April showers bring May flowers, as the saying goes, and there’s seemingly a shower of men dominating in women’s sports that has yet to cease. What has bloomed as a result? Social outrage.
Two recent events are surfacing in news outlets, in which many have argued serve as further examples of why men should not be competing in women’s sports (and vice versa). On Saturday, trans-identifying runner Aayden Gallagher nearly blew his female competitors out of the water during the 2024 Sherwood Need For Speed Classic track competition in Oregon. The biological male finished the 200-meter race in a time of 25.49 – roughly two seconds ahead of the other runners — a sizeable margin in the realm of track and field.
In a different heat, Gallagher barely came in second behind female runner Aster Jones. But despite losing his hold on first place, it’s notable that Gallagher hit the “fifth fastest time ever run in the state’s girls 200m,” and the “fourth fastest time ever run in the Oregon girls’ 400m,” The Post Millennial reported. But to make an accurate comparison against male-born athletes, PM continued, “Gallegher’s 200m time would have earned 61st place among the male athletes and 46th in the 400m.”
The online rage sparked by these circumstances were partly due to Gallagher specifically, but also by the bigger picture of men being able to compete in women’s sports in the first place. As the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) shared on X, “Championing boys in girls’ sports is blatant misogyny.” Libs of TikTok, a prominent conservative social media presence, also posted on X, “These high school girls just had their dream stolen from them because the school is catering the delusions of a boy who pretends to be a girl.” Gallagher “is a cheater,” the post stated.
One X user responded to that post, “This man is not just a cheater, he’s a criminal. He’s stolen from girls their opportunity for fair competition and to have a bright future in sports.” Another wrote, “One day, future generations will look back on this with pain, wondering how humanity ever got to this point. Such a sad situation.” And amid several other angry comments, one sobering comment read, “When will parents of girls get sick of their daughters taking second place?”
On the flip side of this social controversy is boxer Patricio Manuel, formerly known as Patricia. The biological female recently became the first trans-identifying pro boxer to compete in the men’s division. Before her transition in 2013, Manuel competed in the U.S. women’s Olympic Trial, but had to take a step back due to a shoulder injury. According to The Daily Mail, “Manuel was a five-time national amateur women’s boxing champion.” But eleven years later, she started boxing with the big boys. Literally.
While the female boxer had recorded three consecutive wins, the fight during the Golden Boy Fight Night in California on April 4 put an end to the streak. Manuel went up against her male opponent, Joshua Brian Reyes, and was knocked out within 21 seconds. Media Research Center (MRC) posed the question, “Ever wonder why you never hear stories about women who believe they’re men stealing actual men’s sports trophies and championships?” To which they concluded, “That’s because it doesn’t happen.” And as many have argued, this topic shouldn’t be up to debate.
Macy Petty, an NCAA volleyball player and former Family Research Council intern, warned, “[The Biden] administration continues to reduce sex-based competition to arbitrary hormone levels,” she shared with The Washington Stand. But “women are so much more than a hormone level, and our sports should reflect our unique design.”
According to Petty, “The female league is not a B league, or simply a league for athletes with particular hormone levels. It is a league specifically created for women to embrace the potentials of their God-created design.” She continued, “Male intrusion not only disrupts the protection of female opportunity but attacks the very design of male and female.” And it appears it’s not just men in women’s sports that causes controversy, as Manuel’s case demonstrates.
Petty concluded, “Male athletes beating women by seconds in track competition is a true mockery of the intentionality distinguishing the sexes. [And] in many cases, such as boxing, it places women directly in harm’s way.” But many have joined Petty in the pleas of keeping men and women’s sports distinct, including “over a dozen female athletes [who] are suing the National Collegiate Athletics Association for letting transgender athletes compete against them and use female locker rooms in college sports.”
The question is: will high school athletes and their parents follow suit?
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-18 05:43:402024-04-18 05:46:01Trans-Identifying Female Boxer KO’d in 21 Seconds by Biological Male
A lot has happened since Dylan Mulvaney pranced around his yard in a Nike sports bra last April. Days after his face appeared on Bud Light cans — the controversy that launched a thousand boycotts — the sight of him doing jumping jacks in women’s workout gear was almost worst. And a stock chart that looks like a downhill ski slope proves it. Months after the country protested with a bonfire of bra burning, the only swoosh Nike hears now is the sound of profits gushing.
While Bud Light hogged most of the spotlight with its historic collapse, the devastation of Nike’s trans advocacy is real. By August of last year, the brand of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods was experiencing what experts called “its biggest losing streak since 1980.” With catastrophic losses — upwards of $13 billion dollars in market value — consumer outrage was packing a serious punch.
Angry women led the charge, lashing out at the company as an insult to females everywhere. “The ad feels like a parody of what women are. … That Nike would do this feels like a kick in the teeth,” one posted. Others blasted the brand for making a “mockery out of women,” vowing never to buy another thing from a company that chose a man “over all the hardworking women who workout regularly in your activewear.” It’s “absolutely disgusting.” Most people just couldn’t understand the marketing logic. “Why doesn’t Nike pay a real women to promote a product that is solely for women?” they wanted to know.
Almost a year later, the pressure hasn’t let up. Market analysts have been shocked by the company’s inability to rebound, a nosedive they wrongly assumed was temporary. According to Yahoo Finance, Nike’s stock is down 11.3% since the beginning of the year, and it’s trading “26.1% below its 52-week high.” And while experts are blaming everything from weak overseas demand to slowing sales and pricing challenges, their theories miss the most important reality: shoppers won’t put up with social extremism anymore. LGBT activism, the kind flaunted by Mulvaney and embraced by tone-deaf board rooms, continues to be the kiss of death to corporate profitability.
Nike boss John Donahoe has called the company’s downturn “a painful reality and not one that I take lightly.” “We are currently not performing at our best, and I ultimately hold myself and my leadership team accountable,” he said, leaving out any mention of the poor decisions that put Nike in this position in the first place.
Unfortunately, the company has a long and frustrating history of political activism. Millions of customers called it quits on Nike after their endorsement of anti-American quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who, along with disrespecting our national anthem, persuaded the company to shelve its patriotic shoes. They were the first sports retailer to fan the flames of racial tension during the George Floyd riots, voicing support for controversial groups like Black Lives Matter. They’ve fought against religious freedom in adoption bills, girls sports and privacy, even launched a special trans line of clothing called Be True.
Most egregiously, Nike was one of the few brands openly using slave labor to stitch their iconic shoes together. A 2020 expose from The Washington Post talked about the Uyghurs who were spared China’s concentration camps only to hunch over tables sewing Nike’s logo on an endless line of shoes — up to seven million pairs a year.
“Everyone knows they didn’t come here of their own free will,” a Chinese woman told reporter Anna Fifield at the time. “They were brought here … because they didn’t have an option. The government sent them here.” It’s how the Chinese government is “exporting the punitive culture and ethos of Xinjiang’s ‘reeducation camps’ to factories across China,” one expert told the Post.
Incredibly, when a bipartisan bill threatened to outlaw the use of slave labor for American companies, ending our country’s role in these human rights atrocities, Nike fought to kill it. Company spokesmen denied that, responding to The New York Times allegations that they were only in “constructive conversations” with lawmakers. But even today, three years after Joe Biden signed the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the Canadian government is investigating complaints that Nike is still using slave laborers in Xinjiang, which they consider a “crime against humanity.”
Now, a year into their Dylan Mulvaney fiasco, the Oregon-based headquarters is reaping the whirlwind. Instead of taking their foot off the gas of an agenda Americans have so clearly rejected, Nike is stubbornly leaning into the radicalism that’s bankrupting other brands. At a time when almost 300 companies are backing off their LGBT advocacy, Nike scored a perfect 100% on the Human Rights Campaign’s Equality Index this year (quite a feat considering HRC’s steep transgender benchmarks).
If Nike wants to enrage consumers at a time of record pushback, that’s their business. But better advice might come from their peers, who believe a smarter company slogan would be: Just don’t.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-17 12:11:342024-04-17 12:14:23Nike Stocks Still Tanking a Year after Mulvaney Partnership
The vast majority of children who experience gender dysphoria will embrace their biological sex by adulthood, according to a sweeping national study that monitored children for 15 years.
Roughly two out of every three children who identify as transgender will embrace their birth sex by their mid-20s, the study found. People most likely to continue to identify as transgender have low self-esteem and other mental health challenges, researchers found.
A study of children in the Netherlands tracked 2,772 adolescents from the age of 11 to 26, asking them to rate their mental and physical health every three years for 15 years. The Youth and Adult Self-Report (YSR) asked participants to assess how much they agree with the statement, “I wish to be of the opposite sex.” A team of researchers then pored over the data from the Tracking Adolescent’s Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS) to measure “gender non-contentedness.”
The vast majority (78%) of people never felt any feelings of gender dysphoria, researchers noted. “In early adolescence, 11% of participants reported gender non-contentedness,” wrote researchers in the study, published in February in the peer-reviewed Archives of Sexual Behavior. “The prevalence decreased with age and was 4% at the last follow-up (around age 26)” — a desistance rate of 64%.
Researchers also found that adolescents were 950% more likely to feel better about their sex than to feel worse: 19% of participants felt decreased “gender non-contentedness,” as compared with only 2% whose feelings deepened over time. Participants whose gender confusion worsened over the years “more often were female,” researchers noted.
Feeling more severe gender dysphoria as an adult is also “associated with a lower [overall] self-worth, more behavioral and emotional problems, and a non-heterosexual sexual” preference.
“Gender non-contentedness, while being relatively common during early adolescence, in general decreases with age and appears to be associated with a poorer self-concept and mental health throughout development,” they concluded.
Experts felt vindicated by the latest research. “This new study simply confirms what has been known for over a decade,” Jay Richards, Ph.D., told The Washington Stand. In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) “noted that most kids who experience distress with their sexed bodies resolve those feelings after they pass through natural puberty,” Richards — who serves as director of the Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation — told TWS.
The Dutch study acknowledges it did not break new ground. Although few studies follow the same cohort for such a long period of time, the analysts admitted their findings fell in line with the best available literature. “The few longitudinal studies that have been conducted in a clinical setting found low persistence rates of early childhood gender dysphoric feelings into adolescence and adulthood,” wrote the researchers, linking to studies from 2016 and 2021. The latter found, “Boys clinic-referred for gender identity concerns in childhood had a high rate of desistance.”
