Editor, The Beacon:
On June 29, 2023, The Beacon published a letter by Sam Sloss, “Sex and gender are complicated.” I’d like to provide a comment.
Mr. Sloss asserts that Gov. Ron DeSantis passed educational standards laws that were similar to Hitler’s use of gas chambers, Uganda’s death penalty law for homosexuals, and Putin’s laws against normalizing homosexual relationships or orientations. Clearly, these comparisons are at best, unthoughtful, and at worst, delusional.
Shame on The Beacon for publishing such false, inflammatory, and counterfactual misinformation.
The immoral and genocidal laws of Nazi Germany, modern Uganda, and the Russian federation are nothing similar to what our democratically elected Florida Legislature and governor signed into law.
While I am not a political supporter of Gov. DeSantis, I am a supporter of fact-based public-policy discussions. There is not a single source indicating that the governor advocates for the mass incarceration or genocide of anyone based on their sexual relationships.
Secondly, many sources describe the state’s latest educational reforms as an improvement for transparency, accountability and higher academic standards. Many assert the law protects parents’ rights by requiring schools to include parents in decision-making about their children.
The law also ensures classroom instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity is not presented in K-3 classrooms, and after third grade, these conversations need to be age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate in accordance with state standards.
Candidly, this new law does not sound like the government is rounding up anyone, putting them in cattle cars, or shipping them off to death camps. As such, Mr. Sloss (nor The Beacon) should be so disingenuous as to assert the Florida governor or laws require LGBTQ+ people be rounded up or treated differently under the law. It is just not true.
Bob Hoelscher
DeLand
