Chasten Buttigieg Perfectly Critiques Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Bill

A new bill in Florida, dubbed the "Don't Say Gay Bill" has been brought to national prominence, in part after backlash from Chasten Buttigieg. The legislation, which recently was passed in one Florida House committee, and is likely to soon be up for a vote by the full House,
would outlaw most discussions of sexuality and gender identity from schools.

"As a kid who grew up for 18 years being told 'you don't belong, something about you is wrong,' sometimes you take that trauma to heart," Buttigieg, who is an author, educator, and husband to U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, said on a CNN interview Tuesday morning. "Unfortunately there's a lot of kids in this country who do the worst because we tell them something about them is twisted and you don't belong here."

"I grew up in northern Michigan and in many ways it was similar to Florida in that you were just a good Christian country boy and that's all you could be," he explained. "There was no differentiating from the norm. I grew up learning about Matthew Shepard and thought for sure that could happen to me if someone found out that I was different. I really did fear for my safety and my life. I saw parents, I saw educators telling me that gay people are wrong, sometimes saying even worse things.

Another aspect of the bill would force essentially to out students to their parents.

"I just don't think this is what the governor should be focusing on," Buttigieg said of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. "I think this hurts kids. This will hurt families and this isn't about education or parents' rights, I think it's about using the LGBT community as a scapegoat, which we've been used as a scapegoat multiple times throughout history. And I just don't agree with it."

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