Yet this and other studies reveal that “minors who are put on puberty blockers for the purposes of ‘gender affirmation’ are extremely likely to go on to take cross-hormones” such as estrogen and testosterone, Richards told TWS. Studies show up to 93% of children who begin on puberty blockers will go on to receive cross-sex hormone injections. Experts say the transgender industry’s early medical intervention actually deepens and prolongs feelings of gender dysphoria that would otherwise go away on their own. “This is what makes ‘gender-affirming’ (that is, sex-denying) medical interventions on minors such a medical atrocity. These interventions fast track troubled kids onto a path to sterilization and lifelong medical problems,” explained Richards.
The harm goes beyond lost fertility. “There is no research into long-term harms, but some evidence suggests decreased IQ and brittle bones. Permanent sterility is guaranteed for minors who go through full hormonal “transition.” Sexual dysfunction appears to be extremely common as well,” wrote Leor Sapir, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, at The Hill. So-called “gender-affirming hormonal treatment” (GAHT) causes “permanent physical changes including excruciating genital growth, vaginal atrophy and tearing and much higher risk for cancer and cardiovascular disease.”
The authors of the new study said they hope their findings will “help adolescents to realize that it is normal to have some doubts about one’s identity and one’s gender identity during this age period and that this is also relatively common.” It should “provide some perspective to clinicians primarily seeing individuals with intense gender dysphoric feelings.”
This study, and others like it, prove that “children need time, not gender-‘affirming’ medical mutilation,” said Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation.
A growing number of young people subjected to transgender ideology at pediatric gender clinics say they wish they had known how common, and fleeting, feelings of transgenderism can be. “Young people, particularly young women, are very susceptible to social contagion. They are the most susceptible demographic,” Prisha Mosley, a detransitioner who now works with the Independent Women’s Forum, told Laura Ingraham Thursday evening. “And as for the 1% who continues to feel that way, they deserve ethical and data-based mental health care.”
She noted how easily she received transgender injections and procedures, as compared to treatment for her bona fide mental health issues. “I had actually been seeking mental health care and services for trauma and other mental illnesses that were diagnosed prior to my gender dysphoria diagnosis for several years. But as soon as I heard about gender ideology online and expressed to my doctors that I felt I was born in the wrong body, I was immediately fast-tracked,” Mosley told Ingraham on Fox News. She said it took her “almost 10 years after getting my diagnosis for Borderline Personality Disorder to find a dialectical behavioral therapist to treat it, but it was less than two years to go from hormones to a double mastectomy and transition.”
Mosley urged parents to guard their children against the predatory transgender industry, cautioning them to be cognizant of “the way people are manipulating and breaking down language” on the issue of gender. “And then do your best to prepare your children for that. Maybe tell them that there are tricky people out there who will twist language and manipulate them, because unfortunately, it’s true.”
“Sometimes these predators — these people — they’ll wear pins that say, ‘You’re safe with me,’ and all of that, but that can oftentimes be a signal that you’re not safe,” warned Mosley.
“This new Dutch study reminds us that children are being subjected to experimental medical interventions to treat what, in most cases, is a temporary psychological state,” Richards told TWS. “This is a grotesque perversion of the medical maxim to ‘first, do no harm.’”
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-06 07:57:042024-04-06 08:01:57Two Out of Three Kids Will No Longer Identify as Transgender by Adulthood, Massive Study Finds
In response to incumbent President Joe Biden naming Easter Sunday the national “Transgender Day of Visibility,” former President Donald Trump is declaring a “Christian Visibility Day.” The 45th president announced on Truth Social, “Election Day, November 5th, will be the most important day in the History of our Country. It will also be Christian Visibility Day, the biggest turnout of Christians in the history of our Country!”
In a Tuesday speech delivered in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Trump asked, “And what the hell was Biden thinking when he declared Easter Sunday to be trans visibility day?” He added, “Such total disrespect to Christians, and November 5th is going to be called something else. You know what it’s going to be called? ‘Christian Visibility Day,’ when Christians turn out in numbers that nobody has ever seen before.”
Trump’s national press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called Biden’s “Transgender Day of Visibility” proclamation “appalling and insulting,” adding that it was simply part of the Biden administration’s “years-long assault on the Christian faith.”
In comments to The Washington Stand, FRC Action Director Matt Carpenter said, “The recent attempt by the Biden White House to overshadow Resurrection Sunday with so-called ‘Transgender Day of Visibility’ will undoubtedly have repercussions come November 5.” He continued, “Unlike Biden, Trump seems to be paying attention to what happened this past weekend when he said election day would be ‘Christian Day of Visibility.’ Christian voters are paying attention.”
“The Biden White House is not simply indifferent to America’s heritage as a Christian nation that marks its calendar with Christian holidays, his administration is openly hostile to that tradition,” Carpenter added. “I think former President Trump rightly sees the opening here to connect with Christian voters who are now seeing plainly the power of the presidency to point American civic life toward its harmful gender ideology or the resurrection of the Son of God from the grave.”
Ahead of Christmas, Trump pledged to form a task force if reelected in order to combat anti-Christian bias. “As soon as I get back in the Oval Office, I’ll also immediately end the war on Christians,” the 45th president promised. “Under crooked Joe Biden, Christians and Americans of faith are being persecuted and government has been weaponized against religion like never before.”
“Biden and his corrupt Department of Injustice have sent SWAT teams to arrest pro-life activists, they’ve targeted conservative parents at school board meetings who don’t want filth taught to their children, it’s filth, what they’re teaching in schools, it’s filth,” Trump stated. He then referred to the Biden Justice Department’s campaign spying on American Catholics who attend the pre-1969 Tridentine Mass, saying, “And now the communists, Marxists, and fascists are going hard after Catholics, even plotting to send spies into Catholic churches. … Just like in the Soviet Union from days gone by.” He asked, “If you’re a Catholic, why would you vote for a Democrat, with what they’re doing to Catholics? I don’t know what’s going on with the Catholics, but they’re really being persecuted.”
“A new report from the House Judiciary Committee proves that the Biden FBI actually targeted Catholics as potential domestic terrorists,” Trump noted, referring to a December congressional report. “And you know, evangelicals will not be far behind, because when that starts, it starts happening on a very major scale.”
Over the past several months, polls have consistently shown Trump beating Biden in November, both in hotly-contested battleground states and nationally.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-04 16:13:512024-04-06 05:34:39Trump Declares November 5 ‘Christian Day of Visibility’
The Biden administration is allowing immigrants applying for U.S. citizenship to identify as an “X” gender on their paperwork. U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday that, effective immediately, immigrants applying for naturalization may pick “male,” “female,” or “X” as their gender, denoting “Another Gender Identity.”
Furthermore, applicants do not need to provide any supporting documentation in order to select an “X” gender. “You do not need to provide supporting documentation to select X as your gender initially or to change your gender selection for Form N-400,” USCIS stated. “The gender you select does not need to match the gender listed on your other immigration documents or on supporting identity documents, such as your birth certificate, passport, or state identification.”
“Historically, USCIS forms and associated documents have only offered two gender options: ‘Male (M)’ and ‘Female (F),’” the USCIS announcement explained. “This has created significant barriers for requestors who do not identify with either of those options.” The agency cited the example of other federal agencies, such as the U.S. State Department, which have allowed for a self-identified “X” gender on official documents as justification for its decision.
The agency advised, “Form N-400 is the only USCIS form that offers the X gender option at this time. Therefore, until we complete additional form revisions that add the X gender option, naturalization certificates are the only USCIS-issued secure identity documents that can reflect the gender X.” Form N-565, a request for a replacement naturalization or citizenship document, is reportedly still being revised to include an “X” gender option. Those who have filed an N-400 form which is still pending need only contact USCIS to request a change to “X.”
USCIS also updated guidelines in its Policy Manual to reflect the new gender option available, adding that there will be “other forthcoming form revisions that will add a third gender option…”
Referring to the death of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) posted on social media, “I’m sure Laken Riley’s family is relieved to know that immigrants can now register as ‘Gender X.’” He added, “Biden’s Department of Homeland Security is too busy implementing woke DEI gender policies to protect Americans and secure the border. … Close the border.”
The USCIS decision follows similar moves by other federal agencies, most notably the State Department. In 2022, Biden’s State Department announced it was adding “X” gender marker options to U.S. passports, a decision explicitly cited by USCIS in its own announcement. Additionally, the State Department has spent its time issuing warnings to staffers about “misgendering,” funding training programs for LGBT “allies,” and endorsing LGBT “Pride” events across the globe.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-04-04 15:52:532024-04-04 15:55:27Citizenship Application Now Allows for ‘X’ Gender Designation
Does Rep. Jerry Nadler (D) live in New York or an alternate universe? People certainly wondered after a House Judiciary hearing where the 76-year-old declared, “Men do not compete in women’s sports.” Is the president’s senility contagious or is Nadler living in complete denial of a global phenomenon that’s plunged communities into chaos? Not only are men competing in women’s sports, they’re winning women’s titles — a fact Riley Gaines was more than happy to point out.
“Ironic he says this on the EXACT 2 year anniversary of this photo being taken,” the former University of Kentucky swimmer posted alongside a picture of Lia Thomas holding a trophy he never should have had the chance to race for. “This 6’4” man isn’t fooling anyone with any amount of common sense,” Gaines fumed. “2 years ago today I had a fire lit under me and communists like Nadler continue to fuel it.”
And yet, Nadler was so determined to suppress reality that he actually moved to have evidence of the debate stricken from the record. Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman (Wyo.) had catalogued a number of times that biological boys had stolen girls’ titles and opportunities in the last several years. The group SheWon puts the number at an eye-popping 292 stolen first-place podiums. “I ask for unanimous consent to submit for the record instances of men hijacking women’s sports and the various examples that we have demonstrating not only injuries that have been suffered by women as men have participated in girls’ sports, but also the women — the girls and women who have been affected by this, including Riley Gaines, when Will Thomas decided to join the … women’s swimming team in Pennsylvania,” she requested.
Nadler, the committee’s ranking member, fired back, “I object to concluding these mistruths in the record.” Shocked, Hageman replied how telling it was that he didn’t want the facts included in the record — to which the New Yorker replied, “Men do not compete in women’s sports.”
That’s news to the 25 (going on 26) states who’ve stepped in to stop this madness from overtaking their girls at the pool, track, court, field, and gym. If it wasn’t happening, then this was sure a monumental waste of legislative time.
Slack-jawed, conservatives kept up the pressure, giving a passionate defense of girls and the opportunities, safety, and privacy they’re losing by this absurd introduction of men in women’s sports. Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) showed a video montage of girls who’ve been physically injured playing against biological boys in volleyball, field hockey, and basketball. From Massachusetts to North Carolina, members watched as girls screamed in pain, lost teeth, were carted off with head injuries. One of the victims, Payton McNabb, still suffers from blurred vision, partial paralysis, and memory loss.
