Inside the fight to block Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law
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In covering Ron DeSantis’s effort to turn Florida into a violent theocracy over the past four years, I’ve gotten to know some of the passionate activists and organizers that are desperately trying to save their state. More recently, I’ve had the good fortune to work on a few projects with Jen Cousins, the co-founder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project and an advocate for equality within Florida’s beleaguered public schools.
A tireless and generous activist, Jen helped us break the story of DeSantis’s secret effort to strip licenses from teachers that violate the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law. She also happens to be the plaintiff in a high-profile lawsuit that seeks to have the law tossed off the books. This weekend, I asked Jen if she’d be willing to share her unique perspective into the fight with Progress Report report readers, and she was gracious enough to send over the piece below.
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by Jen Cousins
I was in Tallahassee last March to witness two pivotal votes on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law.
The first vote took place at the Florida House of Representatives, where debate on the bill began. I watched through tears as Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith gave an impassioned and heart-wrenching plea on the floor, imploring his fellow members to not pass this bill and explaining how terrible it was for the LGBTQ+ community.
A majority of lawmakers chose to ignore him, voting 69-47 to pass HB 1577 and send it to the state Senate.
The debate in the Senate Rules Committee was the last real chance to stop the bill from making it through the legislature. The committee invited public comment, so I signed up to speak in opposition to the bill. Conveniently, they ran out of time to accommodate everyone, so I didn’t make the cut. Instead, I watched as the committee skipped ahead and voted to pass the bill, which all but guaranteed that it would become law.
Angry, I left the chamber and immediately encountered dozens of people in the hallways, upset and crying, mourning and commiserating. I found a space to lean up against a wall and cry myself, then gave out mom hugs to the devastated student activists who had traveled to Tallahassee that morning from all corners of Florida to register their opposition to this hateful legislation.
Why did this upset me so much? Not only because I’ve been an ally of the LGBTQ+ community for 30+ years, but also because in September 2021, one of my own four children came out to me as non-binary. When this bill passed, I knew our lives were now political fodder for the intolerant GOP and right-wing extremists of Florida, for groups like Moms for Liberty who are seeking to destroy our public schools and turn the LGBTQ+ community into boogeymen.
My child and thousands like them across Florida have already experienced some form of bullying for simply being themselves, and now this law is putting a state-sponsored target on each of their backs. They’re going to be painted as undesirable members of the community and predators out for their classmates, and not as an ancillary or unintended consequence. The cruelty is the point, and it’s already been put in motion.
Almost immediately after the bill was proposed, anyone who took issue with its bigoted provisions was instantly labeled a “groomer.” Leaders, advocates, parents, and teachers were pummeled by this term on a daily basis last spring and summer, and some of us still deal with a constant chorus of bigotry.
When presented with the opportunity to become plaintiffs in a lawsuit against this horrible law, my family did not hesitate. We worked closely with Southern Legal Counsel and the rest of the team — Lambda Legal, the SPLC and Baker McKenzie — to draft detailed explanations of how this law will harm our children, who are now in the first, third, seventh, and ninth grades. We believed in our hearts that a judge would see the absurdity of this law.
This past Thursday was National LGBTQ+ Spirit Day, which made the phone call I received that afternoon all the more painful. The Trump-appointed federal judge who had been assigned to our case not only denied our request for a preliminary injunction against the law, but had also completely dismissed our suit. We were given two weeks to refile, which our legal team is in the process of doing.
Here’s the killer quote from the judge’s decision
"While the court is sympathetic to the Cousins' fear that their child may be bullied, it is simply a fact of life that many middle school students will face the criticism and harsh judgment of their peers. S.C. is not alone in this regard. Indeed, middle school children bully and belittle their classmates for a whole host of reasons, all of which are unacceptable, and many of which have nothing to do with a classmate's gender identity."
This judge is a Trump loyalist and has ruled unjustly against our case. Her statement alone is vile and while we are disappointed, this fight is NOT over. We are prepared to take it as far as we need to in order to protect the rights and basic humanity and protection of LGBTQ+ students.
You can donate to the Florida Freedom to Read Project here.
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