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