We have examples, Spartz insisted, of “much stronger guys playing sports against biologically not-as-strong women.” “Girls actually get hurt by biological males playing sports,” she argued. “I mean, it is really unbelievable for me that this is an issue that we cannot stand with women and girls on.” Instead, Spartz went on, “the other side tries to really deter the conversation in a different direction and divert it. … Let’s talk about how we are going to protect our women and girls.”
When the talk turned to privacy rights, Democrat Eric Swalwell (Calif.) joined Nadler’s delusion, claiming that men in girls locker rooms “is not a thing.”
Tell that to the 16 plaintiffs suing the NCAA. One of them, Gaines’s teammate and SEC champion Kaitlynn Wheeler, describes in agonizing detail how they were put in a “fundamentally unfair situation that no student-athlete, let alone a teenage girl, should ever have to face.” The collegiate sports body “did not simply make my teammates in the 100-, 200-, and 500-yard freestyle races face a biological male swimmer in the pool,” she insisted. “The NCAA also decided that Lia Thomas, a 6-foot-4-inch, 22-year-old transgender swimmer with a male body and full male genitalia, would be undressing with us.” She writes of that traumatizing experience in a new Washington Examiner op-ed:
“The moment I realized Thomas would be sharing our most private space, I was engulfed by a whirlwind of emotions — shock, disbelief, horror. The sanctity of our locker room, a space that should have been ours and ours alone, was shattered without warning. The presence of male genitalia in a space that was supposed to be safe, where we were vulnerable and exposed, was not just uncomfortable; it was a visceral invasion of our privacy and dignity.
“Feeling my stomach churn as whispers turned to silence, I stood there, naked and exposed, not just physically but also emotionally, grappling with a reality I couldn’t comprehend. The NCAA’s decision to transform our sanctuary into a ‘unisex’ locker room without our consent felt like a betrayal of the highest order. It was a stark reminder that our voices, our comfort, and our boundaries did not matter.”
And yet, the effort to protect these girls is what Swalwell called “creepy” — not forcing innocent teenagers to share a room with a naked man. That’s what really stings, the girls say. No one has their backs. As so many female athletes admitted to Senate Republicans, they feel “helpless.” “This is kind of a theme that we got,” Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said of his committee’s investigation on trans inclusion in sports: “‘Why am I even trying? I don’t have any hope whatsoever.’” “Our voices as women were completely silenced,” another admitted.
Fortunately for Wheeler and the thousands of American daughters living this nightmare, Republicans do care. Over the objections of Democrats, conservatives on the House Judiciary Committee passed Rep. Greg Steube’s (R-Fla.) Protection of Women in Olympic & Amateur Sports Act last Thursday. To Wheeler, who watched Thomas stand on top of a podium meant for her sport, maybe it will mean the end of the silence of the adults in the room. “That silence spoke volumes of the injustice, pain, and anger brewing in the hearts of not just the competitors but of every woman forced into silence by a system that refuses to listen.”
Until then, she vowed, women will “stand against the erasure of our voices,” whether or not this president or his party stands with them. “We demand a future where female athletes are respected, where our safety and privacy are not just acknowledged but fiercely protected.”
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-28 11:34:532024-03-28 11:47:56Dem Claims Men ‘Don’t Compete in Women’s Sports’ as Stolen Titles Near 300
As the nation nears Passover, the Biden administration has unveiled its latest scapegoat: people who want to protect children, especially Christians. In a speech that defied parody, First Lady Jill Biden linked those who oppose books that show minors transgender cartoonish porn to the Nazis.
“Doctor” Jill’s accusations came over the weekend during brief remarks to the so-called Human Rights Campaign (HRC). She was supposed to marry the Democratic Party’s campaign themes of castigating “Christian nationalism” with their all-encompassing campaign message that electing anyone more conservative than AOC poses “a threat to democracy.” In the Biden family’s typically solipsistic fashion, she spent about one-third of her nine-minute-long speech talking about herself. But when she finally served up the rainbow-colored meat, it hit its target: anyone who would try to slow down the Left’s agenda to indoctrinate and trans kids.
“We had to fend off more than 50 anti-gay amendments that Republicans tried to force into the government funding bill,” she said, then plunging unartfully into her evening’s talking points:
“These were extreme measures aimed directly at this community — measures that would have limited health care, eroded protections for same-sex couples, and more. And they served only one purpose: to spread hate and fear.
“History teaches us that democracies don’t disappear overnight. They disappear slowly, subtly, silently.
“A book ban. A court decision. A ‘don’t say gay’ law.
“Before World War II, I’m told, Berlin was the center of LGBTQ culture in Europe.
“One group of people loses their rights. And then another, and another. Until one morning you wake up — and you no longer live in a democracy.”
In her defense, Biden-era America does bear a striking resemblance to the Weimar Republic, both in its openness to sexual licentiousness (which carried over into the highest ranks of its successor Nazi regime) and hyperinflation. Otherwise, it’s a full-out assault on family values and common decency.
The “book ban” simply means removing books that feature cartoonish imagery of fellatio and celebrations of pedophilia from school libraries, or moving them from the children’s section to the adult section of other libraries. That’s “not Kristallnacht,” Bruce Friedman, a concerned citizen, told “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” in 2022.
The “Don’t Say Gay” law does not say “Don’t Say Gay.” It merely prohibits teachers from deliberately introducing sexual themes into classroom discussions for children in kindergarten through third grade. That would make most elementary school teachers incipient Nazis, since 62% of primary grade teachers said “students should not learn” about transgenderism in school.
Not content to break Godwin’s Law, Jill Biden tried to blame her political opponents for the deaths of numerous LGBT-identifying Americans. The first lady expressed concern for Nex Benedict, clasping her hands in a mock prayer before pointing the finger at conservatives: “We have faced unspeakable tragedies before: an assassination in San Francisco, a barren field in Wyoming, a nightclub in Orlando.”
The “assassination in San Francisco” refers to Harvey Milk, a San Francisco Democrat who had sex with a 16-year-old runaway named Jack Galen McKinley who later committed suicide. Milk’s supportive biographer remembers Milk had an eye for teenage boys with drug problems — behavior many would call sexual exploitation.
The “barren field in Wyoming” refers to Matthew Shepard, who had been kidnapped and raped during a high school field trip to Morocco a few years before dying a brutal death as a 21-year-old college student. But his murderers, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, used the “gay panic” defense to avoid the death penalty for a meth-fueled drug robbery gone wrong — and two witnesses confirm that McKinney and Shepard had a sexual relationship. These underreported facts proved so shattering to the Shepard martyrdom thesis that the LGBTQ website The Advocate asked, “What if nearly everything you thought you knew about Matthew Shepard’s murder was wrong?” (It also confirmed the movement’s penchant for stretching the truth, stating, “There are valuable reasons for telling certain stories in a certain way at pivotal times, but that doesn’t mean we have to hold on to them once they’ve outlived their usefulness.”)
The “nightclub in Orlando” — The Pulse — found itself under fire from Omar Mateen, the American-born child of Afghan parents who professed his allegiance to ISIS during the shooting. Mateen was placed on, then removed from, the FBI’s terrorist watchlist by the Obama-Biden administration. President Biden has imported nearly 100,000 more Afghanis to the U.S. since the fall of Kabul, and an unknown number more potential terrorists through our open southern border.
The irony of Jill Biden accusing others of subverting democracy is underlined by the remarks’ location: She spoke at the so-called Human Rights Campaign (HRC), a $46 million LGBTQ pressure group, which opposes laws protecting minors from transgender procedures and has denounced laws regulating drag shows and “allowing misgendering.” HRC’s “Welcoming Schools” program creates gay- and transgender-themed lesson plans for teachers beginning in “pre-K,” such as reading the book, “They, She, He, Easy as ABC.” By third grade, HRC introduces the “Gender Snowperson” exercise to indoctrinate children that there are “differences between gender identity, sexual orientation and sex assigned at birth.”
Most parents, and teachers, want nothing to do with this. More than 10 times as many teachers say transgender lessons in schools “have had a negative impact on their ability to do their job,” according to the Pew Research Center.
A majority of Americans (55%) say they find transgenderism immoral, according to a Gallup poll taken last June; 71% of Americans agreed with that “there are two genders, male and female,” according to a June 2023 Rasmussen poll; and 64% of Americans (including 62% of Democrats) support Florida’s Parents Rights in Education bill, which Mrs. Biden smeared as a “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
If somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of America do not believe the transgender agenda, who’s waging a “war on democracy”? For that matter, who’s waging a war on logic?
After years of quietly investigating traditional Catholics, prosecuting evangelical sidewalk counselors, and warning of an alleged nexus between Orthodox Christians and the Kremlin, the Biden administration has decided to crank up the anti-Christian, anti-Middle America rhetoric to 11. Americans can be grateful Jill Biden’s speech proved poorly executed. Even the portions intended to endear herself or appeal to the audience fell flat. For instance, after revealing that Joe Biden proposed to her five times, she said: “I’ll never forget what Joe said next. He said, ‘Jill, I promise you, your life will never change.’ Of course, this proved to be wildly untrue.” Thus, Jill Biden verified her husband either breaks his promises or makes inaccurate forecasts about the future.
She closed, “I love you,” reminiscent of the hapless president of the United States, based on then-Governor Jerry Brown and played by the late John Ritter, in the movie “Americathon.” The movie, released in 1979 at the height of the Carter-era malaise, is about an America so broke it must hold a national telethon to keep from going bankrupt.
Jill Biden’s speech proves the Left’s rhetoric has long been morally bankrupt. Yet facing ruin is precisely when some become most dangerous.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-27 07:36:262024-03-28 06:31:39Jill Biden: Protecting Kids from Porn Is a Step Toward the Holocaust
A sprawling, $1.2 trillion government funding bill includes funding for abortion facilities, as well as LGBTQ activist centers that carry out transgender injections, target minors, hold drag shows, and help illegal immigrants who identify as gay or transgender gain U.S. citizenship — a bill one congressman calls “a total, total abomination.”
The “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024” funds the Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services (HHS), Homeland Security (DHS), Labor, and State until the end of the fiscal year, September 30. Congressional leadership released the text of the 1,012-page bill at 2:30 a.m. Thursday, giving members of Congress just hours to read before an anticipated vote to head off an impending government shutdown at midnight Saturday.
