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Join us in demanding that Charlotte County Public Schools:

• Immediately cease its discriminatory and unlawful policy and practice of banning books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes from District media centers, curricula, and classrooms.
• Publish clear guidance regarding LGBTQ+ materials in District media centers, curricula, and classrooms.
• Restore all books with LGBTQ+ themes that have been removed from shelves.
• Create and publish policies and procedures ensuring the safety of LGBTQ+ students, faculty, and staff.

In a stark move to erase the experiences and representation of LGBTQ+ people, Charlotte County Public Schools (CCPS) has implemented a ban against any school library materials with LGBTQ+ themes.*1 

This even includes books selected by students “for silent sustained reading in class, or book reports, or anything involving instruction” and even “after school book clubs run by teachers.”  In the only document stating school policy on LGBTQ+ themes in books, CCPS said that “LBGTQ characters or themes … cannot exist.”

Despite dozens of parents, teachers, and former and current students sharing their horror at such a discriminatory policy at a school board meeting on October 10, the school district has done nothing to clarify its policy. Even following a private meeting with representatives from ARAY, PFLAG Charlotte County, and Equality Florida, the school district has done nothing to roll back this harmful policy.

Our community will not stand for this continued discrimination against our students, families, and school staff. If you believe that all young people have a right to see themselves represented in the books they read, please sign this petition.

 

More Information:

The school district has claimed, wrongly, that this policy and practice is required by Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, which prohibits “[c]lassroom instruction … on sexual orientation or gender identity” in kindergarten through eighth grade and allows only “age- appropriate or developmentally appropriate” instruction for high school students. Fla. Stat. § 1001.42(8)(c)3. By interpreting this language to prohibit only gay, transgender, and other LGBTQ+ characters and themes, the District is, absurdly, asserting that straight and cisgender individuals do not have sexual orientations or gender identities—otherwise books that contain straight and cisgender characters would also violate the statute. In fact, as Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has explained, the law “does not prohibit literary references to a gay or transgender person or to a same-sex couple.”*2

The Attorney General has also confirmed that simply mentioning the existence of LGBTQ+ characters or themes does not constitute “instruction” under the statute: “[A] tangential reference to a person’s sexual orientation is not ‘classroom instruction’ on it, just as a math problem asking students to add bushels of apples is not ‘instruction on’ apple farming.”*3 The statute, she explained, “restricts instruction on particular subjects (sexual orientation and gender identity), not mere discussion, let alone mere mention, of them.”*4

Finally, the state has repeatedly affirmed that “the statute regulates only ‘classroom instruction,’ not the availability of library books.”*5 Nonetheless, the District has applied Section 1001.42(8)(c)3 to school libraries. The District has justified this by arguing that school media centers are sometimes used for classroom instruction and are therefore “classroom settings.” But that is irrelevant: A book on a classroom or library shelf is not, without more, “instruction” by any reasonable definition of that word. Nor is a book selected by a student for independent reading or a homework project—both also banned by District policy.

These attacks on the rights of LGBTQ+ youth have a severe impact on the health and safety of our youth, The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People reported:*6

• 45% of LGBTQ+ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year. with rates even higher for transgender youth and youth of color.
• LGBTQ+ youth who found their school to be LGBTQ+-affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide.
• LGBTQ+ youth who live in a community that is accepting of LGBTQ+ people reported significantly lower rates of attempting suicide than those who do not.

Please sign this petition, and take a stand for inclusion and fairness in Charlotte County.

For all media inquiries, please contact Hal@allrainbowandalliedyouth.org

Sources:

*1 Media Conversation Recap with School Board Attorney

*2 Cousins et al. v. School Board of Orange County, State Defendants’ Second Motion to Dismiss and Incorporated Memorandum of Law, ECF 112 at 3, No. 6:22-cv-1312 (M.D. Fla. 2022).

*3 Cousins et al. v. School Board of Orange County, Attorney General’s Opposition to the Motion for Preliminary Injunction, ECF 52 at 4, No. 6:22-cv-1312 (M.D. Fla. 2022)

*4 Id.

*5 Cousins et al. v. School Board of Orange County, State Defendants’ Second Motion to Dismiss and Incorporated Memorandum of Law, ECF 112 at 8, No. 6:22-cv-1312 (M.D. Fla. 2022).

*6 https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2023/#intro