As Florida’s legislature moved to sure up parental rights from radical leftist teachers on Tuesday, ABC’s The View again peddled the factious narrative of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. They went to such extreme measures to attack this defense for parental rights that co-host Sara Haines suggested the bill would allow parents to torture their children at home and make teachers “betray” students who speak out about it.
Shortly after co-host Whoopi Goldberg falsely proclaimed that disturbed teachers exposing students to their personal sexual habits was “not happening” and “has never been happening in the school system,” Haines argued that “considering its kindergarten through third, the bill isn't accomplishing anything” because they didn’t talk about sex at that age when she was in school.
Haines is 44.
“It's not solving anything. But it is doing is creating a veil of shame,” she continued to assert as she went on an unhinged rant suggesting parents would now be able to torture their kids and teachers can’t stop it:
Teachers are first responders for kids. They're the first responders for anything going on, whether it’s abuse at home or otherwise. We have seen kids -- I don't know if you saw the Gabriel Fernandez story. That kid was brutally tortured. One of the ignorant slurs being thrown to him by his – I don’t know if it was a stepfather or his mother’s boyfriend was, “you're gay.”
There are people who are so violently unhinged and ignorant that this can be a problem for some people. So, you can't take teachers away from these kids.
Part of her argument seemed to hint that she believed teachers had some sort of parental ownership over their students because she was fearful the law would make them “obligated to then out their own children.”
Note: Students are not a teacher’s “own kids.”
And despite having said the “bill isn't accomplishing anything” because there’s no sexual talk in those grades, Haines went on to claim it would have harmed her brother who “feel different at about five or six” years old. “So, if he asked a question, not knowing what it was to be ‘gay’ but to feel different, he could have been in a situation where he turned to a teacher that had to betray him,” she said.
This is also false. The bill allows for students to bring up the topic or have a discussion in confidence with teachers. It just stops teachers from pushing their sexual habits on kids.
Those facts didn’t stop Goldberg from concocting the story of how kids of same-sex couples can no longer talk about their weekends. Nor did they stop co-host Sunny Hostin from wrongly insisting “cruelty is the point” and that it’s designed “to shame families” and “to shame children.”
And without saying his name, Hostin blamed former President Trump and argued this was the natural progression after banning Critical Race Theory (click “expand”):
HOSTIN: We could see this coming, I think, when you start banning books, when you start banning history in the classroom. What's the next step? It's banning discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity. It's then banning discussions about certain religions. We have been on this path, I'm sorry, since your boss took – [points to Stephanie Grisham]
GOLDBERG: Former boss.
HOSTIN: Former boss took office. He started to say the quiet part out loud. The discrimination became transparent and blatant, and this is the result of it.
“And, you know, life’s too short for us to do this to the kids. I'm sorry. It's too short to do it to anybody. But it's too short to do it to the kids,” Goldberg huffed as they went to a commercial break.
The View’s lies about parental rights in Florida were made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Charmin and Ensure. Their contact information is linked.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
March 8, 2022
11:15:25 a.m. EasternWHOOPI GOLDBERG: Now, the Florida Senate is expected to vote today on the so-called “Don't Say Gay” bill that would prohibit public schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity to children in kindergarten through third grade. I must point out this is not happening. It has never been happening in the school system. And yet, here we have yet another thing for kids to worry about. So, this has led to protests, student walk-outs, and a tearful plea from Florida’s first openly gay state senator Shevrin Jones.
(…)
GOLDBERG: So, is this bill shaming kids from being who they are and punishing teachers who actually want to help them? I mean, I'm not sure what the point of this is.
SARA HAINES: Well, considering its kindergarten through third, the bill isn't accomplishing anything because --
SUNNY HOSTIN: But if you look at the language -- that didn't make sense to me, so I looked at the language. It says that – it says “kindergarten through third grade or” – and this is the important part – “in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.” So really, that extends it. It's so vague. It extends it to whatever grade.
HAINES: It is. But focusing in on kindergarten through third is not a time where many of us had sex talk at all, sexuality, sex Ed. It's not solving anything. But it is doing is creating a veil of shame that already existed in a journey that's been fought for years for people to be their authentic selves. And now you're taking away schools.
Teachers are first responders for kids. They're the first responders for anything going on, whether it’s abuse at home or otherwise. We have seen kids -- I don't know if you saw the Gabriel Fernandez story. That kid was brutally tortured. One of the ignorant slurs being thrown to him by his – I don’t know if it was a stepfather or his mother’s boyfriend was, “you're gay.”
There are people who are so violently unhinged and ignorant that this can be a problem for some people. So, you can't take teachers away from these kids. Because when they are obligated to then out their own children-- This is again a journey we have not finished yet. People are still ostracized from their families. There are still people that try to pray the gay away. There’s a lot of that still going on.
If we start to go backwards in this journey of allowing people to do this, this will be a real problem, especially for kids that young. Because when you come out, a lot of -- My brother’s gay and I remember him sharing this story. He started to feel different at about five or six. So, if he asked a question, not knowing what it was to be “gay” but to feel different, he could have been in a situation where he turned to a teacher that had to betray him.
And I just think this is going the wrong direction.
GOLDBERG: How about kids who have same-sex parents?
HAINES: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: If you're the child of a same-sex couple, you can't talk about your weekend with your folks, all the stuff you all did. I don't understand the point. I don't understand making kids' lives harder than they need to be.
HOSTIN: The cruelty is the point, I think. And you hear that all the time. And it's to shame families. It's to shame children. We could see this coming, I think, when you start banning books, when you start banning history in the classroom. What's the next step? It's banning discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity. It's then banning discussions about certain religions. We have been on this path, I'm sorry, since your boss took – [points to Stephanie Grisham]
GOLDBERG: Former boss.
HOSTIN: Former boss took office. He started to say the quiet part out loud. The discrimination became transparent and blatant, and this is the result of it.
STEPHANIE GRISHAM: Well, and this one is personal to me. And you bring up a great point. Because of my former boss -- I have a 14-year-old son who is gay, recently came out as gay. Who I have his permission to talk about this, by the way. And he didn't want to tell his friends where I worked. He was ashamed of where I worked, rightfully so.
But also the fact that now there's this “don't say gay” even slogan out there, it's making children feel different. And there's a problem -- it's creating a problem where I don't think there is.
HAINES: To be clear, that saying is coming from critics of the bill. If it’s perpetuating a problem, we’ve got to be honest about where it comes from. That's people pushing back on the bill.
GRISHAM: But it's still out there. Don't say gay.
HOSTIN: Yeah, it is.
GRISHAM: And I just hate that.
GOLDBERG: That's the outcome of it. That's really the outcome. And, you know, life’s too short for us to do this to the kids. I'm sorry. It's too short to do it to anybody. But it's too short to do it to the kids.
And I have to say wait. Come back. Because there's more. We'll be right back.
