Florida ban on classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity has been expanded to all grades

I had a “lightbulb moment” as well recently. On International Women’s Day, a third-grade (male) teacher asked the kids a riddle from back in my day, and the results were eye-opening.

Johnny and his dad were in a car accident. They were taken to separate hospitals. Johnny needed surgery. The surgeon walked into the room and announced, “I can’t operate on this child, he’s my son.”

When we were growing up, people really struggled with what the correct answer was. And at the time the “correct answer” was that the surgeon was Johnny’s mother.

Flash to 2022 and the majority of kids raised their hands to answer the question. The first kid to answer said, “Johnny has two dads”. Now remember, this is International Women’s Day, so while the teacher liked that answer, he also was waiting for someone to answer that the surgeon was Johnny’s mom. I think it was the 4th or 5th kid. The class then voted. The majority assumed it was his other dad. I asked the kids why they didn’t think it was his mom and the general consensus seemed to be that it wouldn’t be a riddle if it were (granted there are probably a disproportionate amount of kids in this school who have moms that are physicians because of where it’s located).

Now, what would happen in FL? The teacher never intended to bring up same-sex marriage. The kids did. He wasn’t going to deny that there are kids with two dads. (We were both kind of proud though that the kids saw the world this way and no one had issues with it. I guess we’d be labeled groomers in FL). Would some of the people that support this new ban have a problem with International Women’s Day? After all, it’s about gender.

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