$400,000 requested by Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) for Briarpatch Youth Services in Fitchburg, Wisconsin. The group promises to hide minors’ struggle with gender dysphoria from their parents while indoctrinating teens in extreme gender ideology. Its “Queer 101 Training” promises to teach “an intersectional understanding on queer oppression” and aims “to demonstrate how limiting the ‘male’ and ‘female’ binary is.” The organization offers “individual counseling services” for children “ages 12-17,” in which a “[c]ounselor can work with children on exploring identity, resiliency, and creating a Gender Support Plan for school support and advocacy.” The group’s website says, “Youth do NOT need parent/guardian permission to join Teens Like Us. We understand not all youth are at a point in their lives where they can safely and confidently ‘come out.’” (Emphasis in original.) The group’s “Queer 101 Training” aims “to demonstrate how limiting the ‘male’ and ‘female’ binary is.”
$400,000 requested by Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) for the Mazzoni Center in Philadelphia, which carries out transgender hormone shots, clears the way for transgender surgeries, advertises transgender services for minors, and holds drag show fundraisers. Mazzoni carries out cross-sex hormone injections and provides medical letters for transgender surgeries. The center begins targeting teens with its Pediatric & Adolescent Comprehensive Transgender Services (PACTS). Its “Youth Drop In,” which is held each Wednesday night, is aimed at teens “ages 14 to 24” and notes, “Patients under 18 can receive confidential care regarding sexual and mental health without parental permission.” The Mazzoni Center both contributes to and profits from the LGBT movement. Mazzoni invited donors to mingle with “a wide range of acts that include drag queens, drag kings, trans-identifying, bearlesque, and burlesque performers” at its December 3 Code Red fundraiser. “In December, fundraising for Mazzoni Center truly was a drag,” the center cracked. “Drag entertainer Cherry Pop and her fabulous friends united for the 10th annual Code Red fundraiser, a drag/variety show,” which it described as a “powerful night” for a “vital cause.”
$1,808,000 requested by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed (both D-R.I.) for Women and Infants Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island, which carries out first- and second-term abortions at its Family Planning Clinic. “If you need to discuss abortion care for pregnancy, please feel free to contact the Family Planning Clinic,” states its website. Its “services” include “[s]urgical abortion under general anesthesia in the operating room for people up to 22 weeks pregnant” and “[m]edication abortion (the ‘abortion pill’) for people up to ten weeks pregnant.” The facility will also implant a potential abortifacient inside women after the abortion, advertising a “[p]ost-abortion IUD or contraceptive implant.”
$650,000 requested by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) for Dartmouth Hitchcock Nashua in New Hampshire. “We routinely provide both medication and procedural abortion care up to 22 weeks of pregnancy,” the group declares. The facility describes surgical abortion as a procedure “ending a pregnancy by having the pregnancy removed by doctors.”
$780,000 requested by Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) for Amador Health Services in Las Cruces, New Mexico, which boasts that it “can provide transgender/gender non-conforming (GNC) health education, therapeutic counseling and referrals, and additional LGBTQ+ support that puts your safety and comfort first. If you’ve felt rejected by family and loved ones, isolated from your community, or are just in need of an ear to listen, we’re here.” It also decries the “social stigma” surrounding “undocumented immigration” (e.g., illegal immigration). “[W]e’re working every day to eliminate that stigma and make all feel like they belong.”
$146,000 requested by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) for Apicha Community Health Center, for facilities and equipment. Apicha’s two locations in Manhattan and Queens advertise “transgender and gender-affirming services” — specifically “initiation and maintenance of hormone replacement therapy,” “letters of support for gender-affirming surgeries” and “help with name change process.” They also distribute potential abortifacients Plan B and IUDs.
$850,000 requested by Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) for LGBTQ Senior Housing, Inc. (“The Pryde”), in Massachusetts, a controversial funding provision that House Republicans stripped out of a Transportation funding bill last year.
Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, also listed the following concerning earmarks:
The “earmarks in it for abortion facilities” make the bill a “total, total abomination,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Steve Bannon’s “War Room” on Thursday.
“We continue to fund abortion tourism, we continue to fund transgender surgeries at the Department of Defense,” Roy continued. “It busts the [spending] caps … funds the FBI headquarters, doesn’t secure the border, funds the World Health Organization.”
Even these dedicated funding streams do not cover the full extent of the bill’s harmful funding, say its critics. “I have multiple concerns, among them are the many new social services that this bill would create for the millions of illegal immigrants streaming across our border. Additionally, it would fund facilities providing routine abortion services, including late-term abortions,” said Aderholt.
Experts say the short time frame legislators have to review such massive legislation makes it more likely wasteful or immoral spending will find congressional approval. “Lawmakers are using arbitrary deadlines and shutdown politics to extort the American people and force lawmakers to vote for a bill they don’t have time to read,” said Kevin Roberts, president of The Heritage Foundation. “Conservatives were told that the days of omnibus spending bills shrouded in secrecy were over. But this process and the bill it produced are indistinguishable from typical Swamp behavior that’s taken our economy and country to the brink of disaster.”
Principled lawmakers seem to agree. “This is not the bill that my subcommittee produced and supported,” the chairman added. “The Senate has taken liberties with their Congressionally Directed Spending requests that would never stand in the House.”
“Under no circumstances should [House Republicans] vote for this bill,” said Roy. “A vote for this bill is a vote against America.”
“In good conscience, I cannot and will not vote for these projects or this bill,” Aderholt concluded.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-22 13:16:112024-03-22 13:18:50‘Total Abomination’: $1.2 Trillion Bill Funds Teen Trans Programs, Abortion to 22 Weeks
President Joe Biden released his proposed 2025 budget on Monday. “As the president is fond of saying, a budget is a reflection of our values,” said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) at Senate hearings on the multi-trillion-dollar proposal. But Biden’s proposed budget would:
Place transgender-identifying minors into the foster care facilities of the opposite sex, a policy that has led to sexual abuse and human trafficking;
Deny most Americans, especially Christians, the right to participate in foster care for certain children unless they agree to subject those minors to transgender medical interventions, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone injections;
Seek to expand abortion;
Overturn laws that punish prostitutes for knowingly infecting others with HIV/AIDS;
Eliminate abstinence-based sex education;
Spike funding for Title X, a program that encourages doctors to give contraception to underage minors without parental knowledge and conceal children’s sexual activity from their parents;
Entrust government-funded workers with raising children beginning at the age of three; and
Increase funding for controversial, United Nations population programs.
Below is an overview of the budget’s most controversial features in his 2025 budget, which would raise taxes by more than $5 trillion, spend more than $8.6 trillion, enact a constitutionally-dubious wealth tax, implement a global minimum tax, and add $16.3 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years.
Promoting Extreme Transgender Ideology
Joe Biden has repeatedly committed his administration to promoting the LGBTQ agenda. The Biden administration’s proposed 2025 budget intends to make the LGBTQ revolution permanent by placing children in sex-segregated group homes of the opposite sex, and by denying Christians the right to participate in aspects of foster care.
Buried in Table S-6, on page 153 of the budget (page 157 of the PDF), is a line item committing to “[p]revent and combat religious, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex discrimination in the child welfare system.”
That apparently refers to a proposed rule the Biden administration issued last September requiring the foster care system to place LGBTQ-identifying children with “safe and appropriate” homes — homes that agree to facilitate a child’s social and medical “gender transition.” The rule would “require specific steps before the placement of transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming children in sex-segregated child-care institutions (CCIs),” specifically that they place children and teens in foster care facilities according to their gender identity. That is, the Biden administration intends to place children who say they identify as transgender into sex-segregated foster care facilities of the opposite sex. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, pointed out this would open the beds and showers of female foster homes to teenage boys.
Such a policy has already led to tragic results. In Virginia, a 14-year-old girl named Sage began to identify as a boy. Police found the teen after she ran away and got sexually trafficked, but instead of returning her to her home, a judge accused her custodial grandparents of “emotional and physical abuse” by “misgendering” her. Sage was placed in the male section of a foster home, where she was beaten and given drugs. She then ran away again, where she was apprehended by a human trafficking ring in Texas, where she was “drugged, raped, beaten, and exploited.”
The definition of “safe and appropriate” also excludes anyone who expresses skepticism about exposing children to transgender procedures. Christians and anyone who shows “hostility” toward the LGBTQ agenda would be deemed unsafe to foster children who identify as transgender. Similar policies have already denied Christians the right to care for children in Oregon and Massachusetts. This issue stood at the heart of a 2021 Supreme Court ruling, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, which ruled the city’s policy against contracting with Catholic Social Services because of their religious beliefs “violates the First Amendment,” specifically the Free Exercise Clause. The rule attempts to sidestep this concern by saying Christians can still care for foster children, just not those who identify as LGBTQ.
Multiple U.S. senators expressed concerns with the language of the rule at the time. “We are fighting back against the Biden Administration’s woke gender ideology and pronoun politics,” said Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) “Their new proposed rule aims to exclude faith-based foster care providers from helping children in need.” A coalition of 19 state attorneys general also raised alarms about the policy’s unconstitutional, and religiously discriminatory, language.
To justify these policies, the Biden rule falsely asserts, “when a LGBTQI+ child has their identity respected and supported by the caregivers in their life, their risks of attempted suicide decrease dramatically.” Yet a host of studies, from around the world over multiple decades, have found that transgender procedures do not help, and may harm, those who undergo them. A 2021 study in the Journal of Urology found, “The overall rates of suicide attempts doubled” among trans-identifying men “after vaginoplasty,” commonly referred to as “bottom surgery.” The budget indicates Biden is doubling down on this rule and its flawed methodology.
Abortion
In releasing the 2025 proposed budget, the “Biden-Harris [a]dministration has taken action to protect and expand access to reproductive health care, including abortion and contraception,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, “in every way possible.”
The budget spreads misinformation while announcing the administration’s intention to expand abortion in all 50 states. “Twenty-seven million women of reproductive age — more than one in three — live in one of the 21 [s]tates with an abortion ban currently in effect. In the last year, women have been denied medical care needed to preserve their health and save their lives,” the budget asserts. In fact, no state bans abortion if the pregnancy threatens the life of the mother. Pro-life advocates say doctors may have been confused specifically because abortion industry lobbyists have repeatedly claimed “miscarriage care” is illegal.
After touting Biden’s actions on behalf of the abortion industry, the budget states, “The [a]dministration continues to call on the Congress to pass legislation restoring the protections of Roe v. Wade in [f]ederal law.” The Biden administration endorses the so-called Women’s Health Protection Act, which goes well beyond Roe.
