The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 17, 2023

Florida Investigates Teacher for Showing Disney Film with a Gay Character
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Department of Education in Florida is investigating a fifth grade
teacher for showing her class an animated Disney movie that included a
gay character. The teacher said she picked the film, "Strange World," as
part of a lesson on ecosystems, plants and animals, but a parent filed a
complaint after learning one of the characters in the film was gay. The
teacher, Jenna Barbee, talked about the investigation in a video on Tik
Tok.

Jenna Barbee: "The reason I was turned in is because one of the split
students was a school board member's daughter. That school board member
is currently on a rampage to get rid of every form of representation out
of our schools. She even spent days this past week going to all the high
schools to get rid of anything that had to do with representation
whatsoever. She even had admin escort her to a teacher's classroom that
had a sticker of a Black hand and a white hand holding hands, and the
white hand had a different color fingernail for every finger. So, the
school board member called the Department of Education on me for
indoctrination, before ever coming to our school to talk with me or
admin about the situation."

Education officials say the screening of the film might have violated
Florida's so-called Don't Say Gay law, which bans teachers from talking
about sexual orientation and gender identity.


.