MTV comes out against DeSantis: Promotes Florida progressive who calls parental rights bill harmful and discriminatory

MTV News recently promoted progressive Florida House member Michele Rayner-Goolsby (D), who attacked Florida's Parental Rights in Education law for being "deliberately vague," saying that it is discriminatory and harmful.

The controversial Florida law, HB 1557, prohibits teachers from teaching topics like gender ideology and sexual orientation to students in kindergarten through third grade.

Rayner-Goolsby, who says her pronouns are "she/they," says that the law is meant to "discriminate and harm a whole community of people."

"The bill does not use the term 'gay,'" Rayner-Goolsby admits, but she says the law "specifically prohibits classroom education on sexual orientation and gender identity from ages K through three. But then the part of the bill says 'or age appropriate.' So, what does that mean?" she continued.

The state representative blames the bill's vagueness for what she deems to be regressive acts happening in schools across the state. "Teachers have to remove 'safe space' stickers. You have books that are being banned. You have classroom instructions being stopped," the progressive explains.

Citing several different media clippings, Rayner-Goolsby says the bill "was never about giving parents rights. This bill was always about targeting LGBTQ people."

One example used referenced Pasco County Schools eliminating "safe spaces" and removing safe space stickers. The stickers read: "This is a safe space for all, including all genders, orientations, identities, abilities, cultures, and backgrounds."

Another reference is made to a Miami-Dade school board rejecting a proposal to recognize October as "LQBTQ history month," which a board member said was "in direct violation" of the parental rights bill.

A final headline cites a Florida education commissioner's decision to pull LGBTQ "support guides" from Hillsborough County schools. The guide reportedly contained directives that a board of education member said would violate the law.

Specifically, the board member referred to one of the guide's directives that read: “With the limited exception involving the imminent fear of physical harm, it is never appropriate to divulge the sexual orientation of a student to a parent."

Rayner-Goolsby is a former local counsel for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Legal Defense and Educational Fund and was endorsed by the group Equality Florida for being the state's first queer black woman elected to state legislature.

Equality Florida promotes several different LGBTQ initiatives including transgender surgery for "youth."