Scott Powers
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ press secretary, Christina Pushaw, tweeted accusations that people who oppose a sex education bill working its way through the Legislature are “groomers” or those who would not denounce “groomers” — references to pedophilia and people who help “groom” children for pedophiles and other abusers.
Her tweets drew angry condemnation Sunday from the bill’s opponents. They expressed disbelief that the Governor’s Office would characterize political opponents of a highly-controversial piece of legislation as groomers or pedophiles.
They’re talking about HB 1557, a bill passed by the House on party lines and ready for the Senate’s Special-Order Calendar Monday. The bill officially is entitled “Parental Rights in Education.” Opponents dub it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, because it bans discussions of homosexuality in lower grade levels.
The bill would ban kindergarten through third grade classroom “instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity,” or “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
The legislation does not restrict the topics from being barred across all ages if the school district deems the instruction age-inappropriate. Nor does it more broadly restrict sex education for younger students.
Attempts by St. Petersburg Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes and Democrats to amend the bill to explicitly ban sex education in those lower grade levels — instead of making references only to sexual orientation or gender identity — were shot down. That helped fuel opponents’ assertions that the bill is not really about banning sex education, but about banning any classroom references to LGBTQ issues.
Pushaw provided the pedophilia inferences from the Governor’s Office first on Friday night.
“The bill that liberals inaccurately call ‘Don’t Say Gay’ would be more accurately described as Anti-Grooming Bill,” Pushaw tweeted.
She followed that up with: “If you’re against the anti-Grooming bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don’t denounce the grooming of 4- to 8-year-old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn’t make the rules.”
By Sunday those being called groomers were firing back.
“They’re saying we’re all pedophiles. It’s unhinged, unreal,” said Democrat Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orlando. “And coming out of the Governor’s Office, it’s so ridiculous.”
“#DeSantis’ spokesperson openly accused opponents of #DontSayGay of being ‘groomers’— aka PEDOPHILES. Bigoted attacks like this against LGBTQ people are the worst of the worst. They’re disgusting and dangerous and have NO PLACE in the Guv’s office,” tweeted Democratic Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith of Orlando.
West Park Democratic Sen. Shevrin Jones said in a statement: “Gov. DeSantis personally owes millions of Floridians an explanation as to why his spokesperson — whose salary is paid wholly with tax dollars — believes it is acceptable to label opponents to this bigoted bill as ‘groomers,’ a code word for pedophiles. It is outrageous that the Governor’s Office continues to use taxpayer resources to advance a radical, partisan agenda. Students, educators, and families across the state overwhelmingly agree: enough of the intimidation and targeted assaults on Florida’s most vulnerable.”
Democratic Rep. Angie Nixon of Jacksonville called for Pushaw’s resignation.
“@ChristinaPushaw has shown us she’s anti-Semitic and now that she’s openly homophobic. She definitely needs to resign,” Nixon tweeted.
The anti-Semitic accusation arose from Pushaw’s tweets in January questioning whether real Nazis were to blame for a Nazi demonstration in Orlando. She made that challenge instead of denouncing the demonstration.
Equality Florida, the state’s largest LGBTQ rights advocacy organization, called her new tweets a “bigoted anti-LGBTQ rant.”
“Governor DeSantis’ spokesperson said the quiet part out loud: that this bill is grounded in a belief that LGBTQ people, simply by existing, are a threat to children and must be erased. He chose Pushaw to speak his mind to the public. He owns this unbridled hatred,” reads an Equality Florida statement released Sunday.
“This same bigoted insinuation has long been used to stigmatize our families, justify denying us the ability to adopt children, and is being used to justify the tracking of transgender children by government agents in Texas and threats to imprison their parents. Make no mistake — this is a tacit announcement from the Governor that he supports the true intent of the Don’t Say Gay bill: the erasure of LGBTQ people,” the statement continues.
In texts to Florida Politics, Pushaw wrote that her definition of “grooming” includes “talking to kids about sex. There is no reason for 3- to 8-year-olds to learn about sex in school, and anyone who wants to teach kids that young about sex — particularly over parental objections — is creating an environment where grooming can easily occur.”
When offered the idea that the word “grooming” is widely accepted as a reference to pedophilia, she followed up.
“Pedophiles groom kids by talking to them about sex,” she wrote.
“So those who want to teach 3- to 8-year-olds about sex are either groomers, don’t want to protect kids from groomers, or have not read the bill but have been misled by the DNC media’s despicable campaign of lies repeating the baseless Democratic branding ‘don’t say gay,'” she continued.
