In case you were not yet convinced, they want control of your children. If the sexualized targeting of very young children pointed out on these pages in the past were not enough, consider the ongoing political effort to wrestle away control from parents and place it in the hands of teachers, school staff, and health care professionals.
Activists and politicians showed their hand at the Arizona Capitol this week during a floor vote on parental rights bill SB 1166. Senator John Kavanagh sponsored the bill to counter the concerted effort by some schools to secretly encourage students to socially “transition” by using opposite pronouns and names behind their parents’ backs. The bill requires parents be notified of such behavior, and it protects teachers who do not want to call students by opposite pronouns or names.
It passed along party lines, with opposing senators openly arguing for other adults to usurp a parent’s authority and secretly transition students. Senator Christine Marsh claimed teachers or coaches should be able to keep a child’s gender dysphoria from parents. She said, “To force adults in that child’s life to “out” them to their parent, I think is very problematic … this bill is taking away a safe place for kids who may not yet be “out” to their parents, and I think it also undermines the authority of school control.” There it is: notifying parents that their child is struggling with his or her gender is undermining the authority of school control.” The fact that the authority rests with parents, not schools, is completely lost on Senator Marsh and others. You can view the discussion and vote here at 35:00).
Marsh tied it to a school’s responsibility to report signs of child abuse, “We are actually mandated reporters, and it should be because we have those legitimate concerns, but not because of new legislation that is forcing adult educators to “out” vulnerable children to their parents.” Marsh clearly does not see a student’s gender confusion and the potential emotional struggles surrounding it as a “legitimate concern” to be shared with the student’s own parents.
Senator Kavanagh advocated for the sovereignty of parents and the well-being of children, saying, “This is about the parents’ right to know if their student has gender dysphoria. The fact that a school would know this, and that the student could be suffering from depression or suicidal thoughts and willfully keep parents blind is awful.”
The trampling of parental rights continued in a Senate committee hearing when opponents of Representative Julie Willoughby’s HB 2183 testified against requiring medical facilities to provide a child’s medical records to parents online. Parents already have access to these records, but not electronically, which is critical in this digital age.
Abortion activist Jodi Liggett and an ACLU representative argued parents should not have access to their minor child’s electronic records because Liggett believes it violates the rights of minors. She called it dangerous.
Hugo Polanco of the ACLU told members to oppose the bill because minors wouldn’t get medical treatment that their parents do not support. To Polanco, that was clearly unacceptable; for most parents, it is a no-brainer. Polanco said, “It is necessary for some kids to hide their medical matters from parents. Kids who are abusing substances, have venereal diseases, need [an abortion] will avoid treatment if they know their parents can see the records.”
The bill passed out of the Senate Health and Human Services committee with a vote of 4-1-2. Senators Sonny Borrelli, Justine Wadsack, T.J. Shope, and Janae Shamp voted in favor of the bill, Senator Sally Gonzalez opposed, and Senators Teresa Hatathlie and Eva Burch were absent.
Arizona law acknowledges that parents are the arbiters of their children; they have the right and responsibility to direct the education, health, and well-being of their children. Still, Liggett, Polanco, Senator Marsh, and others against these bills, are doing what they can to cut parents out of their rightful role and put their parental power in the hands of bureaucrats who will encourage behaviors that align with their ideological worldview, including gender-altering “transitions,” abortion, and inappropriate sexualization at a young age.
Read here CAP’s Policy Page on Parental Rights Under Arizona Law.
Follow the CAP – supported bills on our bill tracker here.
ICYMI
- Read here about one teacher’s fight to keep her job after speaking out against a pro-LGBT school agenda that silences religious opposition.
- Read here about a new study finding gender-altering drugs and surgeries do not prevent suicide.
- Read here Breakpoint’s analysis of the clarity that came from the Alabama court ruling on IVF and what follows.
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