Tensions flare at Miami school board meeting as panel votes against LGBT+ history month

School board members cited Florida’s Parental Rights in Education bill as their reason for not supporting October being recognised as LGBTQ History Month

Tensions flared as a Miami school board delivered a near resounding no to a motion that would’ve recognised October as LGBTQ History Month - to the point that security had to intervene with attendees.

At a public meeting on Wednesday night, the Miami-Dade School Board voted 8-1 against the resolution which proved to be one of the latest testing grounds for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s recently passed Parental Rights in Education bill, more commonly slammed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

The majority of naysayers on the school board cited the Florida governor’s bill, stating that they believed that the actions outlined in H-11 violated the legislation that came into effect on 1 July this year.

In that legislation, the text – which critics have accused of being left intentionally vague – states that instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity would be banned “in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

Further, the bill states that parents or guardians “may bring an action against a school district to obtain a declaratory judgement” and a court may award damages and attorney’s fees if it finds that a school violated the measure.

Miami-Dade School Board member Lucia Baez-Geller, the sponsor of the resolution to make October LGBT+ History Month, was the sole yeasayer on the bill on Wednesday night (Local 10/video screengrab)

The sole “yes” vote on the resolution came from School Board member Lucia Baez-Geller, the sponsor, who argued passionately throughout the public meeting that it wouldn’t breach the controversial piece of state legislation.

“We currently at Miami-Dade County schools don’t have an LGBTQ curriculum,” Ms Baez-Geller said adding, “This item does not indoctrinate students. It does not force an agenda on students.”

In addition to demarcating the month of October as LGBTQ History Month, H-11 also proposed that the superintendent of the schools make materials available to Grade 12 educators so that they feel equipped to teach their students about landmark Supreme Court cases such as Obergefell v Hodges, the ruling that required all states to recognise same-sex marriages in the US.

The proposal stated that teaching this material would not be required, and parents could opt out if a teacher did decide to include it in the Grade 12 curriculum.

But even that stipulation provided enough uncertainty for some of the board members to view it as violating the recently passed Parental Rights bill in the Sunshine State.

“If we are going to allow the teachers to decide what will be taught in classrooms during this time, that concerns me,” said Christi Fraga, who represents district five in the school board and voted against the resolution.

A student adviser attending the school board meeting, who didn’t have voting capabilities, defended the bill’s introduction, noting how a good portion of the school boards’ students supported the measure.

“Our students want this to pass,” said 17-year-old  Andrea S Pita Mendez, the school board’s student advisor, according to Local 10.

Tensions in the meeting reached a flashpoint on multiple occasions, with many of the parents attending the vote offering up tearful testimonies about why they believed the recognising October as LGBTQ History month represented, in their minds, something much more sinister.

“Why are you pressuring our kids to pick a sexuality at 11 years old? Why are you doing this?” begged one tearful parent during the public session of the evening, perhaps not realising that there was no portion of the motion that asked for elementary age students to be engaged in academic instruction about LGTBQ history month.

Other parents and guardians in the room who supported measure attempted to play to their ethos, with one man stepping up to the mic to ask: “Some of you in this room may have children who are gay, you may not know it, but please, I hope you support them.”

Tensions inside the auditorium seemed to only flare up more as the night proceeded, as WUSF Media reported how audience members who opposed the bill stood up at one point to turn their backs on the motion’s sponsor, Ms Baez-Geller, as she spoke.

Outside the building, members from the far-right fringe group Proud Boys, who have been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, gathered dressed in full uniform, further agitating an already tense atmosphere.

In vocalising their support for opposing the measure, each member who voted no on the bill reiterated the notion that it would be against the Sunshine State’s law.

“The teachers have to follow the law. The school board members have to follow the law. The superintendent has to follow the law. Everyone here has to follow the Florida state standards,” Board Member Lubby Navarro said. “I’m sorry. I cannot support this.”

Despite the resolution not getting passed, attendees at the vote who remained steadfast in its support stood proudly at the mic to speak to its integrity, some of whom wore pink triangles on their chest in a nod to the Nazi regime that forced homosexuals to wear the insignia as a marker during the Holocaust.

“We shouldn’t be depriving our students of foundational chapters of our nation’s history,” said Maxx Fenning, the president of PRISM, a local LGBTQ support organisation. “LGBTQ history is American history because LGBTQ Americans are Americans.”