DeSantis calls out media’s ‘mischaracterization’ of ‘don’t say gay’ legislation: ‘Not a good hill to die on’

Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is calling out the "mischaracterization" of what the mainstream media and certain liberals have deemed the ‘Don’t Say Gay Bill’ in season 2 of Pete Hegseth’s Fox Nation series ‘The MisEducation of America.’ 

DeSantis passed the Parental Rights in Education Act last summer to protect the innocence of children by banning school employees or third parties from instructing kids on sexual orientation and gender identity in grades kindergarten through third, according to a previous Fox News report. 

In spite of the immense backlash the act has received, from both the mainstream media and the Biden White House, DeSantis has maintained the mischaracterization is not "a good hill" for those in opposition to die on.

"I would argue it's never appropriate to be telling a school kid that they were born in the wrong body," he told Hegseth in the Fox Nation episode. "I didn't think that it was going to end up what it was and I was just in a situation where I'm like, you know, this is not a good hill for you guys to pick to die on... What we did is we leaned into it. We called out the media when they were mischaracterizing it, so we made sure that we stood up for the folks." 

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The Florida governor went on to explain the impetus for the act, how sexual topics were being "injected" into kids’ curriculums. DeSantis said that the legislation consequently provides a "flat ban on any of the sexual instruction in an elementary school," and that all material must be "age appropriate." 

Parents nationwide are still fighting graphic sexual education curriculums, as the Fox Nation series explores - with Hegseth explaining public schools have become a vessel to "dismantle and destroy" the nuclear family.

"You cannot build a sustainable, decent, or peaceful civilization without strong nuclear families," Charlie Kirk told Hegseth in one episode. "...if you are trying to destroy America from within, destroy the family." 

Though many believe the push toward what some are calling sexual depravity is recent, the documentary explores how this pivot has been ingratiated over decades by certain leaders.

One of the spear-headers exposed in the Fox Nation series is former Planned Parenthood president Mary Calderone, who believed that children are sexual from birth and created a sexual education organization entitled SIECUS in the 1960s - reportedly funded by Playboy’s Hugh Hefner - according to child psychiatrist Dr. Miriam Grossman, who appears in ‘MisEducation.’

SIECUS, or The Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, is a non-profit based in Washington, D.C. known for its comprehensive education about sexuality. 

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This decades-long pivot, as parents are discovering, is now being promoted directly to children. As the new season explores, one book called "It's Perfectly Normal," aimed at children 10 years old and up, shows sexual acts depicted through cartoons. 

"In the curriculum, the textbook itself, it is pornography. Period," Kirk said. 

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"So, it's hilarious as you try to run advertisements on network TV, warning parents this is what's happening and network TV says we would get our license pulled because that's pornography – for example, like naked bodies doing sexual acts – it's not allowed during an Ohio State football game for good reason. It also shouldn't be allowed in your eight-year-old elementary school." 

To stream Pete Hegseth's ‘The MisEducation of America,’ subscribe to Fox Nation.

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Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.