U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is promoting legislation he says would codify the right to pray in public schools, which already exists, in the hope of drawing “people into more empathy and kindness.”
In an interview with local Florida ABC affiliate WEAR on Monday the Florida Republican warned the “far-left gender ideology and divisive race ideology that we’ve seen in other parts of the country has really permeated the school system.”
“I think that more space for prayer for students in schools is probably better than creating more space for, you know, the next pansexual poetry hour in Portland,” he added, warning about “degenerate content.”
Gaetz, who is under a House Ethics Committee investigation “focused on allegations that he may have engaged in sexual misconduct, illicit drug use or other misconduct,” said from personal experience he believes in the power of prayer.
“I think that in my own experiences and the experiences I’ve observed, prayer creates a sense that there is something bigger than one’s self and it draws people into more empathy and kindness,” he told WEAR.
The pro-Trump Florida Republican announced his intent to file the legislation in July at the far-right Turning Point Action conference in July.
“God’s reach does not stop at the schoolhouse gates,” he said, co-opting a famous 1969 Supreme Court decision that found students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
He promised, “in the coming days, I will introduce a national prayer in school law so that in every classroom in America, there will be time for students to pray if they choose. And you know what? This beautiful new Supreme Court that Trump gave us just might uphold a constitutional law like that, based on the values that this country was built on.”
During that same speech Gaetz also denigrated “the left” and transgender people.
“Are you ready not just to endure the left but to confront them in the battle space of discourse? The left’s ideas, their platforms, their candidates, heck, even some of their women just grow more sterile with every self-loathing iteration,” Congressman Gaetz told supporters before attacking transgender people. “Everything right now is so dead and boring and lame and trans – heck, even the trans want to change.”
Last week, as the Pensacola News Journal reported, Gaetz also claimed, “Our country’s education policy forbids students and faculty from praying while endlessly promoting degenerate LGBT and anti-white propaganda.”
Watch Gaetz’s remarks below or at this link.