Hello everyone, and welcome back to the nonprofits. So this article that I'm
going to discuss now is titled Florida students now need parental permission to use nicknames
alternative names under new Ron Decantis rule. And this article comes from Virginio Shamdley
of People Magazine and was published on August ninth, twenty twenty three. And
I again we're talking about what the what the Florida because I live here,
and as a Florida resident, mother of a non binary person, and a
queer and atheist activist, I don't really like this all that much. I
fected on like a one freaking bit. But if we're gonna talk about figeted
crap infecting schools in Florida, I'm going to pass it to Jimmy, who
has lived in Florida and feels my pain. So I would love to hear
your opinion on this. Jimmy. Yeah, thank you, Helen. Good
to be with you again. And I know I made my way, I
made my way out of Florida. Sorry I had to leave you behind,
but you know, I see just another another example of religion finding its way
into public life by way of government and being disguised as parental rights when it's
when it's really just discrimination. I wouldn't I wouldn't necessarily have a problem with
a rule like this if there was something that actually needed to be addressed.
For example, you know, if there were a bunch of students that were
calling themselves uh inappropriate things, and of course teachers would have to have to
interact with parents about that. But I think just of the Parental Rights and
Education Act or don't say gabel or uh, you know, however you want
to phrase that, but we know that, you know, that was kind
of cover up to some other agenda trying to take take the power out of
the teacher's and to kind of do certain things in order to kind of inject
this religious view. So really that the teachers are the victims in the end.
You know, they have an inability to do their job and exercise their
own judgment, probably afraid of getting in trouble at the school. They're they're
just losing the freedom to educate while being surrounded by so much litigation, and
it's all in the interest of a Christian agenda. So those are my initial
thoughts there. What do you think about that, Aaron? What is going
on in Florida. I do not understand. I have very little understanding of
what's going on in Florida. It confuses me a great deal. It seems
like Floria is determined to become Gilead from the Handmad's tale, and this is
just one little step at a time. It's just one little lot of time,
one little anti discrimination thing. I don't know what people are so upset
about. Why Why would it matter what you're called, what people want to
be called, But how does that affect you? How does that impact you?
What people want to be called, what their pronouns are. I would
think educated. I think education is a good thing. I think education is
a great thing knowing about sexuality and what about your own sexuality. People are
going to have sex. I don't know what Florida is so upset about.
People in Florida are having sex. They should know about it, they should
know, you know, the ins and outs of the details. And I
really don't. I really don't think legislatures belong in uh in schools like this,
they should be they need to be leaving it up to professional educators and
people that study education, understand education, understand how to best to teach people
the right environments and legislatures. They don't know that they're they're just interested in
being elected and accruing power, not necessarily educating people the correct way. And
it seems like they're using fear to guide them, and we use fear to
guide guide you, you're gonna end up thinking that Zeus is out to get
you every time there's a thunderstorm. And I think the underlying problem isn't necessarily
the elected officials, that's the people that are electing them. You can't you
can't get an office unless you're elected, unless people are electing them. And
so if people want this to change, they're gonna have to change the people
they're voting and choose different people. Rob Well, first Florida had the don't
say Gay law, and then it's been called it don't say period law.
Right now it's the don't say nicknames law. So, in my opinion,
and we need a bill in Florida to be passed by the governor so that
everyone uses the governor's full name when they write it or say it, which
is Ronald deond This Santas. Of course, the name Ronald is most closely
associated with a particular clown and also well an next president. I also looked
up to name Dion. So that's the term in geometry, it means one
dimensional polytope. I had never heard that law. I had to look that
up. So but first off, one dimensional, all right, and polytope
means a geometric object with a flat face, So it means a one dimensional
flat thing, a flat faced clown. I'll leave it there for anyone else
to decide if that's a coincident. Helen Well, I'm not going to argue
with that assessment at all. He's one dimensional, has no imagination. But
you know, that's just my opinion. So I would like to remind everyone
that I live in a dystopia. So now welcome, Welcome to my dystopia.
