City Commissioner Jack Porter and Leon County School Board candidate Jeremy Rogers recently announced their respective campaigns were endorsed by Equality Florida.
Rogers’ opponent – current school board member Laurie Cox – has been an advocate for parental rights and has spoken against Equality Florida positions.
In a statement provided to TR, Cox stated that “Equality Florida has for a long time been an influence in many school districts around the state pushing for LGBTQ rights in our schools and are not supportive of the Parental Rights in Education legislation. As a long-time teacher, I believe we as teachers have a responsibly to support all of our students and we as teachers should not use our classrooms for political or social activism causes. I strongly support parental rights and transparency, making sure parents know what is going on in the classrooms.”
According to the organization’s website, Equality Florida “is the largest civil rights organization dedicated to securing full equality for Florida’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community.”
Equality Florida was a driving force behind the creation of the first LGBTQ Guide in Leon County Schools which included a controversial provision that encouraged teachers and administrators to keep information related to gender issues from parents.
The provision came to light when documents indicated that administrators at Deer Lake Elementary School keep information about a student gender transition plan from the student’s parents.
After this controversy and the passage of state laws addressing the issue, Leon County Schools updated the guide.
In addition, emails provided to Tallahassee Reports in 2021 verified that Equality Florida influenced decisions made by Montford Middle School officials related to a controversial campaign to identify classrooms as safe places for certain students.
Current Equality Florida initiatives include ensuring “school counselors, social workers, or other mental health professionals implement a support plan for transgender and gender non-binary students, including but not limited to affirming pronouns and name, substitute teacher notification,
knowledge of gender affirmed unofficial documents such as student badges, etc. and equitable restroom, locker room and field trip procedures.”
Equality Florida also encourages school officials to “Respect the confidentiality of all students, especially LGBTQ youth who may not be out at home or in the community.”
We have two citizens running for school board positions -- that believe parents are responsible
for raising their children.....not Leon County. A little homework and Vote.
@DeepStateWhatever-How would you like it if a teacher transitioned your child to a different sex behind your back and without your consent? Jesus is definitely weeping over these perverted people.
@ Edward Lyle-You are Exactly right!
Equality Florida is anything but. They are the most hate-filled, exclusive, and inequitable organization I've had the displeasure of dealing with. They are focused on building their numbers in order to expand their political influence. Thats why they target the undeveloped and impressionable minds of children. They cannot convince adults to turn, so they must target children and support those who will forward their perverted agenda.
Amazing that people have so much hate in their heart that they would find oxygen to have a problem with protecting *all children* from these evil reprobates. Jesus does indeed weep over this.
"Respect the confidentiality of all students, especially LGBTQ youth who may not be out at home or in the community."
Amazing that people have so much hate in their heart that they would find oxygen to have a problem with respecting the confidentiality of *all students*. Jesus wept.
""I believe we as teachers have a responsibly to support all of our students and we as teachers should not use our classrooms for political or social activism causes. I strongly support parental rights and transparency, making sure parents know what is going on in the classrooms.”"............ YES. I agree with this Statement Totally. No one Student should have more Rights than others. Parents need to know what the Schools are teaching their Kids. Any Teacher, Administrator or Staff keeping that from Parents should be terminated. Keep "Equality Florida" out of Elementary & Jr. High Schools.
TR needs to do more research.
Fact 1: Equality Florida and the LBTG guide were allowed to infiltrate our schools under Alan Coxs leadership as Asst Super. This issue, and many others, were raised with him as a conservative thinker in our schools- he sat back, collected his check, watched it destroy our schools, and then leveraged a political run from it.
Fact 2: The parent at Deerlake MS was upset, rightfully so, because no one from the district would respond to her calls and emails- documents were not shared by the district. The school was following district guidance which was led by Rocky, Alan, and Kathleen Rodgers. The policy was wrong and the response magnified the issue to a national spotlight. Convenient how this became a national issue as the family used it to dirty up our local schools and obtain office.
They also endorsed Carolyn Cummings…why would that be omitted