Florida: Gay teachers ordered to remove partner's photo from desk

Teachers with same-sex partners in the city of Orlando, Florida, are no longer allowed to have family photos on their desks. The city's public school board is introducing this measure to comply with the state's "Don't Say Gay" law.
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At a meeting, school principals were told that all references to the rainbow flag, self-selected personal pronouns and same-sex partners should be banned. Homosexual teachers are therefore no longer allowed to talk about their other half and students must be addressed with the personal pronouns that belong to their gender assigned at birth.

The school board is forced to do this because the law is "vaguely" written, according to local TV station WFTV9. The teachers must be protected, according to the board, because they can lose their license if they are found guilty of breaking the law.

The law in question was introduced in Florida in April and prohibits schools from discussing LGBT+ topics. Opponents have dubbed the law the Don't Say Gay Act. This states that a school "should not encourage class discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity (...) in a way that is not appropriate for the age or development of students." The law mainly focuses on primary schools, but LGBT+ organizations fear the consequences for education as a whole.

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