Presidential candidate Nikki Haley somehow finds room to the right of Ron DeSantis on LGBTQ+ issues

Nikki Haley, a candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, says Florida’s anti-LGBTQ+ Don’t Say Gay law “doesn’t go far enough”.

The law – enacted by governor Ron DeSantis in March 2022 – bans LGBTQ+ topics being discussed in classrooms between kindergarten and third grade.

After third grade, these topics must be “age appropriate”, however the law does not define this term.

Now, Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and the first person to announce she’ll run against former president Donald Trump for the nomination, has had her say.

Speaking at campaign meeting in Exeter, New Hampshire, just days after she announced her candidacy, Haley said she did not think the legislation went far enough.

“When I was in school, you didn’t have sex ed[ucation] until 7th grade. And even then, your parents had to sign whether you could take the class,” Fox News reported Haley as saying.

“That’s a decision for parents to make,” she added.

In an interview with the right-wing news outlet afterwards, Haley added: “We should not be talking to kids in elementary school about gender, period.

“Schools need to be teaching reading and math and science. They don’t need to be teaching whether they think you’re a boy or a girl.”

Her comments appeared to be a direct jab at fellow Republican DeSantis, who is widely expected to join the presidential race.

It would not be her first dig at other politicians where criticism is clearly implied but names are not explicitly stated.

Part of her campaign launch saw her call for mandatory “mental competency tests” for politicians older than 75, The Hill reported, noting that president Joe Biden is 80 and Donald Trump is 76. Nikki Haley turned 51 last month.

Her stance on the anti-LGBTQ+ law is not a new rhetoric among Republican politicians.

Copycat bills have been filed throughout the US, some of which use similar language but go even further, including one introduced in Texas last month that could result in teachers having to out children to their parents.