School Board Rejects Recognizing LGBTQ History Month In Miami-Dade

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, FL — The Miami-Dade County School Board voted 8-1 Wednesday night to reject a resolution recognizing October as LGBTQ History Month.

The resolution, H-11, was sponsored by board member Lucia Baez-Geller. If it had passed, it would have allowed 12th-grade social studies classes to learn about landmark LGBTQ U.S. Supreme Court cases, including Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognized same-sex marriage, and Bostock v. Clayton County, which banned employers from firing workers based on their sexual identity.

In the 2021-22 school year, the board supported a similar measure recognizing LGBTQ History Month in a 7-1 vote, according to ABC News.

At Wednesday’s meeting, though, board members were concerned that recognizing the month could violate Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law — dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law by its critics — which was signed into law by Gov. Ron DeSantis in March. The law prohibits the instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms, and limits how these topics are discussed by older students.

"This item has been attacked as indoctrination and [opponents] falsely claimed that this requires a LGBTQ curriculum," Baez-Geller said, according to the Miami New Times. "This honors the important roles LGBTQ people have taken in shaping our country."

Vice Chair Steve Gallon III, who supported last year’s similar measure, said that despite his “love for all humanity, my commitment to inclusivity and access to representation,” he was worried that it didn’t comply with the state’s new law, the Miami Herald reported.

More than 100 people shared their thoughts on the topic during the public comment portion of the evening, and, at times, the meeting grew rowdy, according to multiple reports.

Adults in the room even booed at Andrea S. Pita Mendez, the school board’s student advisor, who supported the passage of the resolution. She told Local 10 News that she was afraid during the meeting.

Security was forced to intervene after Mendez told the school board, “Our students want this to pass.”

One speaker at the meeting said, “The history of my community, the LGBTQ community, goes well beyond the discussion of sex and should be welcomed and cherished in schools, and yet we worry about controversy in our history lessons. Let me be clear, history is built out of controversy.”

Anthony Verdugo, executive director of the Christian Family Coalition in Miami, told The Washington Post, “Schools are there for education and not there for indoctrination. We celebrate the content of people’s character, not their sexual preference and not their sexual identity.”