A new bill introduced in Florida seeks to ban the use of gender pronouns in schools while legally defining biological sex as “the binary division of individuals based upon reproductive function.”
The legislation, House Bill (HB) 1223, was filed in the Florida House of Representatives on Tuesday.
“This bill promotes parental rights, transparency, and state standards in Florida schools,” Republican Rep. Adam Anderson (District 57) said in a statement.
“It requires that lessons for Florida’s students are age-appropriate, focused on education, and free from sexualization and indoctrination.”
Anderson proposed the bill with support from Republican Rep. Randy Fine (District 33).
Fine said, “Florida is not going to be in the stupid pick-your-own pronouns fantasy that the woke left wants to waste our time with,” WESH reported.
The legislation would define “sex” as “the binary division of individuals based upon reproductive function.”
The bill would mandate that “a person’s sex is an immutable biological trait” and “it is false to ascribe to a person a pronoun that does not correspond to such person’s sex.”
The bill also includes proposed changes to the Parental Rights in Education law introduced last year by Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis’s law aims to restrict lessons and discussions of gender identity and sexuality through eighth grade – an increase from third grade.
Gender in education has increasingly taken focus over the past year following the introduction of DeSantis’ bill.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) introduced his own bill in September 2022, then reintroduced it on February 1, 2023.
Scott’s bill seeks to cut federal funding from schools that conceal gender transition or changed gender pronouns from parents.
And a new Florida bill filed last week would require companies offering gender transition treatments to likewise cover an employee’s detransition.
Ronna McDaniel, chairwoman of the Republican National Committee (RNC), has also weighed in on the issue.
McDaniel argued in a Fox News op-ed that “Schools should teach young kids about the A-B-Cs, not S-E-X,” which for Democrats is “unacceptable.”
She cited a Daily Wire survey that found “67% of Americans agreed” the DeSantis bill would “protect children from inappropriate topics that should be discussed by parents.”
But a “non-binary” student interviewed by WESH argued that the politicians pushing these policies are not “seeing what I’m seeing on a day-to-day basis.”
“When you’re not respected, when your identity is not respected and is erased, I can’t even put into words how detrimental this is going to be for students,” the student said.
“This is going to cause LGBTQ suicide rates, trans suicide rates, to skyrocket in Florida,” the student alleged.
“That is what this bill is going to do.”
READ MORE: Switzerland Rejects Gender Ideology, Rules Sex Is Binary