Everybody, come join in. And it just seems that my state has
to do a big fuck you to anyone that is not sis, white,
male, and straight. It just seems to be the way that it's going.
And it's really frustrating. And you know, I noticed Sanders things I'm
a liberal snowflake. I know he does, and I'm about to launch a
freaking avalanche on him because this is ridiculous. And I want to point out
we know with people that we know personally and people that we heard about that
if you use someone's dead name, like and they haven't legally changed their name
yet, it can actually be traumatizing for trans kids and trans people not using
proper pronouns. And it's even though somebody like a teacher or a person authority
might want to respect who they are as a person, they can't under this
law. They have to call them by their dead name. They have to
call them by other pronouns that don't identify with who they are. And that's
a lack of respect for the person as a whole. And this and just
add a little more layer to this, it asks into that speech policing,
like, you know, freedom for speech for me, but not for thee.
You don't get to choose, you know, And I get And this
makes me nervous. This makes me not feeling very good about where we're going.
There's a lot of people in the state that don't agree with what where
it's going and fighting back. But we as Florida voters, have a bigger
fish to fry than worrying about pronouns. This is just another culture war thing
that is Sanders is using to get his baits up in a uproar, and
then they will flock out to the voting polls. And if you are a
person that doesn't want this to happen, go, you know, maybe you
should, you know, do your duty as American citizen to vote. That's
just how I feel about it. I have more to say, but I'm
gonna pass it over to my friend Jimmy, so I can not yell into
my microphone because that would be uncomfortable for everybody. Yeah, So, I
think Aaron, you know, makes a great point. Society is ultimately responsible.
You know, it's easy to get caught up in this game of pointing
fingers right right versus left, et cetera, et cetera, But ultimately you
have to kind of take responsibility for your involvement in the own society and who's
kind of dictating the outcomes for you. So I think that was a really
good point. And to Helen's point, becoming nervous about where we're going is
a legitimate fear, and bringing up the point that people need to be respected
is a concern that we should at all or a value I think that we
should be instilling, especially in our youth, and I think that that is
really something that is being targeted. Is it's a way of kind of making
an US versus them. I think that people who are in the LGBT community
and transgender in general are going to lose that respect that you know, we
should all be kind of guaranteed. They're going to feel uncomfortable in their environment.
And it really is evident that the legislators that are that are supporting something
like this really don't care because the trade off is that they would lose power
if they didn't go at this kind of easy, low hanging fruit. Right.
This is something that people understand, right, This is something that you
don't really have to explain. You can just say, hey, well these
people are wrong, and then you can convince a bunch of people to vote
for you. It's a lot different than I don't know, maybe taking on
climate change or something that takes a relative amount of I guess having a vested
interests. So I think that the trade this transagenda that people think is taking
over schools is really being blown out of proportion and used to it's being turned
into a weapon. And then I think the second and third order effects of
that or that the teachers are really the ones that have their hands tied behind
their back. It's unfortunate because they get paid very little and we asked them
to do so much. So something to think about. There a couple other
points I had Aaron, what say you, sir, I'm an engineering I
don't like to get to the root of her problem. And I'm sitting here
thinking trying to understand what problem are people trying to solve, And I personally
don't see a problem. But the only thing I can think of is that
people think that it's that our society is going to collapse if people are transgender
or gay or change their pronouns or change their names. And I just have
to push back on that that, No, societies don't collapse because people are
transgender or gay, because guess what, people have been transgender and gay all
through human history. It is natural and normal. No, I know,
I'm not, I'm not. I'm telling, I'm telling, I'm laying the
truth down, And so it's it's to me, it's a it's a non
issue, and I want people to focus on things that are really affecting people,
like climate change. I know we can also have another big discussion on
whether some people thinking climate change is real or not looking MAUI, it's definitely
real, uh poverty. Why don't we solve solve some poverty. Why don't
we improve the quality of our education instead of passing laws like this. I
mean, the list can go on and on of the of the problems that
we have the money in politics, we could just go on and on.
