When CNN resorts to this level of hyperbole you know they lost the debate.

It is likely if you dared to peer into social media the past couple of days, you encountered someone peacocking as a social warrior by posting the word “Gay” on their timeline. They probably made some daft declaration that they will not be silenced from saying the word, and their bravery could not be measured. This is because there was zero bravery involved. They were making these boastful stands despite the fact that not a single person was preventing anyone from doing so. 

This was, of course, in response to the news that in the state of Florida, the legislature approved HR 1557, the “Parental Rights in Education” bill.  This is the legislation that was drawn up so that parents of school children would have a greater involvement in the teachings their progeny were granted. Call it a move for greater transparency in schools, or that families can become more involved in the education of their kids, or that a more open line of dialogue can be established between all parties involved.

Just don’t call it what the press has been calling it.

The rampant media malpractice seen in reporting on the recently passed bill in Florida has been blatant. Look at how prevalent the reporting has been on the alleged “Don’t Say Gay Bill.” This piece of propaganda is based on one segment in the bill that stipulates that certain topics regarding sexual orientation and other related subjects would not be considered age-appropriate instructions for the youngest of classrooms. This would pertain to kindergarten through third grade. Those who run with the Don’t Say Gay mantra do so knowing full well that not only is that wildly mischaracterizing the language in the bill, but they claim to find a ban of the word “gay” while it is nowhere to be found in the document.

As a result of its passage, there has been no shortage of hyperbolic responses. People are not only claiming they are being silenced or claiming to have pain inflicted upon them, but are even making the claim they are being made to feel unsafe. One actor strained to find a parallel to the Pulse Nightclub shooting. These are adults flying into hysterics because some would rather teach the young’uns the alphabet and introductions to math, not lessons in sexual matters. But we have now possibly been served the most extreme approach, as seen on CNN.

On the morning show New Day, Brianna Keilar brought on state Senator Shevrin Jones to discuss the new law, and the politician went so far as to claim that this passage seen in Florida could lead to an increase of deaths of students. Yes, he went there, and did so with the full assistance of CNN.

Fla. Dem @ShevrinJones warns bill restricting LGBT instruction in kindergarten will increase suicide.

“The Trevor Project did a study, come to find out that LGBTQ youth are 4x more likely to commit suicide. Not because of the sexual orientation, but b/c of how they're treated" pic.twitter.com/A8C1uHcdFV

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 9, 2022

Breezing by the illogic that students will somehow be discriminated against in the classroom by not introducing the topic of their sexuality, what Jones is selling here is that if there are no sexuality-focused teachings in the classrooms we will see an increase of kindergarten-aged suicides. This is hysteria of the highest order. 

And note, too, that CNN was fully on board with this asinine summation. Shevrin did not just come up with his claimed statistics off the cuff. At the very mention of his dubious study, CNN had a chyron at the ready to post on-screen. This appearance was entirely a scripted affair. And it is one that needs more seltzer bottles, in order to properly outfit the clown show this became.

This study Jones cited says that LGBTQ students feel anxiety over the news, as well as experiencing negative responses from other students in regards to their sexuality. I now need to step in and remind that this law concerns the appropriateness of teachings in grades K-3, a scholastic segment with an extremely low likelihood of watching the news, to say nothing of plucking sexual orientation news coverage which might deliver anxiety. I would wager that if you polled kindergartners on how many knew what orientation discrimination means you would see a result hovering near zero percent.

This display over the past few days should reveal exactly how vacant the opposition to this bill is in reality. People claiming they are being silenced, being threatened, and now the insistence that pre-adolescent suicides will spike as a result of this law, show how the activist set in this country are not rooted in common sense. 

These are grown people claiming to somehow feel threatened by what is declared age-appropriate lessons to be taught in early elementary classrooms. They might be adults, but their arguments are at the emotional level of a toddler.