For his part, DeSantis has tried to keep a bit of distance from the bill, strongly pointing out that it was not his initiative, while still saying that he supports it.
21 comments
PeterH
March 6, 2022 at 5:03 pm
Christina Pushaw should resign for making such a comment. Vote DeSantis out of office. This garbage nonsense must end.
Edward Freeman
March 6, 2022 at 6:55 pm
If anyone needed any confirmation that Christina Pushaw is a horrible person, here it is.
MP
March 6, 2022 at 10:15 pm
Christina looks like she was born a man.
Grill man
March 6, 2022 at 10:21 pm
Two things are certain in life
Taxes
And Christina eventually being found in a white van with a 6 year old.
tom palmer
March 7, 2022 at 12:15 am
She wouldn’t put out statements like this without permission.
Shame on Gov. DeSantis.
Not happening
March 7, 2022 at 2:09 am
Calling people grooms will not make you any closer to having a man girl
Chris
March 7, 2022 at 7:25 am
What else do you call it when a stranger is telling your young child about things that child cannot possibly understand? These conversations ought to be had strictly between parents and kids. This liberal garbage is out of control.
Gets heavy
March 7, 2022 at 6:44 pm
“Between parents and kids”
Usually that’s the other way around with republicans lol
Marty Johnson
March 7, 2022 at 7:28 am
Stuck pig squeals the loudest. REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Nick Ireland
March 7, 2022 at 8:40 am
We all know only Lauren Book can use CSA as a political taking point since she is the resident professional victim.
MK
March 7, 2022 at 8:54 am
The hate speech and lies continue with the Desantis administration. Make no mistake this bill is an outright attack on LGBTQ+ youth and adults pure and simple.
D'arth Banish
March 7, 2022 at 6:17 pm
Why are you so anxious to teach gay sex, transgenderism and gender fluidity to 3rd graders?
Kenneth L Gallaher
March 7, 2022 at 10:23 am
How does she know?
It’s a 1st Amendment violation
AJ Loca
March 7, 2022 at 5:39 pm
“Opponents dub it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, because it bans discussions of homosexuality in lower grade levels.”
NO IT DOESN”T BAN DISCUSSIONS ON HOMOSEXUALITY. It says that teachers are not allowed to TEACH homosexuality IN THE CLASSROOM as PART OF THE CURRICULUM for K-5 students.
Opponents of this bill are arguing that your Kindergartner through FIFTH grader SHOULD be taught about transgenderism, gender fluidity, and gay intercourse. And YES, wanting to teach that to children is p3d0philia.
Rad
March 7, 2022 at 8:02 pm
You are ignorant mean and vulgar. Yo are a shame to mankind.
Rad
March 7, 2022 at 7:53 pm
It is so vulgar and hateful to be called a pedophile.. It breaks my heart.. I am just a gay man,,, not an Animal! I am a human being!!….
Rad
March 7, 2022 at 8:06 pm
You are ignorant mean and vulgar. You are a shame to mankind.
Kai Dvid
March 8, 2022 at 8:27 am
If the don’t say gay bill is aka the anti-groomer bill, then I propose the stop child beauty pageants bill aka the anti-groomer bill. Child beauty pageants force young girls to dreß and look sexualized that pedophiles thrive on.
Timoteo
March 8, 2022 at 9:24 am
What a bullxxxx world we live in (on both sides).
The left has their own narrative they push by cleverly shifting and distorting the bill’s intent to keep sex education out of the K-3 classroom and re-labeling it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
The right responds with an equally devise narrative (“Groomer’s delight”)
To think that a kindergartner has a fully-developed brain and can assimilate sexual knowledge and information is startlingly (and perhaps willfully) ignorant of the facts – straight, gay or otherwise.
Pushaw is merely reacting to distortions from the left, and creating a reflective simile inside the language and cultural wars that have come to define almost every aspect of our lives.
If you find yourself seething with anger towards the “other side,” I might suggest that you have been fully controlled and conditioned by forces outside of your conscious understanding.
Whirled Peas
March 9, 2022 at 7:17 pm
The article says the bill disallows speech that is “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”
Does the “state standard” not already apply? Or is that not the case? Is it necessary to write a law that says we have to obey other laws? Or is this political theater to drum up the base and/or cause division?
gm
March 15, 2022 at 5:13 pm
The belief that those in the LGTBQ community are sexual pedophiles, is a falsehood. If it is truly her plan to keep those that are underage safe from sexual predators, maybe the bill could be called “Don’t Say Gaetz.”
Comments are closed.