Ron DeSantis administration bans AP Psychology class over LGBTQ+ topics

Florida’s Department of Education (FLDOE) has banned Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology courses from its schools because its lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation violate the state’s “Don’t Say Gay” law that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed in April.

The AP course asks students to “describe how sex and gender influence socialization and other aspects of development,” an element which has been part of the course since it launched 30 years ago, the College Board wrote in a statement. The board oversees the AP program in U.S. high schools.

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As such, the AP Psychology course can’t be taught in Florida, thus denying the state’s high schoolers the opportunity to learn about the topic and earn college credits. Nearly 30,000 students in Florida took the AP Psychology course during the 2022-2023 school year, the College Board said. 

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Earlier this year, the College Board made changes to its AP African American Studies course after DeSantis complained about the course’s “indoctrination” and “queer” agenda; specifically its sections covering queer theory, intersectionality, and prison abolition.

However, the College Board has refused to alter its psychology course or provide accreditation for any censored versions of it.

“We cannot modify AP Psychology in response to regulations that would censor college-level standards for credit, placement, and career readiness,” the College Board said in a statement. “Our policy remains unchanged. Any course that censors required course content cannot be labeled ‘AP’ or ‘Advanced Placement,’ and the ‘AP Psychology’ designation cannot be utilized on student transcripts.”

The American Psychological Association said any course that doesn’t include topics on gender identity and sexual orientation would violate their guidelines and shouldn’t be considered for college credit, WOFL reported.

In response, the FLDOE accused the College Board of “playing games” by shutting down the course just one week before the start of the school year and not altering the course to comply with state law.

FLDOE spokesperson Cassie Palelis said, “The College Board is attempting to force school districts to prevent students from taking the AP Psychology Course. The Department didn’t ‘ban’ the course. The course remains listed in Florida’s Course Code Directory for the 2023-24 school year.”

Its listing in Florida’s directory is irrelevant since the College Board will no longer provide the final examination used to earn college credit at the end of the course.

LGBTQ+ groups made statements in support of the College Board after the course’s rejection.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Kelley Robinson said, “Psychology is centered around people– all people. Erasing us from the curriculum ignores our existence, sets back Florida students who want to pursue psychology in higher education and disrupts pathways for future mental health professionals to provide comprehensive, culturally competent mental healthcare for the LGBTQ+ community.”

“College Board’s AP Psychology curriculum is science-driven and endorsed by both educators and experts. Educational systems that reject the inclusion of LGBTQ+ people from their psychology courses are failing in their commitment to students,” Robinson added. “Florida’s Department of Education has further compromised the quality of education in the state by acting as if LGBTQ+ people don’t exist. LGBTQ+ people do exist, and any decision to remove us from curricula isn’t going to change that.”

The state LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Florida wrote, “The DeSantis regime is at war with students and parents…. The administration has already stated that the AP African American Studies course ‘lacks significant educational value,’ instead preferring to falsely applaud slavery as an American jobs program. Now, the DeSantis Administration wants to rewrite AP Psychology curriculum to enforce their image of America, too.”

“Governor DeSantis will undermine any student’s education, revoke any parent’s rights, and demolish any curriculum to remake Florida’s schools into right-wing propaganda machines in service to his political ambitions,” the group’s statement continued. “His administration continues to use families and classrooms as pawns and do catastrophic damage to this state and its reputation.”

The Don’t Say Gay law – officially called the “Parental Rights in Education” Act – was passed in 2022 and prohibited discussions of sexual orientation and gender identity up to the third grade and severely restricted those discussions in higher grades. The measure was expanded in April 2023 to ban mentions of sexual orientation and gender identity in all grades.

Last year, DeSantis signed the Individual Freedoms Act (known as the Stop WOKE Act), which limits how racial and LGBTQ+ issues are taught in public schools, public universities, colleges, and workplace training. A judge blocked parts of the law from going into effect in November 2022, calling it “positively dystopian.”