If Period Discussions In Health Class Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will ... What The HELL FLORIDA?
(the other article at this link is a real doozy as well)
If Period Discussions In Health Class Are Outlawed, Only Outlaws Will ... What The HELL FLORIDA?
Robyn Pennacchia
March 17, 2023 12:20 PM
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Craiyon
Florida Republican Admits His Bill Would Bar Young Girls From Discussing Their Periods In School
One day in fifth grade, the school nurse sent all the boys to go play baseball outside and gathered the girls to watch several instructive but weirdly outdated videos about menstruation, including this one, starring Andrea McArdle and the cast of Annie, many, many years after the show closed on Broadway. And then my friend Angela and I went around singing "Your period will come, tomorrow! When you're wearing white shorts and it's gym day! You'll get cramps!" for the rest of the year. Naturally.
Florida state Rep. Stan McClain (R) has a bill, however, that would make all of that illegal. HB 1069, which he introduced on Wednesday, would bar all instruction and discussion of sexual health related issues before sixth grade. “Does this bill prohibit conversations about menstrual cycles ― because we know that typically the ages is between 10 and 15 ― so if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in fifth grade or fourth grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?” Rep. Ashley Viola Gantt (D) asked McClain during the hearing. "It would," he said. Rep. Gantt later asked McClain if teachers would be penalized if girls, say, came to them with period-related issues. He says it would but that he was "amenable" to considering amending the bill so that teachers wouldn't lose their jobs if a kid came up to them and asked for a menstrual pad or whatever. How very gracious of him.
Link to tweet
The bill also petulantly insists that children must be taught "that sex is determined by biology and reproductive function at birth: that biological males impregnate biological females by fertilizing the female egg with male sperm; that the female then gestates the offspring; and that these reproductive roles are binary, stable, and unchangeable." Because that's totally going to stop trans people from existing, right? That's a thing that it is possible to do, right along with barring girls from getting their periods until the sixth grade.
Of course, that's not the purpose of this shit. The purpose of this is to inspire other children to be shitty to trans children, so Rep. McClain doesn't have to worry about a scary future world where people don't share his ridiculous ideas about human sexuality. It's actually pretty important for kids to get age-appropriate instruction in sexual health, at the very least so that if god forbid they are being sexually abused they understand that it's wrong and have the language to describe what is happening to them. Though this might also bar them from discussing that with teachers right along with questions about menstruation.
https://www.wonkette.com/if-period-discussions-in-health-class-are-outlawed-only-outlaws-will-what-the-hell-florida