White House Takes Hard Swing Against Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' Measure
Psaki slams "politically charged, harsh law"
With the clock winding down on Jen Psaki's tenure as White House press secretary before she departs to take a job at MSNBC, opportunities to watch her daily verbal jousts with Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy are also growing short.
However, Monday's edition — over Florida's controversial new “Don't Say Gay” law — was certainly one to watch.
And, like Wylie E Coyote and the Road Runner and of years gone by, Doocy's pursuit of verbally ensnaring Psaki remains just as fruitless.
Doocy — who uses his on-camera time in the daily White House briefing, to try to land all manner of “gotchas” on the Biden administration for the benefit of the right-tilted Fox News audience — framed his question on the the new Florida law which bans any classroom discussion of sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.
Although those on the political right frame the new measure as a “sex education” law, it's anything but, according to experts.
“Conservatives call it a sex ed bill but it doesn't actually address instruction on sexual activity. It prohibits instruction on *sexual orientation and gender identity,* singling out some families and kids as off-limits for school discussion,” noted Ryan Thoreson, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In framing his on-camera question to Psaki, Doocy went with an extreme version of the conservative framing of the law.
“Does the White House support that kind of classroom instruction before kindergarten?” he asked.
Psaki made no pretence of mincing words in her response.
“Do you have examples of schools in Florida that are teaching kindergartners about sex education?” she asked in reply.
“I'm asking for the president's opinion,” Doocy retorted, somewhat lamely, before Psaki fired up her coup de grace.
“I think that's a relevant question, because I think that this is a politically charged, harsh law that is putting parents and LGBTQ+ kids in a very difficult, heartbreaking circumstance,” she said, adding, “So I think that's a pretty relevant question,” before cutting Doocy off and moving on to the next question.
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