I think our real problems that are affecting our way of life in this country
rather than these these non issues. Because let's just let let people be who
they want to be. We would want that respect. These people that are
passing laws, they want that respect. They want people to respect who they
are, and so we just want that in return. Let's just respect people
for who they want to be and who and what they identify as. Ellen.
I yeah, And I do want to point out, like Jimmy,
I'm sorry, you're James now under Florida law, because Jimmy, if jimmy's
your nickname, you're going to be a James. Sorry. That's them's the
rules now. Because this is this is also a thing they included within the
and this new ruling they wanted to pass that if you are if you haven't,
like if you're Samantha, you're going to be called Samantha not a Sam.
No matter what if even if you say nope, I'm a Sam,
not a Samantha, that they're as compelled speech to call them by that name.
So this isn't even I mean, like, yes, they had to
do an umbrella thing, so not only you know, queer kids wouldn't be
targeted, but it's also would now send it into people that might not identifies
or they it doesn't really matter if they identify queers. Do You're like if
you started to call me a like if you started to call me eleanor which
is a variation of my name instead of Helen, I would get mad because
that is not my name. And I it's just rings of disrespect to people
that just the average person that like, nope, I am I am you
know, I'm I'm a Sam, not a Samantha. And it just really
really bothers me, especially since we know better this. And I really like
when you're saying, Jimmy about the teachers, the really ones that are kind
of getting the front of this, because I know even within my friendship group
that are Florida teachers and one of them happens to be queer, and one
of them is very queer supporting, and they have to monitor their speech.
And I have another friend who is a Spanish educator and and also has to
monitor her speech. And this is ridiculous. It is ridiculous. We have
such a fundamental problem with the education system that we really need to work towards
that. And I know, Jimmy, you're I can see your itching,
So go ahead, Like I see it, I go ahead. I just
I don't want to jo in and like talk over. But on that point
that you just made, you know, it prevents them from being queer supportive.
It prevents them from having the authentic relationship with the students, right,
and it crumbles the trust that teachers and students established with one another. And
what teachers are, you know, it takes away from the way the teachers
are able to motivate and kind of encourage children. Yeah, agree with that,
And and that's what's so frustrating, because you have to, like I
think we forget that, you know, just like our jobs, kids spent
a good portion of their day at school, and school should not only be
a place where they're being educated, but also a place that's safe that they're
accepted for who they are. Because that's the ultimate goal. We want to
send our children out into the world being kind, decent people. And if
we have all these weird subclasses, it doesn't teach them that. So that's
and it's gross and it's not good if we want to move to more equal
society. So, Aaron, do you have another opinion you would like to
give about being targeted? And you know, as Florida people being targeted and
have to do compel speech because our governor's sex ass and well, don't forget
the legislature and governors. Yeah, governors and presidents they get the most forced.
But guess what, people, those aren't as important as your legislatures,
the people that are making and passing laws. So if you're only showing up
for your governor presidential elections, uh, you need to be shown up a
little bit more. And how much you want to bet that this house that
this is going to be selectively enforced? Right when you think about it,
nobody's gonna stop calling people by their nicknames. If you're if you're James and
people call you Jimmy, people are gonna keep keep calling you Jimmy. But
if a trans student shows up and changes their name, then then this law
is going to highlight that it's going to cause that person pain, and it's
gonna increase the persecution of that person because it's just gonna highlight that oh,
no, no, no, you change your name. We can't change your
name. You can't change your name, We have to call you by originally
until you get parental support. That's just asking for for teasing and tormenting and
all sorts of ostracizing behavior by students and teachers. And this build it's intent
is to not do that. But that's that's how it's gonna roll out.
