Total World Domination As Presented by Ron DeSantis

Hello and welcome back to my blog! I hope the title of this blog was enticing and I hope it is clear that it is satire. To give more context for what you are about to listen to, let me tell you about my class. I've have been studying the disparities in treatment of race, gender, and class related to law and policy. One compelling story I had the opportunity to hear was from a man named Anthony Holmes. Anthony Holmes was a victim of the Jon Burge torturings that occurred from 1972 to 1991. Holmes shared his experience with me and my class and the effects that persist today. Jon Burge was one of many corrupt and influential individuals that still plague our society. Jon Burge destroyed that lives of many, and those people are still feeling effects, as well as living in a city that made a poor attempt at reparations. Reparations was another big conversation we had in class. We looked into what past attempts have been made, what worked and what was a band-aid put on deeper systemic issues. 

A topic that I found to be relevant was the idea of censorship. Reparations, in some cases, has been used as an apology with he expectation that it fixes the issue and therefore there is no need to speak on it. I decided to look into where else our country censors. I found this censorship in Florida. HB 1557, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" law, is one that heavily censors educators to a destructive extent. 

This action project gave me the opportunity to look further into this law. I was asked to think about what the future of this law might look like, specifically 100 years into the future. Below, you can listen to podcast I created from the perspective of a podcaster that looks into the history of our country and what's changed in their current day.

KAH · The History of Saying "Gay"

Script:
Hello and welcome back to the “Into The Past” podcast. Today is March 13th 2123 and if you’re new to this podcast, welcome! Here at ‘Into the Past” we look at historical events of the 21st century and see what’s changed and how we might still need to improve in this year, 2123.

Today, we are going to get into the impacts of a historical law, HB1557, or as more commonly known in its time, the “don’t say gay” law. As we know now, this law has long been overruled but it had a big impact. It had a lifespan of 15 years and as some might know, this law caused a series of rather unfortunate events.

Let’s go back to 2022, when the law would be made arguably the most controversial bill to come from the Florida state legislature. According to the bill itself, “classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.” To put the bill in the most simple terms, from the perspective of its supporters, and declared by an ABC article released in March of 2022, it “is to protect young children from instruction that parents should be teaching their kids through their values at home.” The idea of this bill was ultimately to allow parents to regulate what is taught in the classroom, this would however result in harmful censorship relating to the LGBTQ+ community.

Organizations like “Moms for Liberty” expressed support for this bill. **insert moms for liberty testimonial**

While organizations like “The American Historical Association” opposed this bill.

Quote “The legislation you are considering would do significant harm to students in your state. The significant gaps in the knowledge of high school students would limit their college preparedness and their access to early college credit.”

There were protests and walkouts by high school students. “I'm a senior in high school and I’m facing my last month of school. I’m stressed, unmotivated, and scared.” - CJ Walden, vice president of the youth-led LGBTQ+ organization PRISM.

There was continuous uproar by young people to repeal this law that had little effect on Gov. DeSantis and pushed him to further enforce his ideology. DeSantis’ luck prevailed, the 2024 presidential election resulting in former Senator Marsha Blackburn not only becoming the first female president of the U.S., but also as fully supporting DeSantis’s endeavor. DeSantis’s luck only seemed to blossom from here.

Following the unfortunate deaths of Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor not too far apart in 2025, both seats were replaced by what would be known as the “raging republicans.” These historical events became necessary for DeSantis’s next most controversial bill the be made into law.

Protests turned into riots, they grew uncontrollable, resulting in 97 deaths. DeSantis created a bill that was argued to be the saving grace of Florida. HB 20233 as simply described would result in all formal educational gatherings, from kindergarten through 12th grade, be made illegal, unless overseen by the parents of students. Meaning, parents are allowed to homeschool or form co-ops as long as they are overseeing it. There was such a commotion for the censorship of LGBTQ related topics that DeSantis just decided to censor everything. All topics taught to children would be at the discretion of parents and their ideologies.

With the Supreme Court and President backing him, DeSantis got this bill passed into law which eradicated all K-12 formal education institutions. This law was what would completely divide the state. Educators were fired and forced to either pursue a different profession or move different states. Parents were forced to either take on the load of self-educating their children, move states, or allow their children to be uneducated.

There was a big migration of parents moving to surrounding states. An important thing to note at this point, there was a big disparity between those who wanted to move and had the resources to and those who were financially unable to. There was also a majority of people staying, along with a population from surrounding states moving in, it seems they enjoyed this new government hyper-dominated state.

To cut a long history story short, and because we’re running low on time, once Blackburn was out of office after serving two terms, Sasha Obama would be voted in as the first Black woman president. Sasha Obama, along with Anti HB 20233 supporters, were able to bring the Florida state back from this disfigurement. HB 20233 was overturned and since the state of Florida is attempting to reconstruct a more peaceful environment.

Fast forward to 2070, Ron DeSantis passed away in early May. Unfortunately for many, DeSantis’ son Mason, would continue his spotty legacy. Mason DeSantis along with other Ron DeSantis supporters would attempt to carry on his ideology.

So how does this history lesson relate to today? Well if you’ve been paying attention to the news lately, there is talk of revitalizing HB 20233. We need to talk about the history behind this bill - or more specifically, the harm this bill caused. The intense censorship of teachers, children, and allies was what tore the state apart in a polarizing approach.

“I want to be heard. There’s a big issue with people’s understanding of who gets to be heard. And it usually is people in power. Freedom of speech is greatly important to this country but this is less apparent in this bill.” - That was Abby Davis, a senior in the city of chicago raising awareness to the revitalization of HB 20233.

In this less than unbiased episode of “Into The Past,” we looked into the history of HB 1557 and HB 20233. We talked about the impact of these two bills while addressing the revitalization of HB 20233. If you want to learn more about the topics of today’s podcast, our sources will be linked below. Until next time, this is KH with “Into the Past.”

Through this action project, I learned a lot more about the legislation in Florida and the efforts to oppose this law. I wrote this podcast from a fictional perspective with less than factual evidence of those event occurring. I did find thinking about the possibilities of the country's future interesting and also nerve racking as well. I definitely hope there is a more hopeful future for us. 

Thank you so much for listening and reading!

Works cited:

“AHA Sends Letters to Florida Legislature Opposing Legislation Restricting History Education (February 2022): AHA.” AHA Sends Letters to Florida Legislature Opposing Legislation Restricting History Education (February 2022) | AHA, https://www.historians.org/news-and-advocacy/aha-advocacy/aha-sends-letters-to-florida-legislature-opposing-legislation-restricting-history-education-(february-2022). 

“The Florida Senate.” House Bill 1557 (2022) - The Florida Senate, https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/1557. 

Haug, Oliver. “The Florida Teen Activists Leading the Fight against ‘Don't Say Gay.’” Them, 21 Apr. 2022, https://www.them.us/story/florida-teen-activists-fighting-dont-say-gay-prism. 

“LGBT: PRISM: Florida.” PRISM, https://www.prismfl.org/. 

Paluska, Michael. “Parental Rights? or an Attack on the LGBTQ Community?: Breaking Down HB1557.” ABC Action News Tampa Bay (WFTS), ABC Action News Tampa Bay (WFTS), 25 Mar. 2022, https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/full-circle/parental-rights-or-an-attack-on-the-lgbtq-community-breaking-down-hb1557.