Fox News expert links gay club shooting to 'elementary school' in wake of GOP 'anti-woke' laws

A Fox News expert said on Sunday that hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community happen because children are not taught tolerance in elementary schools.

Following a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado over the weekend, Steve Rogers suggested to Fox News host Arthel Neville that laws limiting LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools do not help stop hate crimes.

"How do we tamp down hate crimes across the board?" Neville wondered.

"I think it begins in our schools, our educational system," Rogers explained. "We have to do a lot of educating in elementary school with regard to, yeah, people may be different in your eyes but they're people, they're American citizens and they deserve to have the constitutional protections that all of us have."

"So, it begins at the elementary school level and we have to make sure that it continues throughout our entire lives," he added. "We need to stop the hateful rhetoric on the internet, by our politicians, by everyone! And we need to bring the temperature down and understand that, you know, we're all God's children and we have to respect each other."

In recent years, Republicans have sought to pass laws against teaching tolerance, inclusion and diversity in public schools. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) campaigned on the state's "Stop WOKE Act" which limits the discussion of LGBTQ+ topics.

Watch the video below from Fox News.