Gay Florida kindergarten teacher complains anti-grooming bill prevents him from talking about his personal life with kids
To clarify, the legislation does not prohibit any teacher or student from coming out as gay, much less mentioning that they may be married to someone of the same sex. Instead, the bill merely prohibits the instruction of gender ideology and sexual orientation in the classroom.
A gay Florida teacher has shared his anxieties in an MSNBC interview on Tuesday, arguing that he will no longer be able to discuss his personal life with his kindergarten students due to the anti-grooming legislation signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Kindergarten teacher Cory Bernaert said on Tuesday that the legislation “hits hard in my heart professionally and personally.”
“Professionally, it truly makes me feel like I am not trusted as a professional. I know my kindergarten standards through and through and nowhere in our curriculum does it have anything about teaching sexual orientation or sexual identity,” he said.
“We should be able to have discussions and that’s what we’re encouraged to do in kindergarten,” Bernaert added. “My kids do have questions. They want to know who my partner is in pictures outside of my classroom, and I should be able to speak to them.”
“Do you worry that you won’t even be able to talk about your own personal home life?” replied the MSNBC host, noting that she is aware of her children’s teacher’s sexual orientation and marital life.
“Absolutely,” he said. “You are 100% correct. That’s what we do as educators, we build relationships with our kids. And in order to build relationships, you talk about your home life, you talk about what you do on the weekends.”
“It scares me that I am not going to be able to have these conversations with my children,” he continued, “because they’re going to ask me what I did on the weekend. I don’t want to have to hide that my partner and I went paddle boarding this weekend.”
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The teacher also expressed fears that he may not even be able to answer questions posed to him about a student in his classroom who has two moms.
“If they go to her and ask her about her two moms and she doesn’t know what to say, they’re going to come to me and ask me,” he said.
To clarify, the anti-grooming legislation, HB 1557, does not prohibit any teacher or student from coming out as gay, much less mentioning that they may be married to someone of the same sex. Instead, the bill merely prohibits the instruction of gender ideology and sexual orientation in the classroom.
The bill, which has been disingenuously referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, has gotten celebrities and progressive social justice activists up in arms, much to the amusement of DeSantis, who said that he will wear their disapproval as a “badge of honour.”
As detailed by Rebel News, the Biden administration said it will be monitoring the law very closely — vowing to defend transgender people following its passage.
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