DeSantis Defends Parental Rights in Education Bill

BUCK: First, I want to talk about the controversy surrounding the, quote — they’re calling it the — “don’t say gay” bill. Now, that is the terminology of LGBTQ+ activists to attack the bill and to attack specifically the Ron DeSantis component — or, rather, Ron DeSantis as the governor of Florida and whether he will sign this or not. It’s actually called — a lot of people will be hearing this for the first time — The Parental Rights in Education Bill.

What’s happened is LGBTQ activists have dubbed it the “don’t say gay” bill. Here’s what it actually says: You cannot teach in the state of Florida under this bill lessons about sexuality, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity to pre-K to third graders. That’s what’s actually in it. Now, I would go beyond just that’s entirely reasonable to why the heck would someone be outraged at the notion that the school shouldn’t be teaching that?

Parents can teach their kids about these things as they see fit as parents. That’s part of the parental rights in education. Parents should have that conversation with kids. Clay, why would someone to want — as a matter of state policy — to instruct 5-year-olds in sex, sexuality, and gender identity? You’re a parent; I’m not. What do you think about this? To me it strikes me as, what the heck is wrong with these people?

CLAY: It seems very reasonable not to be having those conversations with kindergarteners and first graders and pre-K and second graders, and third graders, to me, as a parent, in school. But if you disagree, the great thing about being a parent is, you are not limited to what your kids learn in school. You can sit down and have conversations with them about any number of subjects that you feel are important. To me — and I’ve raised three boys or am working on raising three boys.

My kids are 14, 11, and 7. There are conversations — this is not gonna shock anybody — that I can have with a 14-year-old and that I need to have with a 14-year-old that are totally different than conversations that I can have with a 7-year-old, and this is crazy. I’m trying to think how to phrase this in case there’s young kids out there in the car. Santa Claus, for kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, and third graders is a big deal.

That’s a normal conversation that you have. You’re excited for Santa Claus to come to town. That conversation for a seventh, ninth, tenth, and eleventh grader is totally different, right? Take it outside of the realm of something that’s culturally charged and just talk about how you discuss Santa Claus with young kids compared to what you would say with teenagers. This doesn’t seem like a crazy idea at all. I think it’s evidence…

This is what I think is going on. I think the Democrats are so utterly aware that they’re gonna get destroyed in 2022 that they are desperate to find something to attack Ron DeSantis in Florida as the governor’s race comes up there, and so they are manufacturing issues because they totally failed on the biggest issue, which is covid. And this is why I think ultimately maybe the Supreme Court is gonna give Democrats a little bit of a gift here as it pertains to the timing of the Roe v. Wade case that here hearing with Mississippi and Texas.

Because if they make a big decision there — and, by the way, I don’t think it’s gonna be a big decision. I think they’re gonna uphold Mississippi and strike down in some way what Texas is doing. That’s my prediction. But Democrats are desperate to find something about, Buck, to hang their hat on other than covid, other than the border, other than the murder rate, other than Ukraine, and other than what’s going on with Afghanistan. And so they’re gonna go all-in on issues like these and claim, “Oh, Republicans are awful reprobates for not wanting to talk about gay issues with kindergarteners.” That’s the line they’re gonna try to play. They’re gonna argue it’s saying something that it isn’t.

BUCK: This is the only time you’ve seen recently some kind of pushback to parental rights. Parental involvement in education has been a huge winner for Republicans now stretching back for over a year. We saw this because of what parents saw during covid, critical race theory training, the shutdown of schools, the masking of kids, all of this.

It has been the GOP that says, “Hold on a second. Parents should get more of a say so here. Parents should be able to speak out at the school board meetings.” Then you had the Biden administration putting out that weird memo, the DOJ under Biden that this is essentially like domestic terrorists for these parents to show up and there’s FBI agents looking into this — which is completely outrageous and should be remembered going forward as we see a lot of the tactics used to silence dissent in places like Canada.

They’ll do it here too. But, Clay, here is Ron DeSantis, who is just not gonna take it. He’s not gonna take it anymore. Sorry. Whatever. You know what I mean. He’s not gonna take it on the lies here about what the “don’t say gay” bill is. First of all, it’s not called that. It’s the Parental Rights in Education Bill. Sorry to say that, but that propaganda line has caught on. People are going on marches now just shouting “gay, gay, gay.” There’s video of this out there. Ron DeSantis is like, stop lying about this.

BUCK: So, Clay, first of all, Ron DeSantis is great when it comes to dealing with the media and their fake narratives, but I think… I’m not a parent, but I remember I think it was the third, it might have been the fourth grade. I remember the first time I had the birds and the bees talk, and it didn’t come from my parents initially. It came from a student a year ahead of me.

Just randomly we’re out going on the sports field playing like kickball or soccer or something. He grabs me and he goes, “Do you know where babies come from?” I said, “No,” and he goes, “It’s when you poke a lady in her bellybutton and a baby comes out.” Now, technically not really true, but then I went, and I had a talk with my mom and my dad, and they kind of explained where babies came from. It turns out not from just the belly button. But the point being, parents should be involved in that. I always remember. I was terrified.

CLAY: (laughing) Really funny.

BUCK: I’m gonna fail! Anyway, but, I wanted to talk to my parents about this but I feel like so many people there are sensitive issues, things that come up and that’s where parental rights come in. No one’s saying you can’t teach about sex. I remember this. They did this to my high school. Safe sex practices and all that kind of stuff. I think we’re freshmen in high school. Sixth grade when I was in grammar school we had some health class where they got into some of this stuff. It’s just about the age. Five, 6, and 7-year-olds?

CLAY: When you are… Yes. That’s exactly right. When you’re hitting puberty, it’s important to have biological conversations with kids about what is happening to them. That doesn’t happen in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade. My wife is great on topics like these because that’s the other thing is, “You should let your kid choose their gender and respect it when they’re, like, in first grade.” That’s an argument of transgender advocates.

And my wife, we were having this conversation, is, like, “I don’t let our kids pick what food they eat in first grade because if they did, they would pick candy, cake.” We don’t allow kids to pick their meals when they’re in kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, and we’re going to allow them to pick their gender? And certainly, if we’re not allowing them to pick their meals, we don’t need to be having a larger conversation about society and sex roles for young kids.

But again, this is the desperation because I think… Look, the Democrats are aware, even though they won’t acknowledge it, that they got crushed on masks and that they’re wrong and that the vast majority of the American public — Team Reality, as we call them, has lined up — and we need to play the ridiculous clip from the new New York City mayor here maybe in the next segment about what’s going on there.

Democrats are aware that they’ve lost the battle on whether America is an awful, racist place, because parents don’t believe that, and they don’t believe their kids should be being taught that which is effectively what critical race theory is. And so they’re looking for something in the classrooms where they can win a battle to try to change the narrative of what is going to in public schools. They’re going to lose this one, too, I think.

But there will be… You see Disney’s getting pressure? Have you seen this? They want Disney to speak out and say something about this Florida bill, when I think most people out there listening, regardless of whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or independent, if you’ve raised young kids, preschooler, kindergarteners, first graders, second graders, third graders? They don’t need to be enmeshed in human sexuality discussions.

BUCK: Yeah, and also if I were a parent — I’m not yet, but if I were a parent — I wouldn’t want some bureaucrat randomly being the one that introduces my child to this kind of discussion. I would want to have some time period as the child grows and develops a little bit where we could have a father-son or father-daughter, et cetera, discussion — or mother-son, mother-daughter.