Pete Buttigieg Slams Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill as Dangerous

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says Florida’s pending “Don’t Say Gay” bill is dangerous to families and LGBT youth who already have startlingly high rates of suicide.

Appearing on CNN Newsroom on Wednesday Buttigieg was asked by host Jim Sciutto, “Is this legislation dangerous?”

“Absolutely. And the reason is that it tells youth who are different or whose families are different that there’s something wrong with them out of the gate, and I do think that contributes to the shocking levels of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among LGBTQ youth,” Buttigieg said. “Chasten, my husband, pointed out that if our kids someday, some Monday morning, come into class, you know, and kids are sitting around and the teacher’s got the morning circle talking about how everybody’s weekends went, and one of them says, ‘I had the best weekend with my dads,’ is the teacher supposed to say, ‘No, we don’t talk about that here?’”

“Any age where it’s appropriate to talk about a kid’s mom and dad, then it should be appropriate to talk about a kid’s mom and mom or dad and dad or whatever family structure we live with. That’s part of what it means to be pro-family, is to be pro-every family.”

The Advocate: Florida House Bill 1557 and Senate Bill 1834, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bills, ban schools from encouraging “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in primary grade levels or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students.”