'Subliminally indoctrinated': Florida looks to ban political flags at public schools, universities, and government buildings

A Florida bill would prohibit the flying of political flags at government entities, including public schools, and prevent those entities from taking a side on political viewpoints.

Introduced by Miami Republican David Borrero, Florida's HB 901 would prohibit a "government entity" from flying a political flag and require such entities to remain neutral when representing political viewpoints.

In the bill's text, a government entity is defined as a "local government, or another unit of local government" which included public schools, public colleges, and public universities.

Specifically, the government entity may not "erect or display a flag that represent a political viewpoint, including, but not limited to, a politically partisan, racial, sexual orientation and gender, or political ideology viewpoint."

The governmental entity must also "remain neutral" when representing political viewpoints by "displaying or erecting a flag."

The bill passed a rule of law subcommittee hearing with a 9-4 vote along party lines. Republicans hold a majority in both Florida's House and Senate.

In the hearing, Borrero stated that students are being "subliminally indoctrinated" by the flags flying at their learning facilities.

"The premise for this bill is very simple, and one that we should all agree with on this committee — our taxpayer dollars should not be subsidizing political speech in government buildings and classrooms," Borrero announced. "It’s time we stopped letting local governments and public school teachers from using classrooms in government buildings as their indoctrination pulpit."

The bill would also reportedly prohibit teachers or government employees from wearing or displaying partisan political merchandise in their place of work, SCNR noted.

"Public classrooms should not be the place where our kids go to be radicalized and evangelized into accepting these partisan, radical ideologies," Borrero added. "It’s wholly inappropriate to be putting those types of flags in front of public school students and in government buildings."

Several Democrats took issue with the proposed law, including state Senator Shevrin Jones, who declared the legislation to be "authoritarian" and a form of "fascism."

"Are we in Cuba? Are we in Russia? That’s fascism at its best," he claimed.

The Guardian noted that the state senator proudly displays a "Pride at the Capitol" poster in the lobby of his office.

"How I was raised, the rainbow meant hope. I can promise you – it wasn’t that that made me gay. I’m not taking a damn thing down. I want everybody to see it," Jones rationalized.

"Once again, we’re focusing on things nobody has asked us to focus on," Democrat Florida Congresswoman Michele Rayner said.

Republican Randy Fine, the bill's cosponsor, added that critics "have no idea what they’re talking about" and that he supported the notion that "the movement" has gone "too far."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!