[5] The Florida Board of Education later expanded the ban on teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity to all grades K-12 in April 2023, with the exception of health or reproductive courses.

However, the bill has also received widespread backlash, especially from students, who demonstrated against the act throughout Florida by holding walkouts across middle and high schools.

[7] Additional organizations who have issued statements against the act include those representing teachers,[b] pediatricians,[c] psychologists,[d] and hundreds of major corporations.

[42][43] Pushaw said that "The bill that liberals inaccurately call 'Don't Say Gay' would be more accurately described as an Anti-Grooming Bill", and said that "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",[44] reflecting the anti-LGBT conspiracy theory that people who educate children about the LGBT community, LGBT history, LGBT rights, and same-sex marriage are practicing a form of child grooming, contrary to scientific research by experts in child development and psychology that indicate that the aforementioned education has a positive effect on children.

[48] Former president Donald Trump agreed with DeSantis signing the bill, calling it "a good move" in an interview with The Washington Post, though he reportedly declined to elaborate.

[49] Ten Republican members of the US House of Representatives from Florida joined senator Marco Rubio in saying that the act helped to keep classes age appropriate, believing that kids as young as five should not have to worry about their gender identity.

[50] The Florida state chapter of the conservative advocacy group Moms for Liberty supported the act as an advancement of their wishes to increase parental rights over schools.

The Pinellas County subchapter's president, Angela Dubach, has called for the law to be expanded to include middle schools up to eighth grade as well.

Additional organizations which have notably supported lawsuits against the act or issued statements condemning the legislation include Family Equality Council, the American Federation of Teachers, the National Education Association, the Florida Education Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the Human Rights Campaign, Equality Florida, Human Rights Watch, the United Nations Human Rights Council through United Nations Independent Expert on Protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, the American Bar Association, and 296 major businesses, including, most notably and most prominently, The Walt Disney Company.

He hid his agenda from the media and the public until the last moment, skulking onto a charter school campus that is exempt from the law and away from students who would protest his presence.

Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers, stated that the act would "single out certain kids and families for derision and denigration.

[62] These groups were further joined by the American Bar Association, which states through then-president Reginald Turner the law and derivative legislation like it fosters "a hostile culture beset by bullying and physical violence" against LGBT children at school.

[63] Luke P. Norris, a law professor writing in the Virginia Law Review, said that the proliferation of private-enforcement statutes like the Florida bill could lead to consequences such as a growing rift in cultural and political spheres regarding matters of profound moral discourse, adding that "The spaces members of the public share—healthcare facilities, schools, shopping centers, roadways, and even voting stations—may become freighted, charged spaces, where people are suspicious that fellow members of the public will wield the power of the state and bring the weight of the law to bear on their activities.

"[64] Officials within the US Federal government and the United Nations Human Rights Council have additionally subscribed to the argument that the act harms children, as well as LGBT educators and families.

Moreover, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and President Joe Biden's administration have blasted the bill for reducing the freedoms of some of Florida's "most vulnerable" families and students.

[65][66] For similar reasons to Cardona, the UNHRC through independent expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz has further criticized the bill and the laws which take to replicate it in other jurisdictions.

Bob Chapek, then-CEO of Disney, stated that the act "could be used to unfairly target gay, lesbian, non-binary and transgender kids and families".

[72] In April 2023, the Florida Board of Education expanded the ban on teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, with the exception of health or reproductive courses, to all grades K–12.

"[82] In October 2022, federal judge Wendy Berger dismissed the suit, for lack of standing, which challenged the legislation effective since July 1.

[88] The groups appealed to the Eleventh Circuit before settling with the state in March 2024 to restrict the law to only cover the direct teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms.

[97][98][99] House Bill 1223, Public PreK-12 Educational Institution and Instruction Requirements, was filed on February 28, 2023, by Republican state representative Adam Anderson.

The bill was seen as an expansion of the Parental Rights in Education act, and includes a variety of measures, including an extension of the prohibition to eighth grade, enacting a statewide definition of "sex" as "the binary division of individuals based upon reproductive function" and "an immutable biological trait", and prohibiting schools from requiring people to use a pronoun or title for someone if they don't correspond to a person's assigned sex at birth.

The bill is argued by its critics to not only replicate but go further than the Parental Rights in Education Act, as it would prohibit LGBTQ material in all federal facilities, prohibit drag performances in all federally-funded institutions, and similar to the Texas Heartbeat Act, include a private right of action clause enabling parents and guardians to sue institutions which hold such performances.

[104] At least 20 states have had their legislatures introduce derivative bills of the Parental Rights in Education Act, including Arizona,[105] Georgia,[106] Iowa,[107][108] Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan,[109] Missouri,[110] Ohio,[111] Oklahoma,[112] Tennessee, and South Carolina.

It is noted that some states have had similar provisions to Florida's law since the 1980s, though they have never gained the name of "Don't Say Gay" bills by critics until recently.