That's how it's gonna be felt in schools and by by students and teachers tell
them. And I would have to imagine too that this might actually backfire because
like, let's say you you have a James that must be called the Jimmy,
and and then if he gets special privilege, that Jimmy that they don't
have to follow the rules, it will backfire because someone could bring like,
hey, if we're going to be equal under this ruling, then you are
not allowed to call James and Jimmy, So it might backfire on them,
you know, which isn't grade either. And I would really like it if
it kind of did backfire on people, because it would be like, these
are very hard things of whole they're doing. These blanks can slate rules and
legislation that keeps going in and I want to put the emphasize we talk a
lot about Florida, but this is happening in other states as well, these
draconian laws that are preventing people just to be who they are and live their
life. We are at a point in our country where we keep othering people,
which is not good. It's actually bad. And we talk a lot
about Florida because I do agree that, you know, we are living in
state ands asshole, and it's everybody's getting attention. Everybody's paying attention to Florida
right now, but this is happening all across the United States and other countries
as well. We we're Westerners, so we talk about the United States,
but this is happening in other places as well, where people can't be themselves.
And it's very frustrating to me, as like, I'm glad my children
are now out of school because I don't know what I would do if I
had a queer kid that was like in June or higher high school and going
through and or if your teacher and having to deal with this crap. It's
just ridiculous. So I am going to pass it to Jimmy to give us
some way. That way, this way, I'm going to pass it to
Jimmy so he can give us some final thoughts and then to Aaron and then
we can just you know, move on from this, because I feel's kind
of sneaky. Yeah. Yeah, So with Aaron talking about you know,
gays and transgender people have existed throughout history, I think that ties directly to
the attempts to ban history books, uh in Florida. You know, I
mean, I know that that is typically skewed in the past, has been
typically skewed toward African American history, but you know, in general, history
books are targeted and uh they can really tell people, uh the truth or
expose the truth about some of this controversial legislation. So that's important to keep
in mind. And then just back on on on your point. You know,
we talked about climate change a little bit, and I'm not saying I
agree with it or disagree with it, or it's right or wrong. You
know what. You you hit the nail on the head. We're not even
having the conversation. You know, that is a much more that's a bigger
ask from people, and I don't know why they don't just want to have
the more important conversation. And then finally, I think it's very important to
note that not only would I be James Junior, but actually I would be
James the Third if we were really going to be correct. Okay, because
my grandfather was also James, So so you know, don't call me James
the third, respect my respect my name. Okay, it just called me
Jimmy Junior. I'm just kidding. But yeah, great, great segment,
good conversation, Aaron, what do you think, Thank you, mister third.
This is this is this is not legislating. This is persecution. And
I want government that legislations, that solves problems, that gets things done,
that isn't wasting people's time on on persecuting people. It's flat out it's persecution
and it disgusts me. It should discuss everybody. It should discuss Christians,
it should discuss everybody. And you need to make strongly worded phone calls to
your legislators if you see this type of stuff going on, because they're more
important, things that affect people's lives than this stuff. Tell them. Yeah,
I a hundred percent agree, Rob, did you want to take us
out? Well, yeah, just to close it. I mean, I
was kind of like joking about the Ronald part, but seriously, for some
reason, he likes the name ron right. I don't see Ronald written on
anything. It's Royn de Santas, So really, by his own law,
right, everyone have to start calling him Ronald Deon. And by the way,
I would be called Robert Palmer. And I purposely use Rob because there
was a famous singer, a singer of notes simply irresistible and addicted to love,
which I couldn't give my credit card to anyone with my full name on
it and not have to get into a five minute conversation about Robert Palmer,
the singer. So I'm sorry, I don't want to use my full name.
It's Rob Palmer, and it is Ronald addicted to rob, absolutely and
simply so. On that note, if you want to see more of the
nonprofits, go to the Doubled do above us and click and subscribe and do
all the things