate.”
Earlier this month, State Sen. Arthur Orr (R-Decatur) said he was willing to take up the fight to get something like the Florida bill passed in Alabama.
Now, Orr is saying that fight would most likely have to wait until the next session.
During a Friday discussion on WVNN’s “The Dale Jackson Show,” Orr explained why a Florida-type bill would probably not come up anytime soon.
“The Florida bill came out midway, or starting getting attention midway, two-thirds through the regular session,” he explained. “People are now kind of looking at the finish line, looking at pass the budgets, pass important legislation and gavel home and go campaign, and so that’s kind of where we are and to take up a really controversial bill like this, my sense that to get one going in the process after CRT, there wasn’t a whole lot of fuel to make it move through the system quickly.”
The state senator did express hope that it was something the legislature could accomplish next session.
“I think it will be a good item to have on the agenda to certainly debate and discuss,” he said.
Orr reiterated that even if this wasn’t a major problem currently, it would be good for the legislature to take preemptive action against it in the Yellowhammer State.
“I imagine it would be in the same box as CRT and some of these other issues,” he said, “where a bill is advanced and everyone says ‘well this isn’t a problem in Alabama’ but the response is ‘well ok, well fine, but let’s make sure it never becomes one.'”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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