It seems Florida’s Trump-esque Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has been busted in a pretty brutal lie hailing from his heinous so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill agenda — after he recently told a story about an alleged little girl who had her gender changed by her school without her parents’ consent during the press conference that followed the passing of the nasty, controversial anti-LGBTQA+ bill.
Thanks to information found in newly released emails, it turns out Ron’s story was nothing more than a big load of partisan political bullshit.
During the press conference yesterday, Ron DeSantis told this story:
We had a mother from Leon County, and her daughter was going to school and some people in the school had decided that the daughter was really a boy and not a girl. So they changed the girl’s name to a boy’s name, had her dress like a boy and on doing all this stuff, without telling the mother or getting consent from the mother. First of all, they shouldn’t be doing that at all. But to do these things behind the parents’ back and to say that the parents should be shut out. That is wrong.”
This particular story has served as a common narrative among Republican backers of the controversial bill that would outlaw the discussion of gender identity and sexuality with young, school-aged children. Numerous GOPers have used this story, that’s now been proven to be a lie, as some sort of “proof” of their claims that Florida educators have been indoctrinating Kindergarteners about sex and “Critical Race Theory.”
But a brutal new fact-check from CNN busted them.
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The story told by DeSantis and other Republican proponents of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill originated from an email sent to the school by the teen’s mother, a registered Republican, January Littlejohn. Back in 2020 Littlejohn reportedly wrote to her child’s school to inform them that her teen had come out as “non-binary” and now preferred to go by they/them pronouns.
These emails became a matter of public record when Littlejohn later included them in her lawsuit against the school.
“This has been an incredibly difficult situation for our family and her father and I are trying to be as supportive as we can,” an Aug. 27, 2020 email from Littlejohn to a teacher read. “She is currently identifying as non-binary. She would like to go by the new name [redacted] and prefers the pronouns they/them. We have not changed her name at home yet, but I told her if she wants to go by the name [redacted] with her teachers, I won’t stop her.”
The teacher in question responded to the email and asked the teen’s mother if she should share this information with other teachers and school officials.
“Whatever you think is best or [redacted] can handle it herself… I sincerely appreciate your support. I’m going to let her take the lead on this,” the mother responded. So, the teacher shared the change with her fellow educators that would be interacting with the teen in question.
POLITICO reported that Littlejohn picked her child up from school in Sept. 2020, when they made an off-hand comment about the school asking them which bathroom they would prefer, with the teen allegedly saying “it was funny.”
It was just months later that the teen’s family would lodge a lawsuit against the school, claiming that school officials met with their child and created a “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Student Support Plan.” This plan essentially outlined what pronouns the child would prefer to go by and covered “expectations regarding rooming for any overnight trips.”
Of the 33,000 students in the district in question, only 10 of them reportedly have one of these plans. Littlejohn claims that she was denied information regarding the plan when she confronted school officials about it.
A spokesperson for Leon County Schools said in a statement, “From the moment Mrs. Littlejohn first emailed her child’s teacher to inform our staff of the situation, this has been handled together in partnership with clear communication. We understand that outside entities have now become involved, but the family clearly instructed the school staff via email to allow their child to ‘take the lead on this’ and to do ‘whatever you think is the best.'”
“Additionally, our superintendent met with the family and committed to amend any vague or unclear policy language–of which we have created a committee and are working on currently. We truly hope for a swift outcome in this case in order to allow the student to continue to succeed in school.”
As he signed the “Parents Law,” DeSantis dramatically said, “When you listen to January tell her story about what they did with her child, without her knowledge or consent, I don’t think there’s very many parents in the state of Florida that think that’s OK. I can tell you I don’t think that’s OK.”
The Florida Republican governor has since been questioned about the emails and the blatant contradiction they make with his story and its repeated use, but he continues to dismiss the emails and imply that the school openly admitted that they were wrong.
CNN also personally reached out to the governor’s office when putting together their fact-check of DeSantis’ story and the emails that were discovered in connection to the parents’ lawsuit. The governor’s office reportedly refused to respond.
DeSantis’ controversial law is now in the courts as a group of parents sued to put a stop to it.
You can read the full CNN fact check here.
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
