“Don’t Say Gay”: Fighting H.B. 1557 Is Fighting For Indoctrination

What does H.B. 1557 do?

The Florida Parental Rights in Education bill prohibits teachers from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity to students in kindergarten through third grade—kids ages 5 through 9. If violated, parents can sue the individual school districts. We explain it in more detail here.

The bill was created after a Florida school pressured a 13-year-old girl into adopting a transgender identity.

Does the bill prevent indoctrination?

Sexual orientation and gender are politicized topics.

Here’s how the nation is politically split when it comes to sexual identity:

• 80% of Republicans believe that sexual identity is tied to biology. 64% percent of Democrats disagree.

• 54% of Republicans believe transgenderism is bad for society. 68% of Democrats believe society hasn’t gone far enough in accepting transgender people.

• 45% of Republicans disagree with same-sex marriage. 83% of Democrats agree with it.

Pushing political ideas onto children—some of which are seen as radical by half of the population—is indoctrination. H.B. 1557 would prevent teachers from indoctrinating children with their ideas of sexual identity.

Is this indoctrination happening? Absolutely. We’ve documented specific instances of indoctrination here. Nationwide, progressive ideologies manifest in curriculums with common radical left-wing ideas. The promotion of LGBTQ+ sexual identity is one of them.

While most Americans support the bill, progressives have fiercely fought it.

Lying about the bill: The media has called the bill a grave misuse of power, chilling, and homophobic. They’ve claimed that it will harm families, erase students’ histories, and stifle and endanger the health and safety of children.

Powerful voices fighting the bill:

• Biden denounced the bill as “hateful.”

• Two hundred corporations—including Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Starbucks, Target, Lululemon, and Sony—signed a petition that condemns anti-LGBTQ legislation.

• Powerful LGBTQ groups filed lawsuits against Florida for the bill.

• Disney’s CEO Bob Chapek organized strong condemnation against the bill, donated to movements against it, and announced Disney’s commitment to creating more LGBTQ content for kids. Disney’s employees also staged a walkout.

• Hollywood star Ron Perlman called Gov. Ron DeSantis’ a “Nazi pig.” Ariana Grande and George Takei were among the many celebrities who voiced their condemnation.

The response from progressives has been immense. Again, the bill prohibits teachers from talking about sexual orientation and gender identity to kids ages 5 through 9. That’s it.

So why are progressives fighting it?

By strongly opposing H.B. 1557 and falsely claiming that it endangers the health and safety of children, it seems that progressives are fighting for their influence over the nation’s children. Why?

Indoctrination is used to preserve political and social influence over upcoming generations and leaders, significantly impacting the sociopolitical environment those indoctrinated will live under and possibly rule over.

Why children: Children are malleable and vulnerable, especially within the ages the bill targets. They can be used as conduits to normalize radical ideology.

Progressive rationalization: Many progressives view their position as absolute—LGBTQ ideology is righteous, and debate is forbidden. With religious zeal, children are instructed about topics they cannot process or critically think through at their age, despite parental disapproval.

The parent-child relationship: Because of the absolutism mentioned above, teaching radical ideology to students at a young age stifles the parent’s role in the child’s upbringing. Conversation between parents and children becomes impossible—indoctrinated children will view progressivism as good and conservatism as evil.

Parental influence is the only barrier to indoctrination, and doing away with it gives radicals free rein over the minds of the future generation.

Historically

Revolutionaries and authoritarians have always used children to further their agendas. We often read about indoctrination in totalitarian North Korea and communist China, but let’s take Fidel Castro’s literacy programs in communist Cuba as an example.

While Sen. Bernie Sanders said that Castro "educated their kids, gave their kids health care, totally transformed the society,” the Cuban dictator’s real accomplishment was streamlining a system that indoctrinated children at the earliest stages. As children were learning the alphabet, they were also learning to “detest previous societal values and replace them with a new revolutionary code.”

Two things are made clear by the progressive reaction to the H.B 1557 bill: Indoctrination is happening, and progressives are fighting harder than ever to continue it.