Across Florida, students staged school walkouts in response to legislationnicknamed the "Don't Say Gay" billthat would prohibit discussing sexual orientation and gender identity in the state's primary schools, NBC News reported.
Supporters of the measure, officially titled the Parents Education Rights bill, claim it would give parents more discretion over what their children can learn in school.
Students waving rainbow picket signs and shouting "We say gay!" in walkouts across the statein Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee and other cities.
"The language and the supporters of the bill and the rhetoric around the bill really shows what this bill is, and it's an attempt to hurt queer people like me," said Flagler Palm Coast High School senior Jack Petocz, who organized the statewide protests on social media and led his school's protest in Palm Coast. After the rally, Petocz said he was called into his principal's office and suspended "indefinitely."
Rep. Joe Harding, the Republican who introduced the bill in January, has repeatedly claimed the bill would not bar students from talking about their LGBTQ families or bar classroom discussions about LGBTQ history.