The Star-Telegram reached out to Tarrant County’s state lawmakers about Patrick’s email, including Sen. “No teacher should be fearful of providing a safe and inclusive classroom.” “We know that LGBTQ people are part of every Texas community, and that includes every school, every family, and bills that stigmatize and isolate LGBTQ students and teachers damage the cohesiveness of classrooms and undermine the necessary learning process that takes place in schools,” he said.
Ricardo Martinez, Equality Texas’ chief executive officer, said the group will fight to ensure a bill like the one in Florida doesn’t get passed in the coming legislative session. She wishes elected officials would focus on issues like the electric grid, the environment and the teacher shortage “instead of wasting their time and energy picking on the least of us, LGBT kids.” She thinks good teachers would quit and kids would be traumatized by the policy. Lisa Daly, the secretary for PFLAG Fort Worth, an organization for LGBTQ people, their families and allies, said she believes laws like the one in Florida are intended to eradicate LGBTQ kids by not acknowledging them. His general election opponent has not been set, as Democrats Mike Collier and Michelle Beckley are contending for a place on the November ballot in a May 24 runoff. Patrick, a Republican, is running for reelection and advanced out of the March primary without a runoff. DeSantis said the legislation is intended to enforce parental rights, the newspaper reported. Opponents of the bill say its vague language will lead to teachers not talking about gender inclusiveness in classrooms, regardless of grade level, according to the Miami Herald. In Monday’s email Patrick said he was angered by the company’s “over the top resistance to a Florida law that simply says schools cannot sexualize children in elementary school.” Patrick called on the Senate’s Education Committee to address the issue in interim hearings ahead of the legislative session that starts in January. “Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that,” Disney said in the statement. Disney issued a statement condemning the law the day it was signed, saying it “should never have passed and should never been signed into law.” The company had been criticized by employees for not doing more to oppose the bill. Patrick’s email took aim at The Walt Disney Company.