Legislation that protects a parent’s right to block the use of gender pronouns and other gender ideology in public schools is either pending or has already been approved in all but three U.S. states.
One of the states where legislation is being heavily watched is New Hampshire, where more than 200 people turned out on April 18 in support of proposed parental rights legislation.
Republican state Sen. Dan Innis, who is gay, told The Epoch Times that he believes that rising support for parental rights measures is because the transgender movement’s targeting of children and the move to cut their parents out of the process “goes just too far,” even for many liberals.
“These bills are being labeled as anti-trans, but nothing could be further from the truth. What they are is pro-family, pro-child,” Innis said. “Their purpose is to put these major life decisions, major life changes, where they belong, and that’s in the family between the parents and the children.”
Teachers unions and some LGBT organizations, however, have warned that the parental rights bills are creating “dangerous situations” for kids by depriving those suffering from gender dysphoria of a trusted adult at school to confide in and not challenge them.
“We need our students to feel safe at school and to have their school be a place they feel welcome,” said Deb Howes, president of the American Federation of Teachers New Hampshire, in a written testimony against Senate Bill SB 272.
“For the sake of their well-being, and perhaps their very survival, we also need for students to know that they can turn to their teachers or school staff to be a trusted adult—especially if they don’t have one in their home.”
Howes didn’t respond to inquiries from The Epoch Times for further comment.
According to a recent interactive map compiled by the American Civil Liberties Union, the New Hampshire bill is among more than 460 pieces of what the organization calls “anti-LGBTQ” legislation currently pending in the United States.
Of them, 220 of them are specific to public schools—spread over 47 states—including in radically liberal California.
A review of the proposals that shows the vast majority are parental rights bills seeking to enshrine a parent’s right to access all school curriculum, including any kind of sex education or gender-related topics or activities, and the right to either inquire or be notified about any clubs their children enroll in, along with any use of gender pronouns or a name different from the one the child was given by his or her parents.
The only three states with no pending parental rights or gender-based legislation are New York, Wyoming, and Nevada, where a proposed parental rights measure seeking notification requirements regarding gender ideology was recently defeated.
Republican lawmakers introduced several measures in ultra-conservative Wyoming, but Speaker of the House Albert Sommers, to the shock of fellow Republicans, blocked the legislation from being introduced. Sommers, whose move made national headlines, was accused by other Republicans of selling out to teachers unions; he responded that he blocked the bills because they infringe on the authority of local school boards.
Illinois was listed on the ACLU map as a fourth state without pending school-based gender ideology legislation. However, Republican state lawmakers have since introduced a bill to take on at what U.S. Rep. Mary Miller called “dangerous transgender policies” in schools.
Although there is no pending parental rights legislation in Colorado, Vermont, and Connecticut, those states made the ACLU’s map because of pending bills that call for a ban on male students’ participation in female sports in the schools.
Outside of Connecticut and Vermont, all four other New England states—which combined compose one of the most liberal corners of the United States—do have pending parental rights legislation aimed at gender identity issues in schools, including in Massachusetts, one of the bluest states in the country.
The United States is also seeing for the first time a federal parental rights bill take hold, with the House GOP advancing such a proposal in March.
Chris Ager, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, which has promoted the New Hampshire bill, told The Epoch Times that he believes that schools are losing the battle because they are undermining the most sacredly held roles on earth: “mom and dad.”
“If a minor can’t get a pierced ear without a parent’s approval, how can the schools think they should have the right to promote potentially mutilating kids for life without a parent’s approval,” he said.
Even parents in New York’s liberal Westchester County recently complained publicly that their school kept them in the dark about activities involving reassigning their children’s gender identities.
The debate has created strange bedfellows, such as Gays Against Groomers and the Christian group Child Parents Right, which have campaigned together in support of parental rights legislation.
Innis says he doesn’t believe that children are being rejected by their parents as commonly as some transgender activists have suggested, and views the argument by schools that they are protecting children from unaccepting parents as an “unintentionally dangerous” position.
“I don’t believe that teachers want to be destructive to children, but I think they’re misunderstanding the vulnerability and the confusion that young people have and are unintentionally leading them down a bad path.”
