Jill Biden has sparked outrage with claims that Florida is going the way of Nazi Germany and putting democracy itself at risk with its attempts to keep ‘pornographic’ books out of the classroom.
The first lady was dispatched on a whistle-stop trip to California over the weekend as the Biden campaign tries to claw back its poll deficit with the clock ticking down towards November’s general election.
And she attempted to stake out the battleground to her Democrat audience who had paid up to $100,000 a ticket, telling them that Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act was a step towards dictatorship.
‘History teaches us that democracies don’t disappear overnight,’ she said. ‘They disappear slowly, subtly silently. A book ban a court decision, a Don’t Say Gay law.
‘Before World War Two, I’m told, Berlin was the center of LGBTQ culture in Europe. One group of people loses their rights and then another, and then another, until one morning you wake up and you no longer live in a democracy.’
First Lady Jill Biden compared Florida’s attempts to protect children with Germany’s drift towards dictatorship in the 1930s
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill, also known as the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, at Classical Preparatory School on March 28, 2022
Books by ‘degenerate’ authors were ripped from library shelves and torched by the Nazis
She spoke days after Florida settled a lawsuit over the so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill that Governor Ron DeSantis claims is a ‘major win’ for his conservative agenda in the Sunshine State.
The 2022 law barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.
Defending the law two years ago DeSantis held a press conference to display books that parents had found in Florida school libraries.
Some included illustrations depicting minors engaged in sexual activity and instructions on how to masturbate, engage in sex acts or download apps that make it easier to have ‘casual intercourse.’
And he slammed the ‘hoax’ that taking the books out of the classroom would be a form of ‘book banning.’
‘I just think parents, when they’re sending their kids to school, they should not have to worry about this garbage being in the schools,’ the GOP governor said.
Launching his re-election campaign in January the president said Donald Trump ‘echoed the same exact language used in Nazi Germany’.
But many on social media were disgusted with his wife’s attempt to compare his Republican opponents to the Nazi regime.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis played a shocking video at the start of his press conference Wednesday containing sexually explicit content illustrated and detailed in children’s books found at various schools in Florida
Among the books DeSantis cited was Flamer, which depicts through illustration and description young boys at a summer camp engaged in sex acts
DeSantis’ roughly six-minute video shows pages from some of the books, some of which included graphic illustrations like the one above that describes how to use a butt plug
The First Lady was congratulated on her speech in LA by her daughter Ashley, and Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign
But reaction on social media was less impressed with the First Lady’s Nazi allusions
‘Enough with the Nazi references,’ wrote one, ‘Every time these people compare their political opposition to Nazis they diminish the horrors of actual victims of the Third Reich endured. This rhetoric is disgusting.’
‘Did she mention Jews at all?’ demanded one, ‘I didn’t hear it. Is she trying to equate LGBTQ to the Jews murdered by Nazis?’
‘No one is trying to ban books but not all books belong in the elementary school library,’ added a third.
‘Do Dems think Hustler magazine should be available for kids? Why is this such a hard concept?’
The first lady praised her husband’s contribution to LGBT rights in her speech to the Human Rights Campaign in LA warning that the ‘MAGA extremists are seeking to erase these hard-fought gains’.
‘Thanks to President Biden, marriage equality is now the law of the land,’ she added.
‘He ended the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood. He’s made it possible for trans Americans to serve openly, honorably in the military. And he’s standing firmly against conversion therapy.
‘There are victories that would have been unimaginable just a few decades ago: Being free to walk down the street as your authentic self. Co-workers that use your chosen name and pronouns.
‘MAGA Republicans are waging battles over our choices, our futures, and trying to drag us back to a dark and dangerous path.’
But her speech was disrupted by repeated heckling from protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
‘Dr Biden, I’m a queer Jew calling for immediate and permanent cease-fire,’ one yelled as a series of protesters were thrown out by security.
States including Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina have used the Florida’s law as a template to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation.
Some teachers said they were unsure if they could mention or display a photo of their same-sex partner in the classroom, and critics said that in some cases even lines mentioning sexual orientation were excised from school musicals.
But Florida cut a deal earlier this month with plaintiffs who had challenged the law in court, spelling out that what applies to LGBTQ people also applies to heterosexual people.
The Parental Rights in Education law — nicknamed the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law by detractors — was signed in 2022 by Gov. Ron DeSantis and sparked a firestorm across the country
The law also triggered the ongoing legal battles between DeSantis and Disney over control of the governing district for Walt Disney World in central Florida after DeSantis took control of the government in what the company described as retaliation for its opposition to the legislation
And it also does not apply to library books not being used for instruction in the classroom.
In a statement, DeSantis’s office described the deal as a ‘major win’ which kept the principles of the law intact.
‘We fought hard to ensure this law couldn’t be maligned in court, as it was in the public arena by the media and large corporate actors,’ said Ryan Newman, an attorney for the state of Florida.
‘We are victorious, and Florida´s classrooms will remain a safe place under the Parental Rights in Education Act.’