In concrete terms, the budget proposes giving $390 million to the “family planning” services of Title X, a 36% hike. As this author exposed, training sessions funded by the Biden administration encourage Title X providers to talk about sex with minors behind parents’ backs, hide minor children’s sexual activity from parents both during live conversations and in medical records, and even to have vans roam neighborhoods giving minors federally funded contraceptives.
The budget also “provides $594 million, an increase of $37 million above the 2023 level, for USAID directed high-impact and lifesaving voluntary family planning and reproductive health programs and America’s voluntary contribution to the United Nations Population Fund,” the budget states. UNFPA was long complicit in forced abortions necessitated by China’s one-child policy and remains tied to controversial population control efforts worldwide.
The abortion lobby said the proposed budget proved the Democratic administration is enacting their values. “The Biden-Harris administration is fighting by our side,” said Mini Timmaraju, CEO of Reproductive Freedom for All (formerly NARAL). “[T]his budget is proof. We look forward to partnering with our allies in the White House and Congress to pass a budget where our values are reflected.” Planned Parenthood also greeted the budget as “an encouraging sign of their continued support for sexual and reproductive health care.”
Universal Pre-K
As he did in last year’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal, Joe Biden proposed offering “free” preschool to children beginning at age four and “charting a path” to expanding the program to three-year-olds. The program is a longstanding item on the Left’s wish list, constituting a part of Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign, mentioned in Barack Obama’s 2013 State of the Union address, and referenced in Obama’s 2010 report to the UN Human Rights Council. Yet children being raised by daycare are associated with a panoply of negative outcomes for children and, polls show, is unwanted by parents, especially mothers.
Fighting Laws against Spreading AIDS, Combatting ‘Hate Crimes’
The 2025 proposed budget continues President Joe Biden’s fixation on overturning state laws designed to prevent AIDS-infected prostitutes from spreading HIV. “The Budget further supports State and local efforts to promote equity and protect civil rights by including $10 million for a new initiative to modernize outdated criminal statutes with a discriminatory impact on HIV-positive individuals … and $50 million for programs to combat hate crimes.”
The Biden administration sued the state of Tennessee over its aggravated prostitution law (§ 39-13-516), which charges anyone who knowingly sells sex while HIV-positive with a felony. The lawsuit came as the administration is negotiating the World Health Organization’s Pandemic Agreement. In January, WHO Secretary-General Tedros Ghebreyesus instructed “[p]olitical leaders at all levels” to “counteract conservative opposition” and “enact progressive laws” championing “sexual rights.” Specifically, “Countries must repeal laws that criminalize homosexuality, sex work and HIV transmission.”
Ending Abstinence-Based Education
The Biden budget would end funding for the Sexual Risk Abstinence Education program. Instead, he would give $101 million for the Teen Pregnancy Prevention program, despite a 2015 survey which found 40% of teenagers said these classes made them feel pressured to have sex. The Department of Health and Human Services lists eight regional Planned Parenthood alliances among the current Teen Pregnancy Prevention grant recipients.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-14 13:02:472024-03-15 04:31:14How Biden’s 2025 Proposed Budget Impacts Values Issues
The impact of illegal immigration fill our TV screens, crime blotters, and morgues every day. But too few Americans appreciate how lawlessness at the border advances other liberal policies. Illegal immigration gives Democrats extra votes in Congress and greater control over all three branches of government. It forces you to spend even more of your tax dollars on transgender procedures and masks the failure of big-spending government programs. Most offensively, it drowns out your voice in your own government.
Democrats draw artificial power for all of their plans — including expanded abortion and transgender procedures — from a seemingly unrelated issue: counting illegal immigrants in the U.S. census. Under the Constitution, the number of congressional seats, Electoral College votes, and federal funding each state receives depends on its population. Lumping in illegal immigrants and resident aliens with native-born Americans gives sanctuary states undeserved power. This opaque issue exploded into the open last week, when Senate Republicans introduced a measure to give you back the full sovereignty you are due as an American citizen — and Senate Democrats shot it down.
Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) introduced the Equal Representation Act (S. 3659 and H.R. 7109), which would ask census-takers if they are U.S. citizens — and count only U.S. citizens when apportioning congressional seats. Chuck Schumer’s Senate would not allow a vote, but on March 8, Hagerty attached it as an amendment to a $460 billion spending package. Senate Democrats predictably voted against an honest census en bloc, 45-51. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) joined with the Democrats to give them an anti-accountability majority. Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) claimed the measure attempted to “attack vulnerable, underrepresented groups,” because “our country has never excluded undocumented individuals from the apportionment process.”
But Hirono is wrong. The U.S. Census Bureau explains the Constitution’s enumeration clause (Article 1, Section 2) did not count “Indians not taxed,” because these individuals lived “under some sort of separate sovereignty recognized by a treaty, and did not vote or perform other duties related to citizenship.” This held until the American people granted U.S. citizenship to all tribal members born on U.S. soil in the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, signed by President Calvin Coolidge. By definition, non-citizens have not been granted citizenship — although three states and the District of Columbia allow non-citizens to vote in elections, and only seven states prohibit it (New York City would be on that list absent constitutional limitations.) Non-citizens should not have any impact on the course of U.S. politics. Yet the same politicians continually crowing about mythical Russian attacks on “Our Democracy” want illegal immigrants to shape the course of our everyday government.
Counting non-citizens in the U.S. census has a palpable impact on Congress, transferring power from conservative states to liberal ones. A report from immigration scholars found that counting non-citizens in the census redistributes eight congressional seats: It gives extra seats to California (3), Texas (2), New York, New Jersey, and Florida (one each); and it takes seats away from Alabama, Idaho, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, Ohio, Rhode Island, and West Virginia (one seat each). Illegal immigrants alone transfer one seat each from Ohio, Alabama, and Minnesota to California, Texas, and New York.
Imagine a Congress without Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, and Maxine Waters. In their place, we would have an extra Jim Jordan, and Alabama voters wouldn’t have had to choose between conservative incumbents Barry Moore and Jerry Carl on Super Tuesday. The scholars similarly broke down some of the congressional districts with the largest share of non-citizens. Among them is New York’s 14th district, represented by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Thus, the legally dubious policy of counting non-citizens in the census empowers the most radical left-wing voices. The prescient John Zmirak wrote in 2019, “Open Borders Equals Abortion.” Today, open borders equals abortion, porn in school libraries, and transgender surgeries for children.
It bears noting, these figures came from 2019, before the Biden administration added an unprecedented number of illegal immigrants to the U.S. population. Without mass deportations, the next redistribution of voting power will be even greater.
Of course, none of these radical representatives truly represent illegal immigrants. Leftists count illegal immigrants much the way slave states lobbied to count slaves: Slaveowners wanted to make their slaves do double labor, working in the fields and giving slave states more political power. Child labor and human trafficking remain a concern for illegal immigrants, as well. “Undocumented migrants” hold down labor costs, undercutting U.S. citizens’ wages (especially black citizens) while handing blue states a greater share of the federal budget and political representation.
Although the immediate impact falls on Congress, counting illegal immigrants in the census also affects the other two branches of government. These illicit congressional seats give states additional votes in the Electoral College, which determines the presidency. Since the president appoints Supreme Court justices, an inaccurate Census creates a whole-of-government distortion of democracy.
Counting illegal immigrants not only gives liberals the votes to implement left-wing policies, it forces you to pay for them. Census figures directed $2.8 trillion in federal spending through 353 federal programs in 2021, the U.S Census Bureau reported. Before the pandemic, the greatest census-related cost to U.S. taxpayers came from Medicaid: The lower a state’s median income, the more money it gets, so it pays to pad the numbers. Now, consider: Medicaid programs in 26 states and the District of Columbia cover so-called “gender-affirming care” (cross-sex hormone injections and/or transgender surgeries). A total of 83% of America’s sanctuary states cover transgender procedures through Medicaid. Overcounting their population means you foot more of the bill for these life-altering procedures. Additionally, eight of the 10 states that cover abortion-on-demand through Medicaid are sanctuary states — and AOC has led the charge to overturn the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal taxpayer dollars from funding most of these abortions.
This policy should concern fiscal conservatives, as well. Counting non-citizens in the census generally subsidizes high-tax, high-regulation states at the expense of low-tax, fiscally responsible states. Data from the 2020 census showed U.S. citizens fleeing California, New York, and Illinois (all high-tax, sanctuary states) in favor of Florida, South Carolina, and Tennessee. These citizens take federal funding with them — unless blue states can plug the gap with illegal immigrants and non-citizens, effectively transferring wealth from U.S. citizens to foreigners and their left-wing political leaders. “While people continue to flee Democrat-run cities, desperate Democrats are back-filling the mass exodus with illegal immigrants,” said Hagerty.
The Left has reacted radically each time someone suggests this policy, which would bolster citizenship and move America one step closer to constitutional order. The U.S. Census asked about citizenship until the question was removed from the 1960 census. The Left’s histrionics when President Donald Trump tried to reinsert the question into the 2020 census underline how closely they guard their ill-gotten money and power. After the vote, Haggerty declared, “Democrats’ unanimous opposition to this commonsense measure confirms that they’re using illegal aliens and sanctuary cities to increase their political power.” Indeed, I have long argued that the Left’s position on every policy in Washington can be explained based on whether it increases or decreases their political power. It is the one thing that explains everything the Left does.
Jesus said, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light” (Luke 16:8). This scriptural truth plays itself out daily in Washington, D.C. While Christian voters hide our talent in the earth, those dedicated to foisting extreme policies on the nation use every lever to impose their agenda. They are apparently willing to pile up the bodies of Laken Riley, Kate Steinle, and an untold number of angel families in the process.
The story strikes me personally, as members of my own spiritual tradition prepare to observe Lent. During this time, we say a beautiful ancient prayer which begins, “O Lord and Master of my life, take from me the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk.” The thousands of crimes the government documents at the hands of illegal immigrants illustrates the ways an insatiable thirst for fleeting, earthly power hurts some, kills others, and destroys the souls of those so afflicted.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
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I am Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., with this year’s State of Faith, Family, and Freedom in America.
The apostle Peter wrote to believers who had been scattered because of the persecution of the early church, instructing them to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” [1 Peter 3:15 ESV].
Notice where that hope was to reside. Not in the halls of power, the media headlines of the day, and certainly not on the stages of entertainment. Rather, that hope is to be found within us.
As followers of Christ, we have the very presence of God within us, which is our hope and confidence. And in a moment, I want to share with you the tangible results that have come from that hope, results which the godless Left and their lemmings in the legacy media work day and night to keep from you.
