Billboards Say ‘GAY’ in Florida to Protest the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill

A liberal Florida organization is protesting the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill with statewide billboards by simply saying the word “GAY,” plainly in all caps.

HB 1557, or the Parental Rights in Education bill, bans teacher and schools from including discussions about LGBTQ people in the curriculum. LGBTQ advocates say this action will make LGBTQ youth feel ashamed, as though their identity is deviant and cannot be discussed alongside conversations about heterosexual people and their sexuality.

Florida state legislators passed the bill, and Governor Ron DeSantis signed it today. DeSantis has been vocal about his support of the bill: “The larger issue with all of this is parents must have a seat at the table when it comes to what’s going on in their schools,” DeSantis says, calling the discussion of gender variation outside of cisgender “entirely inappropriate” in a school setting.

“The last couple of years have really revealed to parents that they are being ignored increasingly across our country when it comes to their kids’ education,” DeSantis said before he signed the bill. “We have seen curriculum embedded for very very young children, classroom materials about sexuality and woke gender ideology. We’ve seen libraries that have clearly inappropriate, pornographic materials for very young kids.”

Even though the bill is unlikely to fail, the super PAC Southern Progress is putting up billboards denouncing it in Tallahassee, Orlando, and Jacksonville for a month that say “SAY GAY” in bold, capitalized letters. Another billboard design simply says “GAY.”

“Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have pissed us all off,” tweets Adam Parkhomenko, a democratic strategist on the campaign. “So this week we are going to cover the state of Florida in these in response.”

Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans have pissed us all off. So this week we are going to cover the state of Florida in these in response. pic.twitter.com/VjCMP6fVFW

— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) March 21, 2022

Southern Progress Co-Founder Amanda Crumley tells Insider that the bill, and other 2022 anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans bills, are “an unconscionable, dangerous, and coordinated attack on LGBTQ Americans.”

“Don’t be fooled, these types of bills have nothing to do with protecting children and everything to do with discrimination and filling GOP coffers in an election year,” Crumely says.

Many other queer advocates have pushed back against DeSantis’ rhetoric. Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of the Trevor Project, says that lawmakers should push for inclusive school settings, rather than “pitting parents against teachers and erasing the LGBTQ community from public education.”

Paley adds, “When lawmakers treat LGBTQ topics as taboo and brand our community as unfit for the classroom, it only adds to the existing stigma and discrimination, which puts LGBTQ young people at greater risk for bullying, depression and suicide.”

Photo courtesy of Adam Parkhomenko on Twitter