The current battle over LGBTQ rights in Florida has now claimed another victim. Over a year after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the infamously nicknamed “Don’t Say Gay” laws, College Board announced that Florida has banned schools from offering AP Psychology over issues concerning gender identity and sexual orientation in the curriculum. Although Florida does have the power to decide what is taught in their schools, they should not ban an entire course just to censor LGBTQ-related topics.
While the state of Florida does have their reasons to remove AP Psychology from its schools, this decision is excessive. Even though barring instruction on LGBTQ-related content in primary education is fairly reasonable, as younger children may not have the mental capacity to understand these complex topics, censorship in secondary education classes like AP Psychology is an overstep since most students have already been exposed to these topics and most likely have a basic understanding. It would also help students to learn about these topics at an older age so that they can be tolerant and understanding of LGBTQ groups.
Countering this reasoning, Manny Diaz Jr., Florida’s state education commissioner, said AP Psychology may still be taught in a way that is “age-appropriate.” However, many school districts in the state still chose to drop the course over fear of legal repercussions. By refusing to make exceptions to their laws, Florida reveals that its current policies may be about more than protecting children.
Many students who wished to take AP Psychology—one of the most popular AP courses with over 28,000 Floridian students enrolled last year, according to the New York Times—were left hanging as schools scrambled to find a replacement course. Now students can no longer take a valuable, enlightening, and inspirational course simply because DeSantis wishes to silence and ignore the LGBTQ community. The removal of LGBTQ-related instruction in Florida schools will also further alienate LGBTQ students, which could negatively affect their well-being and mental health as the lack of instruction, along with other anti-LGBTQ laws, could result in students not feeling safe or welcomed.
DeSantis’ decision to ban AP Psychology set a negative precedent that any state can censor classes in schools in hopes of diminishing an already marginalized community.
