Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is running for president of the United States, citing anti-diversity, pro-censorship, and white supremacist policies. He targets education, LGBTQ rights, and access to healthcare, and if he wins, his anti-scientific candidacy will hurt millions of Americans.
DeSantis bans books in school libraries, limits teachers’ classroom discussions about diversity, bans high school classes that focus on black history and people, and politicizes college curricula to It limited spending on diversity programs, ignored greenhouse gas reductions in climate policy, and reduced reproductive rights. and outlawed transgender medical care.
Governor rejects all evidence that masks are safe and help prevent coronavirus, appoints Surgeon General to recommend against vaccines, continues to paint science and evidence as restrictions on freedoms for Florida residents . Rather than limiting the government’s role, as he argued in his fight against masks, he seeks to expand the government’s role to selectively promote specific religious agendas.
Florida’s maternal mortality rate is on the rise, but DeSantis signed one of the country’s most restrictive abortion laws, banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, and abortion could help It endangers people with life-threatening complications. Black women in Florida have the lowest maternal mortality rate of any group in the state, and those who are denied abortions and forced to give birth suffer emotionally, financially, and educationally, studies show. there is These statistics certainly won’t improve under these new laws that are forcing health care providers to relocate out of state.
By outlawing gender-affirming care for young people and downplaying the use of preferred pronouns and names, governors and their allies will undoubtedly add to the suffering of transgender people. Several studies have examined the mental health of transgender teens. Researchers found that giving puberty blockers to adolescents who questioned their birth-assigned gender reduced depression, anxiety, and anger. Another study found that 56 percent of transgender youth surveyed had attempted suicide, with causes including feeling displaced, excluded, and severely lacking self-esteem. It was
Despite Florida’s vulnerability to climate change from natural disasters and rising sea levels, DeSantis once again ignored scientific evidence and refused to address the role of greenhouse gas emissions in global warming. Instead, he focused on adaptation, a measure of resilience. He also denied sustainable investment initiatives, such as bonds that fund renewable energy initiatives in the state. However, adaptation and mitigation are closely related. Without mitigating the causes of climate change, adaptation will reach its limits and under DeSantis Florida remains at high risk of climate-related disasters.
DeSantis signed a bill allowing students to contest books in school libraries that they deem unsuitable for children. Books that have been pulled from library shelves to date include a biography of baseball player Roberto Clemente (later restored), poems by Amanda Gorman, and poems by Margaret Atwood. Handmaid’s Tale There are also books on black, Cuban, and LGBTQ perspectives.
Authors of several books removed from shelves in Florida violated both First Amendment right to free speech and right to equal protection under 14th Amendment law sued the state as Teachers’ unions and other groups are suing the law, saying it extends beyond schools to public libraries.
His “don’t say you’re gay” law bans teachers from talking about homosexuality or transgender until high school. Such regulations hinder comprehensive sex education, invalidate LGBTQ students, and increase the mental health burden in states with acute shortages of child and adolescent psychiatrists.
DeSantis and the Far Right misrepresent important racial theories (which examine the role of race in the legal system) and urge universities to remove references to the theory from the Advanced Placement African American Studies curriculum. put pressure on the board. The governor’s actions are part of a massive misinformation campaign to scare white people and defend white nationalism. But racism is real, and the promotion of white nationalism in our multicultural, multilingual, global society cannot reason or think critically like other students. It will produce generations of students.
The governor also banned efforts by Florida’s universities to promote diversity, inclusion and equity. The ban could affect all aspects of education, including efforts to recruit non-white STEM students and scientists into higher education. He combined the historically apolitical board of directors of the New College of Florida with conservative ideologues to create a higher education institution that adhered to his version of American education and white exceptionalism. This higher education institution is clearly modeled after a conservative evangelical Christian university.
What Ron DeSantis has done in Florida mirrors efforts in other states, including Texas. He is one of a new breed of conservative lawmakers who talk about freedom while restricting it. This political maneuvering is part of his national presence, but it does not represent the views of the majority of Americans. Although Florida’s population is growing faster than most other parts of the United States, Florida now has fewer critical thinkers, fewer educators and fewer people of color to educate, and fewer deaths from childbirth. and many will die in childbirth. They are in danger because of their identity. A country led by a person wielding such cruelty, bigotry and megalomania will never be a more perfect coalition.
