Raven-Symoné on walkout against Florida's 'Don't Say Gay' legislation
She said she feels the law "prevents people from being themselves."
Raven-Symoné is sharing more on why she and the cast of "Raven's Home" participated in a walkout last month in protest of Florida's "'Don't Say Gay" bill that was signed into law last month.
The legislation, officially known as the Parental Rights in Education bill, was signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on March 28; it bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through third grade.
While appearing on the latest episode of the "D23 Inside Disney" podcast, Symoné, whose given name is Raven-Symoné Pearman, said the cast chose to participate in the walkout "in support of all the people that are going to be hurt, invalidated, embarrassed and angry" due to the legislation.
She said she feels the law "prevents people from being themselves" and expressed that she believes that "if you're going to have that bill, then you should have a don't say straight bill."
The legislation also gives parents control over their children's access to mental, emotional and physical health services, granting them the "option to withhold consent or decline any specific service."
Symoné, who came out as gay in 2013, expressed how harmful she feels the legislation is to the LGBTQ+ community.
"There are too many people within the LGBTQ+ community that live in our country and in our world that get discriminated against on an everyday basis," she said.
"This adds to that pain, that suffering, that adds to the suicidal rate, it adds to the discrimination that I thought we were trying really hard to erase in this country," she added. "And it just continues to pop up. I think it's a disgrace."
Along with using her platform to speak out against legislation that she feels is harmful to her community, the actress and her wife, Miranda Pearman-Maday, also have a YouTube channel that Symoné says they created to bring more "visibility" to couples just like them.
"For the longest time in my career, when I would date somebody, I never really told anybody," she said, adding that she was "raised" to not share her relationships in the public eye.
She said that changed due to her wife's influence: "Miranda, my wife, came to me and she said, 'you know, there's not a lot of millennial, lesbian, multiracial couples that are speaking out within the entertainment industry.'"
"So I'm like, oh, that's interesting, does anybody care? She was like, 'who cares if anybody cares? We care.'"
And 8PM, their joint channel, was born. The actress said she loves creating content for the channel with her wife, but expressed that she feels there is a deeper purpose for their shared platform as well.
Symoné described it as a space for "people out there who need the confidence, who want to see themselves, who need to feel validated," and added that the channel is largely about "normalizing our marriage -- because it is normal -- but we need more visibility so that people understand that."
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"We have a lot of fun being able to showcase our love, our conversations and bring people into the conversations as well," she shared. "It is a safe space -- her favorite words -- to have healthy conversation and discussion. There's no judgment and everyone's thoughts are welcome as long as they're respectful."
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