Far-leftists in the corporate media are trying to create a false narrative that Florida is arbitrarily trying to ban books, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) said Thursday, emphasizing that pornographic books do not meet Florida’s standards and should not be accessible to ten-year-olds.
“They’ve tried to create in Florida a narrative. It’s basically a book ban hoax — It’s a hoax, what they’re doing,” he said, during a press conference in Jacksonville, Florida. Desantis continued:
And they’re trying to say that because we have parental rights and because we have curriculum transparency — if you have a book that has hardcore pornography in the library that 10-year-olds can access, a parent objects to that, that does not satisfy Florida standards. It should not be in the library with those young kids.
“And I think 99 percent of parents agree with that,” DeSantis said to applause, explaining that local activists try to advance the narrative and know that members of the corporate media will roll with it.
“They’ve also said — you just had on MSNBC, you had the reporter saying that ‘Governor DeSantis does not want students to learn about slavery and its aftermath,’” he said, noting that Florida’s standards actually require that to be taught.
“It’s required to teach all of those things. It’s required under Florida statutes to teach about racial discrimination,” he said, noting that these leftists know there are “enough people in corporate media who will just take” those false narratives and “run with that.”
“A lot of this has been debunked,” he said. “If it’s explicit and pornographic, parents have the right to object and it should be taken off.”
WATCH:
DeSantis’s remarks follow news of Broward County Schools removing a sexually explicit book, which his administration has deemed “pornography,” from its schools. The book in question is titled “Let’s Talk About It: The Teen’s Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human” and contains graphic images, even suggesting to children that virginity is a “silly label people came up with to describe a person who hasn’t done a specific sexual act, traditionally a cisgender man or woman who hasn’t yet had penis-in-vagina intercourse.”
As Breitbart News reported on the book:
“But since there are SO many ways to have sex between SO many different kinds of people and body parts, you can be a virgin in one kind of sex act and totally NOT a virgin in others,” it reads, concluding that virginity “just doesn’t work anymore in today’s world.”
It also contains explainers on transgender and nonbinary people alone with illustrated images, including one of a feminine looking figure with breasts but also male genitalia. The book also states that porn “can help you discover new aspects of your sexuality” if it is “consumed right.” Further, the book tells young readers that the Internet is a “great place to research fantasies and kinks safely.”
According to reports, the books were found at Fort Lauderdale High, Coral Glades High in Coral Springs, and Nova High in Davie. It was also found in Orange and Seminole county schools as well but has since been removed from those.
“Pornography in the classroom is a real and ongoing issue,” DeSantis press secretary Bryan Griffin said, providing images from the book:
UPDATE: Pornography in the classroom is a real and ongoing issue. (This book found in Orange, Seminole counties)https://t.co/Qg9RnwjtkI
— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) February 14, 2023
