Birds of a Feather
Ken Gay’s newest supporter graphic shows three Republican state representatives from the Hillsborough area: Danny Alvarez, Traci Koster, and Michael Owen.
Their education records make the endorsements easy enough to understand.
Alvarez and Koster both voted for HB 1, Florida’s major voucher expansion that allows public education dollars follow students to private schools and other non-district options. Alvarez has also said he strongly supports school choice, including vouchers, tax credits, private schools, and home schools.
They also both voted for HB 1069, which limited classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity, set rules about pronouns and biological sex, and made it easier to challenge school library materials.
Michael Owen arrived in Tallahassee later, but he has taken a similar path. He has supported education dollars following students to private and home schools, backs conservative gender policies, and favors laws that promote religious expression in public schools.
Apparently, public education works best when public money leaves the public schools, and some of the children who remain are told their identities are politically inconvenient.
The harm from that second part is real, not just theoretical.
The Trevor Project’s 2024 national survey found that 90% of LGBTQ+ young people said recent politics had hurt their well-being, and more than half said the impact was substantial. Nearly half of transgender and nonbinary youth said their families had thought about leaving their state because of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and politics. (The Trevor Project)
Trevor’s research on schools found that LGBTQ+ students in schools with even one anti-LGBTQ+ policy reported higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide attempts. Transgender and nonbinary students whose pronouns were respected had lower rates of suicide attempts, as did students with access to gender-neutral bathrooms. (The Trevor Project)
That result is not hard to understand. When the government tells children that their identity should be restricted, erased, or treated with suspicion in schools, some of them take that message to heart.
And no, that is not simply the conclusion of an LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Peer-reviewed research in JAMA Pediatrics has warned that anti-transgender laws can make health disparities worse and cause preventable harm among transgender youth. (JAMA Network)
“Birds of a feather” is an old saying, but the policy similarities among these lawmakers are very current.
Gay has spoken publicly about vouchers, gender identity, religion, and LGBTQ+ issues, and his views are very similar to those of Alvarez, Koster, and Owen. So their support for him makes sense based on policy.
The tougher question is what these policies mean for the children in Hillsborough County Public Schools, especially those who keep getting caught up in Tallahassee’s latest political lesson plan. It is past time legislators and voters stopped using our public schools, their teachers, and most importantly, the students as political footballs to advance their political aspirations.
Sources
- Graphic – AI Generated
- Florida Senate — House Bill 1 (2023), Family Empowerment Scholarship / Florida Tax Credit Scholarship expansion
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2023/1 - iVoterGuide — Daniel “Danny” Alvarez candidate questionnaire
https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/64834/race/4663/election/922?culture=en-us - Florida Senate — House Bill 1069 (2023), Education
https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/BillSummaries/2023/html/1069 - Florida Senate — House Bill 1009 (2025), Religious and Patriotic Expression in the Public School System
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2025/1009 - iVoterGuide — Michael Owen candidate questionnaire
https://ivoterguide.com/candidate/52258/race/5162/election/1254?culture=en-us - The Trevor Project — 2024 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/survey-2024/ - The Trevor Project — Anti-LGBTQ+ School Policies and LGBTQ+ Young People
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/anti-lgbtq-school-policies-and-lgbtq-young-people/ - The Trevor Project — Protective Factors for LGBTQ+ Students in Middle & High School
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/school-related-protective-factors-for-lgbtq-middle-and-high-school-students-aug-2023/ - JAMA Pediatrics — Barbee, Deal & Gonzales, “Anti-Transgender Legislation—A Public Health Concern for Transgender Youth”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2786018
