Originally published by The 19th.

School districts across Florida will soon receive written notice from the state that discussions of LGBTQ identities are not banned in classrooms. This acknowledgement comes two years after the Parental Rights in Education Act, nicknamed the “Don’t Say Gay” law, banned the instruction of sexual orientation and gender identity from kindergarten to third grade — and almost a year after the law was expanded through 12th grade.

The written notice to school districts is a requirement of the settlement reached on Monday between Florida’s education department and families of LGBTQ youth who sued the state. The “Don’t Say Gay” law does not ban teachers from referencing LGBTQ people in class or their own families, and it does not ban library books on queer or trans topics, the settlement clarifies.

That news comes alongside the end of Florida’s legislative session, during which nearly all proposed anti-LGBTQ bills failed to pass. To teachers and parents of LGBTQ youth, it seems like the tide is actually turning in their favor after several years of increasingly extreme policies have targeted their lives. However, more legal fights are underway over restrictive policies in schools.

Advocacy groups celebrated the settlement as a source of clarity for teachers and families in Florida, who have been living in confusion and fear as school districts interpreted how to enforce the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Some teachers were told not to wear clothes or stickers that could identify them as LGBTQ , while in other counties, books referencing any LGBTQ characters were ordered to be removed from school shelves in response to the legislation.

Under the new settlement, such rules are no longer permissible. For Jen Cousins, a mother of four in Orlando, the news brought her the kind of relief that she hasn’t felt in years. She cried tears of joy when telling her children, including her two kids who have come out as LGBTQ , about the news on Monday night.

“If you’d have asked me last week if this would be happening, I would have laughed. We’re just so used to taking loss after loss after loss for the last few years,” she said. “They had to admit they were wrong. So, that’s a great........

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