Guest opinion: Disney is making Gay Trotskyites? Who knew

Whilst gas prices continue to soar, housing prices skyrocket and Floridians suffer apoplexy at Publix when the register displays the damages, incoming State Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) has decided that the real issue de jure is the galactic plot to “groom” your kids; so time to model herself after Anita Bryant and launch a war on NOT UPPER CASE RIGHT?? students and their parents. It might win Passidomo the 2022 Red Meat Award but not the moral argument.

Passidomo voted for the officially titled "Parental Rights in Education" bill, restricting sexual orientation and gender identity chatter in lower grade school classrooms. The bill’s language is dangerously broad — clearly with intent — and will encourage parents to sue teachers for veering off the path of 1950’s “values.”

Passidomo is a cunning and savvy politician who appreciates that the order of the day is feeding the mob. Leaders no longer lead. They follow, obediently so. In an era gone by, a leader was the person who said the things that others were afraid to say, and stood up for those who couldn't stand up for themselves. All that’s yielded to favor of cynicism, base thinking and old fashioned prejudice.

More: Dozens participate in a "Don't Say Gay" protest in Fort Myers

So in order to live to hold the gavel, Passidomo, who hails from New Jersey, has to be the typical, modern day GOP operative. That means culture warfare 25/8, in the mode of Anita Bryant, who began her own culture warrior career the same way — smear the schools and make anti-homosexuality shrouded by the argument of parents' rights a key wedge issue.

Passidomo knows what Bryant knew; that the yarn of teachers grooming young people to be is the oldest trope there is but nonetheless affective politics; and Gov. Ron DeSantis' forever colorful press secretary Christina Pushaw embraced that tactic for the governor by recently saying, "If you're against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4-8 year-old children."

There was no peep from Passidomo after that grotesque soliloquy.

Meanwhile, the knives are out. After finally criticizing Don’t Say Gay, Disney CEO Bob Chapek found out he’s apparently a Commie. DeSantis said this of the state’s largest employer: “You have companies, like Disney, that are going to say and criticize parents' rights and criticize the fact that we don't want transgenderism in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. If that's the hill that they are going to die on, then how do they possibly explain lining their pockets with their relationship from the Communist Party of China.”

Who knew? Disney World is a sex conversion camp where you bring your kids in straight. Then Bob Chapek makes them read Karl Marx and sing The Internationale and after a couple rides on It’s a Small World they come out Gay Trotskyites.

All this proves Passidomo’s empathy crisis. While serving in the House, Passidomo referenced the infamous case of an 11-year-old Texas girl allegedly raped by 18 male attackers. Passidomo’s cure for gang rape remains the most unique ever offered since Florida was discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513. Said our state senator, “There was an article about an 11-year-old girl who was gang-raped in Texas by 18 young men because she was dressed like a 21-year-old prostitute....and her parents let her attend school like that. And I think it's incumbent upon us to create some areas where students can be safe in school and show up in proper attire so what happened in Texas doesn't happen to our students.” (Yes, she actually said this on tape in public.)

I’m hoping Passidomo’s empathy quotient (I’ve lost all hope for Ron) can improve and that she is reminded that Anita Bryant's crusades finally crashed and burned and she faded into where-is-she-now oblivion.

Kevin Sowyrda is a former talk show host at CBS Boston. He resides in Naples, Florida.

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: don't say gay bill florida legislature kathleen passidomo anita bryant