For a second time in less than a week, Florida's Governor baited a reporter over a piece of sex education legislation currently being debated in the Senate.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, addressing reporters at the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, took a reporter to task for a question on the Parental Rights in Education bill being debated on the Senate floor Monday.
HB 1557 was passed by the House on party lines largely on party lines and made ready for the Senate's Special-Order Calendar Monday.
The reporter noted that critics called the legislation, which prohibits discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in lower grades, the "Don't Say Gay" bill. This observation led DeSantis to drag the questioner.
"Does it say that in the bill? Does it say that in the bill? I'm asking you to tell me what's in the bill, because you are pushing false narratives," DeSantis said. "It doesn't matter what critics say."
When the reporter said the bill banned classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation, DeSantis noted that the bill applied to "pre-K through three, so five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds."
"And the idea that you wouldn't be honest about that and tell people what it actually says, it's why people don't trust people like you, because you peddle false narratives, and we disabuse you of those narratives," DeSantis said. "We're going to make sure that parents can send their kid to kindergarten without having some of this stuff injected into the school curriculum."
DeSantis had previously blasted a reporter in Jacksonville Friday for asking about the legislation.
DeSantis rejected the "Don't Say Gay" descriptor, saying to a reporter, "You call it that. I haven't seen that in any of these bills. Where is this coming from?"
"Does the truth matter or not? Is that in any of these bills? Yes or no," the Governor hectored.
The Governor's latest comments came after a spokesperson supported the bill as a way to stop "grooming" in the school setting.
"If you're against the anti-Grooming bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4- to 8-year-old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn't make the rules," tweeted Christina Pushaw.
In texts to Florida Politics, Pushaw wrote that her definition of "grooming" includes "talking to kids about sex. There is no reason for 3- to 8-year-olds to learn about sex in school, and anyone who wants to teach kids that young about sex — particularly over parental objections — is creating an environment where grooming can easily occur."
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Scott Powers of Florida Politics contributed to this report.
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