Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis began a press conference on Wednesday by playing a shocking video showing sexually explicit content from books found in the Sunshine State’s public schools — forcing at least one local news channel to cut away due to the graphic material.
The books featured in the five-minute-long video included depictions of minors engaging in interactions so graphic that Twitter briefly slapped a sensitive content label on clips making the rounds on the social media platform.
Tampa-based WFLA-TV also dropped its live feed of the presser, with reporter Mahsa Saeidi explaining on Twitter: “I don’t show sexually explicit content.”
DeSantis held the presser — which he dubbed “Exposing the Book Ban Hoax” — to highlight tomes that the governor says violate Florida’s curriculum standards, as well as counter claims that his restrictions were unjustified.
“We believe in the rights of parents to be involved in the education of their children and therefore have enacted curriculum transparency legislation, so that the parents know what books are being used in the classroom, what books do their kids have access to, and then they have procedures where they can say, ‘Wait a minute’ – you know, some of the stuff you saw up there – ‘that is pornographic,” the governor said. “Why would we have that in a media center with 10-year-old students? It’s just wrong.”
One of the books in the video was “Gender Queer,” a memoir by Maia Kobabe that contains illustrations of masturbation and encourages gender-affirming surgeries such as double mastectomies.
Also featured was “Let’s Talk About It,” by Erika Moen, a book with drawings and descriptions of masturbation, instructions for anal sex, and a guide on how to send sexually explicit text messages and images to others – with tips that include hiding birthmarks, piercings and other identifiable features.
In “Flamer,” by Mike Curato, underage boys are depicted performing sex acts with each other at a summer camp.
Several books by author Rupi Kaur were also shown, including one that was singled out for having poetry referencing sex acts.
“This is porn,” text accompanying the video stated. “These books violate Florida standards and curriculum. The hoax from the left is that these books were never in Florida schools.”
According to DeSantis, there have been 23 school districts in the Sunshine State found to have books that violated state standards,” mostly involving pornographic material.”
“I just think parents when they’re sending their kids to school, they should not have to worry about this garbage being in the school,” the governor said. “They should just know that you’re going to get a good education.”
DeSantis also pointed out that taxpayer money was being used to place the books on school library shelves.
“They [parents] don’t want the garbage, and the idea that that’s even in there is inappropriate for these young kids, but they are using your tax dollars to put that in,” DeSantis said. “How is that an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars? To put that in?”
The 44-year-old was re-elected governor by a landslide last November and is widely expected to run for president in 2024.
