Florida school district orders removal of all books with gay characters before slightly backing off
Officials at a Florida school district ordered the removal of all books and material containing LGBTQ characters and themes from classrooms and campus libraries
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Top officials at a Florida school district ordered the removal of all books and material containing LGBTQ characters and themes from classrooms and campus libraries, saying that was needed to conform to a state law backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis that critics have dubbed “Don’t Say Gay.”
Charlotte County Schools Superintendent Mark Vianello and the school board’s attorney, Michael McKinley, were responding to questions from the district’s librarians at a July meeting asking whether the bill, officially the “Florida Parental Rights in Education Act,” required the removal of any books that simply had a gay character but no explicit sex scenes.
“Books with LBGTQ+ characters are not to be included in classroom libraries or school library media centers,” the pair responded, according to a district memo obtained under a public information request by the Florida Freedom to Read Project. The nonprofit group, which opposes the law, provided the memo to The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The district later backed off a bit, allowing some exceptions for high school libraries. But Charlotte’s policy remains one of the more stringent policies adopted by the state’s 67 countywide school districts to enforce the bill.
The law was originally passed by the Legislature and signed by DeSantis in 2022 and strengthened last spring. The southwest Florida county between Fort Myers and Sarasota has about 17,000 students in its public schools. The Republican governor, who is running for his party’s presidential nomination, won the county with 70% of the vote in 2022 as he cruised to reelection.
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