{"id":64923,"date":"2023-03-20T12:30:27","date_gmt":"2023-03-20T16:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=64923"},"modified":"2023-03-20T16:08:05","modified_gmt":"2023-03-20T20:08:05","slug":"now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Florida Lawmakers Want to Stop Girls From Talking About Periods"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Florida state Rep. Stan McClain, seen here at a legislative session in 2019, introduced a bill that would ban discussion of menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades. (Credit: AP Photo<\/mark><\/a>, Steve Cannon, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The campaign to limit what Florida students can learn \u2013 or even talk<\/a> \u2013 about may soon extend to menstruation<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Florida lawmakers<\/a> are presently considering House Bill 1069 \u2013 introduced by (male) Republican state Rep. Stan McClain \u2013 which would ban teachers from educating students about menstrual cycles before sixth grade. It would also prohibit lessons and discussions on human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and other related topics before that cut-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most sixth-grade students are 11 or 12 years old \u2013 but children can get their first period as early as age 8. When asked<\/a> by Democratic Rep. Ashley Viola Gantt if this law would prohibit those younger students from talking about their cycles during school hours, McClain simply replied: \u201cIt would.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A House subcommittee advanced the bill for further consideration last week.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The bill flies in the face of expert advice<\/a> to discuss menstruation with children early and often \u2013 and certainly before they experience it themselves. Annie Filkowski, policy and political director of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, told HuffPost that this bill \u201cshines a bright light on Florida\u2019s political leaders\u2019 perpetual thirst for power and control.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She added, \u201cThey are restricting sex education, banning abortion, defunding birth control, and now going so far as to admit that young women cannot discuss menstruation under their absurd legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This law wouldn\u2019t just prohibit certain lessons or conversation topics for younger students, either \u2013 it would also require teachers to instruct students that \u201csex is determined by biology and reproductive function at birth,\u201d and that \u201cthese reproductive roles are binary, stable, and unchangeable.\u201d In addition, it would mandate lessons<\/a> on the “benefits of monogamous heterosexual marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is merely the latest in a series of proposed or enacted measures designed to significantly limit what students in Florida can learn and talk about in school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the infamous \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d bill<\/a> into law, effectively banning discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity up through third grade. (Some legislators now want to see such discussions banned up through eighth grade<\/a>.) And in 2021, Florida banned lessons<\/a> on what bill proponents called \u201ccritical race theory\u201d \u2013 or, in layman\u2019s terms, lessons that would examine the significant role racism plays in U.S. history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Rep. Gantt noted, it\u2019s the students that suffer most under these laws. Regarding House Bill 1069, she urged<\/a> her fellow congresspeople to \u201cimagine [the fear of] a little girl in fourth grade, going to the bathroom and finding blood in her panties and thinking that she is dying.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gantt added that, if this bill is signed into law, that student wouldn\u2019t be able to comprehend what was happening to their body \u2013 and worse, \u201cher teacher does not even have the ability to tell her that this is a part of life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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A new bill introduced by Republican Stan McClain would ban menstruation education \u2013 and even conversation about periods \u2013 before 6th grade. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":64939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[20430,20139,21184],"class_list":["post-64923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happening-now","tag-child-development","tag-legislation","tag-sex-education"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLearn About Fla. 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Bill to Ban Menstrual Education","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/23077737780672-copy.jpg","datePublished":"2023-03-20T16:30:27+00:00","dateModified":"2023-03-20T20:08:05+00:00","description":"A new bill introduced by Republican Stan McClain would ban menstruation education \u2013 and even conversation about periods \u2013 before 6th grade.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/23077737780672-copy.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/23077737780672-copy.jpg","width":1200,"height":904,"caption":"FILE - Florida state Rep. Stan McClain, R-Belleview, attends a legislative session, March, 13 2019, in Tallahassee, Fla. Legislation moving in the Florida House would ban discussion of menstrual cycles and other human sexuality topics in elementary grades. The bill sponsored by McClain would restrict public school instruction on human sexuality, sexually transmitted diseases and related topics to grades 6 through 12. McClain confirmed at a committee meeting that discussions about menstrual cycles would also be restricted to those grades. The GOP-backed legislation cleared the House Education Quality Subcommittee on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, by a 13-5 vote mainly along party lines. (AP Photo\/Steve Cannon, File)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/now-florida-lawmakers-want-to-stop-girls-from-talking-about-periods\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Now Florida Lawmakers Want to Stop Girls From Talking About Periods"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","name":"The Story Exchange","description":"Inspiration and information for women entrepreneurs","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#organization","name":"The Story Exchange","url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/cdn1.thestoryexchange.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/24161459\/TSE-logo-web-e1525383604615.png","width":500,"height":180,"caption":"The Story Exchange"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheStoryExchange","https:\/\/x.com\/TheStoryXchange","https:\/\/instagram.com\/thestoryexchange\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/the-story-exchange","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/StoryExchange"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f5204a83b27f87166174a6de31eaafc9","name":"Candice Helfand-Rogers","description":"Candice Helfand-Rogers has worked as a journalist for some of the largest news organizations in the country over the course of her career, including CBS Local News and The Star-Ledger. 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Please contact candice@thestoryexchange.org with questions or pitches.","sameAs":["https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/candice-leigh-helfand\/"],"url":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/author\/candice-leigh-helfand\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/62"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64923"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64946,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64923\/revisions\/64946"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}