So, from that foundation, we look at the state of faith, family, and freedom in America.
The assault on biblical faith continues to accelerate under the Biden administration’s policies, both at home and abroad.
Religious freedom, the top foreign policy objective of the former Trump administration, has been replaced with prioritizing attacks on the unborn, promoting LGBTQ ideology, and the climate, the unholy trinity of the Left.
The Biden administration has found the ideal partner to advance this unholy trinity with the World Health Organization (WHO), which is working feverishly to advance an unprecedented global power grab through a pandemic treaty — or pandemic accord as it is deceptively called to avoid the need for ratification by the U.S. Senate.
This accord grants the compromised WHO the ability to regulate nearly every aspect of life for citizens of every nation when the WHO believes there is a health emergency. The treaty calls for censoring information that would challenge their declaration, which would include silencing dissenting voices. We saw this type of totalitarianism play out here in the United States during COVID-19; we don’t want to see a global sequel.
The consequences of the Biden administration’s misplaced priorities have rapidly manifested in global chaos and instability, along with historic levels of persecution of Christians and other religious minorities.
A case in point is the country of Nigeria, the most populous African nation. As chairman of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom during the Trump administration, I led the commission in recommending that Nigeria be designated as a country of particular concern. This designation, which the Trump administration adopted for the government of Nigeria, allowed for economic sanctions upon the country and its leaders for allowing the egregious, ongoing, and systematic persecution of people of faith.
But, without adequate explanation, that designation was immediately removed by the Biden administration when they came into office. The result has been a dramatic rise in the death toll. According to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, more than 8,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria last year alone.
This indifference to religious freedom abroad is rivaled only by the hostility toward religious freedom here at home, as a congressional investigation revealed the FBI tracked and worked to infiltrate churches in part because of leftist propaganda from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The role of faith, the Christian faith, has been routinely undermined by President Biden’s policies. Faith-based entities focused on proclaiming truth through charitable service have been assaulted.
At the end of last year, the Biden Department of Health and Human Services put forth a new rule that would shut down Christian foster care services and exclude Christian foster families unless they surrender biblical teaching on human sexuality and gender identity. And this comes at a time when more, not fewer, stable families are needed for children in need of a family.
These policies, which are hostile to biblical truth, have fomented and tacitly approved outright acts of hostility toward churches in America.
Over the last year, there have been 436 identified acts of hostility on churches in the United States, ranging from vandalism to firebombing to shootings. Family Research Council’s recently released Hostility Against Churches Report shows an astounding 800% increase in acts of vandalism and violence towards churches since 2018.
The family has not evaded the hostility of this administration either, as radical gender policies are pushed from the Department of Education onto local schools, demanding parents be kept in the dark as their children are transitioned. Ask Jennifer and Dan Mead, whose autistic daughter was being secretly transitioned at school without her parents’ knowledge or consent. Behind their backs, teachers agreed to call her by a masculine name and male pronouns. The Meads stumbled on the truth when an education plan that detailed their daughter’s life as a boy at school was accidentally sent home. Furious, they pulled her out of classes, started homeschooling, and sued. Now, her mom says, “She’s safe. She knows her real identity.” But who knows how many other parents are living this same nightmare? Or worse, oblivious to what’s happening right under their noses.
The hostility of the Left begins at the moment of conception.
“Think about [it],” Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are persons. “Individuals, couples, who want to start a family are now being deprived of access to what can help them start a family,” she said, referring to the potential impacts on In Vitro Fertilization. “So, on the one hand, the proponents are saying that an individual doesn’t have a right to end an unwanted pregnancy, and on the other hand, the individual does not have a right to start a family.”
This faux outrage is the height of hypocrisy. The Alabama ruling did nothing to outlaw IVF, but on the contrary, ensured that parents struggling with infertility don’t experience even more heartbreak because of the carelessness of IVF clinics that treat embryos as if they are merely pieces of property. This feign of counterfeit compassion over infertility comes at the same time the Biden administration is working to overturn every state’s pro-life laws by allowing dangerous mail-order abortions without medical oversight — which is a violation of federal law. And once again, they are peddling the lie that protecting unborn children puts women’s lives at risk. Not a single pro-life law prohibits saving a mother’s life. Instead, these laws protect unborn children from being brutally torn apart.
Innocent human life must be protected, as must the mothers, many of whom think they have no alternative. That’s why Republicans are working to stop the Biden administration in its new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program from excluding pregnancy resource centers from receiving federal funding for the myriad of services they provide.
More and more families are looking to religious nonprofits for assistance in many areas as families struggle under the present tight economy, where prices have climbed 18% since President Biden took office.
Prices aren’t the only thing increasing under this administration; so has violent crime.
While the Democratic Party wants you to believe that crime has declined over the past year, the reality is that homicides, theft, carjackings, and property damage are astronomically higher than they were in 2019. Violent crimes against young people have actually doubled in the last year. Motor vehicle thefts are up 105% since the pandemic — as even members of Congress have fallen prey to carjackings. The murder rate is up as much as 30% in places like the nation’s capital and about 18% overall.
A contributing factor to violent crime is the skyrocketing illegal immigration on our southern border, made tragically evident again when 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley was found murdered on the campus of the University of Georgia. The alleged murderer, Jose Ibarra, illegally entered the country in 2022 from Venezuela, was detained, and then let loose or “paroled” into the United States. This is a man who was arrested three times but never detained. And by the way, Athens, Georgia, where the campus is located, is a sanctuary city. A sanctuary for criminals and murderers, not nursing students and law-abiding citizens.
An estimated 10 million illegal immigrants have crossed into the United States since President Biden took office in January of 2021.
Deadly drugs like fentanyl are also streaming across the border, becoming the number one killer of Americans aged 18-45.
It is not just drugs and criminals that are streaming across the border; so are terrorists. At least 342 individuals who are on the terrorist watchlist have been detained at the border; there is no telling how many terrorists have evaded authorities and are now in the United States establishing terrorist cells.
We don’t have to look back far into history to see the savagery of a terrorist border invasion. We simply look at October 7 in Israel when Hamas terrorists invaded peaceful Israeli communities and brutally tortured, maimed, raped, and killed 1,400 innocent people and took 240 hostages. And now, five months later, as Israel seeks to secure its borders and eliminate future threats from Hamas, the Biden administration is breaking with one of America’s most politically reliable and spiritually significant allies. The Biden administration has repeatedly called for pauses or ceasefires, which allows Hamas to regroup and resupply, even as American hostages have not been freed.
Most recently, the Biden administration reversed the policy of the Trump administration that recognized Israel had a right to build in the biblical areas of Samaria and Judea, misleadingly called the West Bank. President Biden has gone so far as to sanction Israelis living in these areas while giving billions of dollars to organizations like the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), which has been directly linked to Hamas and the October 7 terrorist attack.
Friends, I believe America’s support for and stand with Israel has resulted in God extending grace to America despite our accelerating departure from His truth over the last half-century. America’s future is inextricably intertwined with Israel’s.
When we look at and consider these challenges, we don’t do so as people who have no hope of overcoming — to the contrary. Jesus, in the parable about the unjust judge, which is an appropriate analogy as we consider our relationship to our government, said men should always pray and not lose heart or hope.
Jesus was not laying out a prescription to simply feel good. This call to prayer was a prescription for change.
Let me give you just a few facts about the change God has brought forth in our nation because Christians didn’t give up hope but instead continued to pray, vote, and stand for biblical truth.
On June 24, 2022, after 49 years of prayerful, disciplined, and often ridiculed political engagement, Roe v. Wade was overturned, putting the ability to protect women and children into the hands of their elected representatives rather than unelected judges.
Here is something I am sure you’ve yet to hear from the legacy media. We have more Bible-believing Christians in Congress, in state legislatures, on city councils, and serving on school boards than at any time in modern history. Look at the speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, a Christian, a conservative, a Republican. I know Speaker Johnson; he and I have been friends for over 25 years.
Look at the transformation of state legislatures across the country. In 1990, there were six GOP-controlled legislatures. Twenty-four years later, there are 28. And one result has been state pro-life laws have doubled since the Republican election wave of 2010.
We know that we will overcome. That is why we must continue to pray for our nation, that we will return to God and His truth. We need to vote. We need to both raise up and vote for leaders who have the qualities that Jethro laid out to Moses in Exodus 18, leaders who: 1) are able, they know what to do; 2) fear God; 3) are men of truth; and 4) are not looking to get rich; rather, they are seeking to serve.
Finally, we need to stand for truth, no matter who else is standing or not standing. And do so filled with the joy of the Lord. In John 15, as Jesus was warning His disciples of the challenges they would face for following Him, He said this: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” [John 15:11].
And we do all of this in love. Paul instructs us in 1 Corinthians 16, to “watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love” [NKJV].
The state of faith, family, and freedom in America is being tested and tried to a degree that is almost unrivaled in our history. But our confidence and hope in the future has never been more solid because we’ve seen the budding fruit of decades of prayer, of biblically guided participation in our republican form of government.
We must let it be known that we will not be intimidated into silence by a weaponized government, nor will we allow Marxist tactics that seek to marginalize the Christian faith to cause us to shrink back into the shadows of society. Why? Because of the hope that is within us and the victory that is before us, it leaves us more resolved than ever to pray, vote, and stand for biblical truth.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-09 04:31:562024-03-09 04:40:52PERKINS: State of Faith, Family, and Freedom Address
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) has a long history. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh wrote that WPATH “is the organization that major hospitals and gender clinics cite as the all-important authority on so-called ‘trans healthcare.’” Controversial at its core, WPATH has faced immense criticism over the years from those who do not support gender transition procedures, while at the same time receiving strong support from those who see cross-sex hormones, puberty blocking drugs, and surgeries to remove healthy organs as “gender affirming care.”
Despite losing over 60% of its members between January 2023 and January 2024, “WPATH is somehow now taken seriously as the standard-setter in the field, by major hospitals and medical associations,” Walsh wrote. But in reality, he continued, WPATH “is maybe the single greatest scam in modern medicine. … The WPATH of today is the proud product of decades of quackery and sexual experimentation. It is a threat to public health and in particular to children.”
On March 4, the U.S. think tank Environmental Progress released leaked files from WPATH that “revealed that the clinicians who shape how ‘gender medicine’ is regulated and practiced around the world consistently violate medical ethics and informed consent.”
It continued, “In the WPATH Files, members demonstrate a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of cross-sex hormones and other treatments. Messages in the files show that patients with severe mental health issues, such as schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder, and other vulnerabilities such as homelessness, are being allowed to consent to hormonal and surgical interventions. Members dismiss concerns about these patients and characterize efforts to protect them as unnecessary ‘gatekeeping.’”
