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‘Our Rights Come From God, Not Government’: DeSantis Responds To Parental Rights Critics

   DailyWire.com
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at a new conference on the surge in coronavirus cases in the state held at the Jackson Memorial Hospital on July 13, 2020 in Miami, Florida.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis spoke out in response to criticisms of his state’s recently signed Parental Rights in Education law on Tuesday with the words that, “Our rights come from God, not government.”

DeSantis shared the words during remarks in Hamilton County that announced awarding more than $5.4 million toward the buildout of a business location in the area to increase the potential for manufacturing opportunities.

“As a parent, you have the right to know the curriculum that’s being used in your kids’ school, and it’s kind of a complement to the Parents Rights in Education. Also with the library books. They’ll have these library books in like middle schools that, you know, that’ll have things like pedophilia and really grotesque and obscene things, and that’s just not appropriate,” DeSantis said.

The governor also addressed the needed focus of young children in schools on core areas of education.

“We need to be focusing on teaching kids to read and to write and math and science and understanding American history, and having civics so that they understand the Constitution and they understand that our rights come from God, not from government,” DeSantis added.

The supportive audience shared a strong round of applause following the governor’s words.

“More than 6 in 10 Americans (64%) support the Florida bill’s ban on classroom instructions on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3, or at any level if it is not presented in a manner that is age or developmentally appropriate. Twenty-one percent said they oppose the bill,” according to a recent poll released by The Daily Wire. Among Democrats in the poll, 62% agreed with the bill.

On Thursday, two LGBTQ activist groups officially sued the state of Florida over the Parental Rights In Education law that bans classroom instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation for children in grades kindergarten through third grade in the state. The Daily Wire previously reported:

The Associated Press reported that Equality Florida as well as Family Equality filed the suit in federal court, “alleging that the law violates the constitutionally protected rights of free speech, equal protection and due process of students and families.”

“This effort to control young minds through state censorship — and to demean LGBTQ lives by denying their reality — is a grave abuse of power,” the lawsuit says, according to the AP.

“The United States Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that LGBTQ people and their families are at home in our constitutional order. The State of Florida has no right to declare them outcasts, or to treat their allies as outlaws, by punishing schools where someone dares to affirm their identity and dignity,” the lawsuit added.

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