Willful ignorance is a really important theme here, I believe. Many of the same parents in Georgia and Florida who push for laws against even uttering the word gay or trans in front of children live with willful ignorance as an important value.

They take their children to the Noah's Ark replica and the Creation Museum, which can only be taken seriously by people who have decided that science and advances in human knowledge are conspiracy theories. They have a magical worldview that erases the importance of expertise and learning, which they do not value. It's not a coincidence that they're now beginning to reject vaccination for their children.

That's just another symptom of valuing ignorance and shaming expertise.

Ron DeSantis knows better, I'm sure, but he has evidently decided that hitching his political career to the interests of the willfully ignorant is a key to power.

He's hardly alone, and I worry about the state of our nation in coming decades, even setting aside LGBTQ issues.