Inconvenience an aggressive leftist agenda in any way and be branded a bigot for your trouble.
We were treated (if that’s the word) Wednesday to two examples of how aggressive and intolerant Hollywoke and the current Democratic Party are when conservatives attempt to slow the left’s attempted remake of American society. A remake in the direction that only a small, elite minority support.
The fuss followed upon the passage of a sensible law in the Florida legislature banning the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. For those who’ve forgotten, these are students from ages 5 through 8, whose in-school concerns are more properly focused on learning to read and write rather than trying to sort out what a non-binary person is. (I’m, uh, considerably older than this, and as far as I can make out, this is a person caught up in a nonsensical fad that everyone on the planet would have laughed off the stage until about, historically speaking, the day before yesterday.)
Psaki had to sidestep a question from a reporter about a Senate vote cast by Senator Joe Biden in 1994 which would bar federal funds from “being used for the promotion of homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative.”
And if there are any children of this age who even have a clue what sexual orientation means, they can take this up with their parents, the proper place for the matter to be dealt with, that is, unless one believes, as is increasingly required on the left, that children are the property of the state and that Comrade Teacher, an organ of the state, will protect children from the pernicious influence of their parents. (The whole business reminds me a bit of Navy Basic Training, where a recruit in my company made the mistake of saying out loud that he had an opinion, on what I forget. The NCO tormenting us at the moment roared: “SON, IF THE NAVY WANTS YOU TO HAVE AN OPINION, IT WILL ISSUE YOU ONE.”)
The legislation, called the Parental Rights in Education bill, is aptly named. The left prefers calling it the “Don’t Say Gay Law,” which totally distorts its purpose and effect. The bill was passed with all Democrats voting no. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he will sign it into law.
We didn’t have to wait long for the usual suspects to go into full virtue-signaling and name-calling mode. Disney CEO Bob Chapek, after much nagging from Disney employees to take a stand against the new law, asked for a meeting with DeSantis to voice his company’s opposition.
“I called Governor DeSantis this morning to express our disappointment and concern that if the legislation becomes law, it could unfairly be used to target gay, lesbian, non-binary and transgender kids and families,” Chapek said. Of course, Chapek did not say how the law would do these things, which it won’t.
DeSantis has agreed to meet with Chapek, but don’t expect DeSantis to change his mind about the law, which is in no way anti-gay.
At a press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki hammed it up, declaring the motivation for passing this vile bill was — wait for it — “bigotry.” What else? She wailed that the new law would “discriminate against families, against kids — put these kids in a position of not getting the support they need at a time when that’s exactly what they need. It’s discriminatory, it’s a form of bullying, it’s horrific. I mean, the president has spoken to that.”
Wow, Jen. You should count to 10 and take half a Valium. The law, of course, will do none of these things. But it relieves very young schoolchildren of having to try to deal with a subject they are nowhere near mature enough to handle, and which almost none of them are concerned with. Children of this age are better served by being able to spell orientation rather than having eager teachers badgering them to wrestle with the sexual kind.
By the by, before delivering herself of the rant against bigoted Florida legislators, Psaki had to sidestep a question from a reporter about a Senate vote cast by Sen. Joe Biden in 1994 which would bar federal funds from “being used for the promotion of homosexuality as a positive lifestyle alternative.” Gee, did our Joe cast this vote back when he himself was a bigot? If Jen knows, she’s not saying.
Disney’s Chapek wrote in a memo to staff that appeared in the Hollywood Reporter, “I and the entire leadership team unequivocally stand in support of our LGBTQ+ employees, their families, and their communities. And, we are committed to creating a more inclusive company — and world.”
As we are reminded of almost daily, the tolerance and respect that folks on the left — which now includes the Magic Kingdom — croon about does not extend to those who consider that 5- to 8-year-old schoolchildren should not be obliged to wrestle with subjects like sexual orientation. Plenty of time for this later.
A more sensible view came from DeSantis’s press secretary, Christina Pushaw, who confirmed the Disney call: “Disney is a family-friendly company that creates wholesome entertainment for kids. The same Florida parents who take their families to Disney also support parental rights in education because they do not want their young children exposed to inappropriate content about sex and gender theory at school.”
Just so.