Most unsettling about the leaked files, experts have pointed out, is that they prove the alleged “medical professionals” are keenly aware “they are offering minors life-changing treatments they cannot fully understand.” On Wednesday, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins highlighted on “Washington Watch” that the “injuries described in the files” that WPATH members are aware of “include sterilization, loss of sexual function, liver tumors, and even death.”
Concerning the leaked files, Dr. Quentin Van Meter, a pediatric endocrinologist and executive committee member of the American College of Pediatricians, observed on “Washington Watch” that “it’s a very large battering ram that’s hit the wall … that has been hiding all of the information that they know, and they willingly discuss among themselves.” He added that the files prove that the procedures they are doing on “these kids are clearly experimental [and] not based on science.”
He explained that doctors have been warning against WPATH and their practices for years in hearings and courts — efforts that have been repeatedly “shot down.” Van Meter emphasized that WPATH considers their work as “saving grace” and that they “save lives.” For years, WPATH has claimed that any contrary belief “is a bald-faced lie, and is politically motivated by right-wing conspiracy theorists,” he said. “That’s been their mantra since we’ve known them on the scene.”
Ultimately, he argued, the “WPATH secrets that have now been leaked show that [they have] no scientific background [and] that they are living and repeating lies over and over again. It’s quite shocking.” But he also described it as a “gift,” since it exposes the truth that “this is not good for children.”
Perkins added, “It exposes the fact that many of these entities that are held out as experts have been compromised by the political agendas of these ideologically driven individuals.” He continued, “This is what happens when this ideology, untethered to truth and ethics, mixes with science. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.”
Especially since “it leads to horrible outcomes for children,” Perkins contended. Children that “can’t drive … can’t get a tattoo, but we’re letting them cut off body parts and … make them think they’re changing their gender.”
Van Meter agreed. “This needs to be shouted from the … hilltops: ‘Stop.’ The whole world must stop this nonsense, this insanity. We have hurt hundreds of thousands of children irreparably since this whole process began in the mid-2000s, and we’ve got to put a stop to it.”
Perkins asked if the leaked information would be enough to make “the medical associations … stop and rethink” what they’re doing. Van Meter responded, “That would be the intellectually correct thing to do.” However, what unsettled the doctor the most was how “casual” and “flippant” the members of WPATH seem to be discussing this. “The ideology is embedded so deeply in their minds that I don’t think they really care,” he remarked.
“It’s sad,” Perkins concluded. “It is absolutely sad. What an indictment against our culture to allow this to occur.”
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-03-08 15:55:572024-03-08 16:01:59Leaked Files Reveal WPATH’s Awareness of ‘Debilitating,’ ‘Potentially Fatal’ Effects of Trans Procedures
A new survey reveals a cavernous gap between teachers’ unions and the views of most parents, teenagers, and teachers on whether public schools should teach LGBT ideology to students — and whether parents should have the right to opt their children out of those classes.
While elite teachers’ unions such as the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) believe schools should teach sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) classes to children, their customers — parents and students — disagree, as do many of their members, according to a series of new polls released last week.
More than 10 times as many teachers said debates over LGBT ideology, including sexual orientation and gender ideology, “have had a negative impact on their ability to do their job,” compared to 4% who said they improve learning, according to the Pew Research Center: 41% to 4%. Social Studies and English teachers were the most likely to say SOGI topics harmed their teaching time; they were also the classes most likely to discuss those issues, the survey found.
Yet some left-wing activists are working to change that. MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $10 million to a group that instructs math teachers to “infuse social justice into mathematics.”
Teachers, Parents, and Students Do Not Want LGBTQIA+ Issues in the Classroom
Half of all teachers say “students should not learn” about gender identity issues in school, including 62% of elementary school teachers, 45% of middle school teachers, and 35% of high school teachers. Among those who believe the school should weigh in on such divisive topics, 33% of teachers say gender “can be different than sex assigned at birth,” while 14% believe in biological sex. More than twice as many elementary teachers believe transgender ideology as believe in biology; the proportion reaches three-to-one among high school teachers (45% vs. 15%).
The poll apparently shows those supportive of transgender beliefs are more likely to address the topic in school. Just under one-in-three teachers say sexual orientation or transgender ideology come up occasionally (21%) or frequently (9%). But teachers who belong to the Democratic Party were 15 points more likely to confess that LGBT issues creep into their classrooms than Republican teachers (36% to 21%).
Although a plurality (48%) of teachers believe parents should be able to opt their children out of transgender ideology indoctrination classes, one-third of instructors believed such classes should be compulsory.
“On both topics, parents’ views were more evenly split than the views of teachers,” according to the Pew survey. For instance, a majority of parents (54%) believe they should be able to determine whether teachers can subject their children to trans ideology.
The largest percentage of teens do not want to hear about LGBT ideology in the classroom, either: 48% say the topics should not be taught at school. Teens are also slightly more likely to believe in biological sex than in transgenderism (26% vs. 25%). But Democratic students are 525% more likely than Republican students to say gender identity is not tied to physiognomy.
Teenage students are more likely to feel uncomfortable hearing about transgender or sexual orientation issues than feel comfortable (33% vs. 29%). More than twice as many Republican students are more likely to feel uncomfortable hearing about such topics than to feel comfortable.
Only 14% of all teens say transgenderism or homosexuality “has never come up in any of their classes.”
The poll seems to indicate many teachers believe parents have too much say in their children’s education. While a plurality of teachers said parents had “the right amount” of influence, teachers were more likely to say parents had “too much influence” than not enough (32% to 19%). Democrats were 42% more likely than Republicans to believe parents had too much influence.
Republican-leaning teachers are more likely to honor parents’ views on these subjects, the poll found: 69% of Republican teachers say schools should not be in the business of teaching LGBT issues, and 80% say parents should decide whether their children attend such classes. Half of Democratic teachers say public school LGBT classes should be mandatory, and 53% say schools should teach transgender ideology.
A strong majority of teachers (58%) belongs to the Democratic Party, Pew noted.
Asian and “[w]hite Democrats are more likely than [b]lack and Hispanic Democrats to say parents should not be able to opt their children out of learning about sexual orientation and gender identity,” Pew stated. In all, 53% of Asian Democrats and “six-in-ten [w]hite Democrats say this, compared with 42% of Hispanic Democrats and 34% of [b]lack Democrats.” A plurality of black Democrats say parents should be able to opt out of LGBT indoctrination (46%, compared to 34% who oppose it).
Teachers’ Unions Out of Touch with Students, Poll Shows
The views of teachers, parents, and students strongly conflict with the stance of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions, the three-million-member NEA and the 1.5-million-member AFT. The NEA provides model legislation to teach LGBT ideology in public schools and carries out numerous training sessions to promote gender ideology to teachers.
The NEA’s “Pronoun Guide” includes “Ze, Zim, Zir, Zay or Zee.” It urges teachers, “Inspire and encourage your student” with its two-page list of “LGBT+-affirming books.” It instructs teachers in 33 states how they can obtain a free “Rainbow Library” from GLSEN.
“You can use your work environment,” e.g., the classroom, “to show support for students of all backgrounds — for example, by hanging a Black Lives Matter poster or Pride flag or making clear that you will use a student’s personal gender pronouns,” the NEA advises teachers.
The union’s leadership has strongly emphasized its commitment to radical LGBTQ advocacy, regardless of parental objections or, seemingly, state law. “We will say gay! We will say trans!” bellowed NEA President Becky Pringle at the group’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly, taking aim at the popular “Parental Rights in Education” law, signed into law by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), who went on to win a rousing double-digit reelection months later. The bill says teachers may not “encourage classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity” before the fourth grade. The NEA stated its union members would “validate our students,” presumably when children’s gender choice conflicts with their parents’ values.
The NEA’s chief union rival, the AFT, “also coached its members on how to inject gender identity politics into the classroom,” found a report from the Defense of Freedom Institute. The AFT’s Together Educating America’s Children (TEACH) conference last July held sessions on “Affirming LGBTQIA+ Identities in and out of the Classroom” and “The TGNCNB [Transgender, Gender-Nonconforming, Nonbinary] Inclusive School and Classroom.”
Teachers in Tennessee’s Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, which strongly supported President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, learned that the U.S. operates as a “system of oppression” that confers “privilege status” on “white,” “able-bodied,” “men, cisgendered,” “heterosexual,” “Christian” Americans; but the U.S. allegedly brands an “oppression status” on any “person of color”; “woman, trans, nonbinary, genderqueer,” “LGBQ+, polyamorous”; and people whose religious views are “pagan.”
The LGBTQ movement’s advocacy goes outside the classroom to the restroom, locker room — even the hotel room. Last summer, teachers at Governor’s Ranch Elementary School in Littleton, Colorado, attempted to force a fifth-grade girl to share a bed with a boy who identified as a girl on an overnight field trip. Last July, the AFT adopted a resolution supporting “inclusive” policies allowing men to access female facilities, “including, but not limited to, bathrooms and locker rooms.” AFT President Randi Weingartenwalked away from a reporter who asked her about girls who do not feel safe undressing in front of boys in their locker rooms.
“Both teacher unions ignore the reality that most teachers want to teach, not affirm a student’s gender identity, either due to their personal values or their beliefs that doing so oversteps their authority and encroaches on the role of parents,” says the Defense of Freedom Institute.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-02-28 10:43:112024-02-28 10:46:4310 Times as Many Teachers Say Trans, CRT Lessons Hurt Rather Than Help Schools
J.K. Rowling, the famous author of the “Harry Potter” series, has received vehement backlash from LGBT activists over her belief that men who identify as women should not be held in women’s prisons. “If you support putting violent and sexually predatory men into women’s prisons, you are knowingly forcing those women to live in fear of, and, in some proven cases, to suffer abuse that many of them will have endured pre-incarceration,” she wrote on X Tuesday.
She concluded, “Women have the basic human right not to suffer cruel and unusual punishment.” And while Rowling’s grievances centered on trans-identifying men in women’s prisons, her sentiments reflect what many fear within the realm of women’s sports, namely, girls getting hurt by physically stronger boys.
Since the presence of trans-identifying men in women’s competitions have increased, the number of women winning first, second, and third has decreased. The women and girls in swimming, track and field, golf, volleyball, dance, cross country, and other sports, are repeatedly defeated by men. For some, this alone is enough to demand a change. But when women losing to men isn’t enough to spark change, many are asking if women being hurt by men, which has happened repeatedly over the last few years, will prove to be the final straw.
