Miami-Dade School Board again snubs LGBTQ History Month

In a meeting that lasted past midnight Thursday, the Miami-Dade County School Board voted for a second consecutive year against recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month amid intense public pressure and concern from some members that doing otherwise would violate state law.

Just three of the panel’s eight members — Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall, Luisa Santos and Lucia Baez-Geller, the proposal’s sponsor — voted “yes” despite the School Board lawyer’s opinion that the item (H-11) was “legally sufficient.”

Baez-Geller assured her colleagues and the throng of residents who attended the meeting that the measure was in keeping with Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law. The law, among other things, prohibits classroom instruction on sexual preference and gender identity in grades K-12.

She sponsored a similar measure last year that failed on an 8-1 vote. In 2021, the School Board — then without four members backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis — voted 7-1 for Baez-Geller’s proposal to observe LGBTQ History Month for the first time.

“Regardless of the controversy, we have LGBTQ students in our schools that are going to appreciate this and need this and want their school system to say, ‘We see you and we believe in you, and you matter,’” she said. “We are not doing anything for instructional materials.”

She added that “every school site has a Gay-Straight Alliance club, and it’s going to be up to them how they will celebrate and in what format.”

But Vice Chair Daniel Espino, a DeSantis donor whom the Governor appointed to the School Board last year, questioned how the district could hold LGBTQ History Month without deviating from state strictures.

He joined fellow appointee Mary Blanco, DeSantis-endorsed members Roberto Alonso and Monica Colucci, and Chair Maria Teresa “Mari Tere” Rojas in voting down the item.

Board member Steve Gallon left before the vote.

“I really don’t understand how a teacher is expected to recognize, observe and celebrate this month without being perceived by students’ parents as instructive,” Espino said.

The measure, brought up for discussion Wednesday afternoon, attracted hundreds to the School Board Administration Building in downtown Miami. Some of the 70 or so speakers, including many students, teachers and advocacy group members, implored the Board to “recognize the LGBTQ community for their accomplishments despite the insurmountable hurdles they faced.”

Others — including parents, residents and members of the Christian Family Coalition and Moms for Liberty, whose co-founder DeSantis appointed Wednesday to the Florida Ethics Commission — condemned the proposal as an attempt at “indoctrinating our kids.”

Local constituents of the “western chauvinist” Proud Boys group, some of whose members have received lengthy prison sentences for their part in the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, set up outside the facility. Some wore shirts that said, “Shoot Your Local Pedophile.”

If approved, H-11 would have done two things:

— Officially state that the Miami-Dade School Board recognized and observed “October 2023 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) History Month in accordance with state and federal law.”

— Directed Superintendent Jose Dotres to “support policies and practices, not pertaining to, relating to, or affecting curriculum, instruction or instructional materials, and consistent with (school district policy) and state and federal laws that respect and support LGBTQ students, employees and their families throughout the school year.

The two-page item notes that research collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trevor Project, an LGBTQ-focused suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization, showed LGBTQ youth are more than four times likelier to attempt suicide as their peers.

It also cited research published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Adolescent Health that found “transgender and nonbinary youth were 2 to 2.5 times as likely to experience depressive symptoms, seriously consider suicide, and attempt suicide compared to their cisgender LGBTQ peers.”

“The District appreciates and recognizes the importance of LGBTQ History Month as an effective means of educating and calling to action our community to work together by fighting prejudice and discrimination in their own lives, increasing visibility, and raising awareness without pertaining to, relating to, or affecting curriculum, classroom instruction or instructional materials,” the measure said.

“This fosters a welcoming school climate where LGBTQ students, families, and educators can live their authentic lives and be treated with dignity and respect.”