Footage from a girls’ high school basketball game earlier this month is raising a lot of questions about the safety of trans participation. In a viral video from a game between Massachusetts Collegiate Charter School of Lowell and KIPP Academy, a large, male figure (who reportedly is six feet tall and has facial hair) from the KIPP team throwing a female player from the charter team to the ground as he seized the ball from her — a move that resulted in the girl gripping her back in pain. But this wasn’t the only incident.
A total of three injuries resulted from the play of this trans-identifying athlete, all of which happened before halftime, and with only five players able to play, KIPP chose to forfeit because they couldn’t afford to have any more girls get hurt.
Allegedly, the male athlete was competing among girls to reflect “the school’s commitment to ‘inclusivity and safety.’” Riley Gaines, a former NCAA All-American swimmer, posted on X, “A man hitting a woman used to be called domestic abuse. Now it’s called brave.” She added, “Who watches this [and] actually thinks this is ‘compassionate, kind, and inclusive?’”
Mary Szoch, director of Family Research Council’s Center for Human Dignity, expressed her concern to The Washington Stand. “As a former Division I basketball player at one of the top women’s basketball programs in the country, at practice, I competed against men every day.” She said this was common for Division I women’s basketball teams, because it gave the women a chance to practice against men who were “stronger, faster, and quicker.”
However, Szoch emphasized that the male players were instructed “to be humble enough to know they are there to help the women’s team become better — not to use their physical advantages to humiliate or hurt a player.” Szoch added that men, on average, are stronger and better at sports when competing against women, and “when we don’t recognize this, women get hurt. … [A]nd deep down, everyone knows this.” But it’s a truth that “people don’t want to acknowledge … because they are afraid of being called a bigot.”
FRC’s Meg Kilgannon also commented to TWS, “It seems abusive to make the girls endure this situation.” However, she added that “seeing girls on the opposing team physically injured by ‘inclusive’ athletic participation policies is only half of the story.”
“We have to also consider the girls on the team with the male player, who have to share a locker room with him, change clothes in front of him, and pretend that he is ‘just one of the girls,’” she pointed out. “I can’t say which situation is more abusive, but both are intolerable.” For Kilgannon, it seems evident that “Massachusetts public schools, charter or not, don’t protect the educational interests or rights of women and girls, but rather advance the interests of men and men who identify as women.”
Kilgannon insisted, “This story is all the more enraging because we knew it would happen, we tried to prevent it, and now girls are getting hurt.”
Szoch added that, ultimately, “telling a biological male that he is a female and allowing him to play women’s sports doesn’t help anyone — least of all the man.” She concluded, “As a former athlete who now has a daughter, I am hopeful that the presence of men playing women’s basketball will be a wake-up call for our country. Women deserve a chance to compete on a fair and safe playing field.”
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-02-22 13:35:252024-02-23 05:03:12After Male Basketball Player Injures 3 Female Players, Team Forfeits Game
The Ohio state legislature on Wednesday became the fifth to override a governor’s veto to enact a law protecting minors from gender transition procedures. With every successful veto override, claims of “extremism” lodged against the bill appear more and more far-fetched.
Accusations of extremism began with the very first Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, passed by the Arkansas legislature in 2021 (HB 1570). The bill sailed through the House (70-22) on March 10 and the Senate (28-7) on March 29. Despite these wide margins, Human Rights Campaign (HRC) President Alphonso David complained on March 13 of that year, “The furious pace of these bills shows that hateful anti-equality groups across the country and extremist legislators alike realize that equality is gaining momentum.” After then-Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill, the Arkansas legislature responded by overriding the veto (72-25 in the House, 25-8 in the Senate) on April 6.
The campaign to protect children accelerated in 2023, when 20 state legislatures joined those of Arkansas (2021), Alabama (2022), and Arizona (2022) in passing laws to protect children from gender transition procedures (although the Ohio veto override occurred this month). As the movement grew, so did the opposition. When Tennessee enacted a bill in March, a coalition of left-wing groups including the ACLU and Lambda Legal claimed that they had “chosen fearmongering, misrepresentations, intimidation, and extremist politics over the rights of families and the lives of transgender youth.”
“Extremist, anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and their allies are waging a dangerous and cruel misinformation campaign that seeks to stigmatize not only gender-affirming care but transgender and non-binary people as well,” claimed HRC’s new president Kelley Robinson. “Through fear-mongering and propaganda, extremist leaders are working overtime to manufacture panic, rile up their base, and coax them into opposing healthcare for transgender people.”
Left-wing groups were not above indulging in a little fear-mongering of their own. “Across the country, anti-transgender extremists and politicians are putting the lives and well-being of transgender people at risk,” said Movement Advancement Project Senior Policy Researcher Logan Casey, “by attempting to outlaw access to best practice medical care not only for youth but for all transgender people.” No states have passed laws to ban gender transition procedures for adults because, although these procedures harm adults too, society recognizes that adults are competent and therefore free to make their own decisions.
Nevertheless, “extremism” remained the buzzword across the left-wing activist-sphere, especially when a governor’s veto raised the bar for passage and gave activist groups time to pile on additional pressure. “For the extremist groups that are pushing these laws, the guard rails are off,” insisted Campaign for Southern Equality executive director Rev. Jasmine Beach-Ferrara of Louisiana’s SAFE Act-style bill. GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis claimed that “Ohio’s extremist lawmakers inexplicably refused facts, expert testimony, and deeply personal pleas” by overriding the governor’s veto.
Despite the pressure and accusations of extremism, four state legislatures have overridden their governor’s vetoes in the past 12 months. On March 29, 2023, the Kentucky Senate (29-8) and House (76-23) voted to override Governor Andy Beshear’s (D) veto of a bill to protect minors from gender transition procedures, which also included protections for women’s sports and parental rights. On July 18, the Louisiana House (76-23) and Senate (28-11) voted to override then- Governor John Bel Edwards’s veto of the Stop Harming Our Kids Act, which told doctors to do just what the title said. On August 16, the North Carolina House (74-45) and Senate (27-18) voted to override Governor Roy Cooper’s (D) veto of that state’s bill to protect minors from gender transition procedures.
Then, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R) vetoed that state’s SAFE Act at the end of the year (December 29), the first Republican governor to oppose such a measure since Hutchinson in 2021. Almost immediately, nearly every other statewide official criticized the veto, and legislators in both chambers announced plans to override. The House overrode the veto 65-27 on January 10, and the Senate overrode the veto 24-8 on January 24, 2024.
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins extracted a lesson for governors from the veto override trend. “Given that five legislatures have overridden gubernatorial vetoes of legislation protecting minors from the transgender activists pushing experimental drugs and surgeries,” he remarked, “any governor who vetoes these SAFE Act-type laws is either politically tone-deaf or being influenced by those who profit from this morally devastating, but financially lucrative, industry.”
Another implication of the trend is that protecting minors from harmful, experimental gender transition procedures is not an “extremist” position, as its opponents keep on insisting. This is because of the role that executive vetoes play in America’s system of checks and balances.
In Federalist Paper 73, Alexander Hamilton explained that an executive veto “furnishes an additional security against the enaction of improper laws. It establishes a salutary check upon the legislative body, calculated to guard the community against the effects of faction, precipitancy, or of any impulse unfriendly to the public good, which may happen to influence a majority of that body.”
Hamilton was defending the veto power given to the U.S. president under the not-yet-ratified U.S. Constitution, but his reasoning is general enough to apply to gubernatorial vetoes against state legislation, too.
The “propriety” of a veto, Hamilton added, turns “upon the supposition that the legislature will not be infallible.” He articulated three general scenarios in which a veto could serve as a useful check. First, “the love of power may sometimes betray it into a disposition to encroach upon the rights of other members of the government.” Second, “a spirit of faction may sometimes pervert its deliberations.” Third, “impressions of the moment may sometimes hurry it into measures which itself, on maturer reflexion, would condemn.”
While the first scenario is not relevant to the SAFE Act debate, claims of “extremism” certainly suggest a “spirit of faction,” and they may also suggest the legislature itself would change its mind upon “maturer reflection.” The multiple vetoes issued against SAFE Acts provide case studies to see whether these applications prove true.
If the SAFE Acts were imprudent bills that legislatures passed too hastily, we would expect to find many legislators switching their votes during the veto override attempts, perhaps even enough that the bill would fail to reach whatever supermajority threshold was required. That is emphatically not what we find. The Arkansas bill lost one vote between its first passage and the veto override. The Kentucky bill lost one vote in the Senate but gained one in the House. The Louisiana bill lost one vote in the Senate, while four House members switched their votes two-and-two, canceling each other out. The North Carolina bill actually gained two votes. In Ohio, no legislators switched their votes.
Thus, after hundreds of legislators voted on these bills, and then voted on them again after they had been vetoed, the net effect was a change of zero votes (excluding different vote totals caused by absent legislators). These five bills lost a total of five votes and gained a total of five votes between first passage and the veto override.
The other claim raised against the SAFE Act is that it is the product of an extremist faction — in this case, its detractors allege, having swept through nearly the entire Republican Party. This claim would be more plausible if all the legislators who voted for the SAFE Act were of the same party, but that is not what we find. In Louisiana, multiple Democrats in the Senate voted for the bill both on initial passage and in overriding the governor’s veto — a governor of their own party. In North Carolina, two House Democrats actually switched their votes during the veto override, to approve the bill against the wishes of their own party’s governor.
For that matter, the North Carolina legislature would not have even taken up a SAFE Act-style bill if not for the extremism of Democrats in the chamber. Earlier in the year, Representative Tricia Cotham had switched from the Democratic to the Republican Party because her fellow Democrats were bullying her over introducing a school choice bill. Her party switch gave the Republicans the supermajority they needed to advance legislation the governor would likely veto.
There is a tendency today to view things like veto power and legislative supermajorities as simply a matter of who has power to do what. Succumbing to that tendency would be a mistake, because it capitulates to a Marxist view of politics that sees everything through the lens of power dynamics. Sometimes, the usual political divisions break down, and government officials make decisions based upon what they believe is best for society, a certain group in society, or at least for their reelection chances. As noted above, some Democratic legislators voted for SAFE Act-style bills, while some Republican governors vetoed them. The veto even exerts a restraining influence in the far-Left, one-party state of California, where in September Governor Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed an anti-parent bill. The more statesmanlike use of the veto propounded by Hamilton may not always exert itself, but it still plays a role too large to dismiss.
An executive veto serves to “increase the chances in favor of the community against the passing of bad laws, through haste, inadvertence, or design,” said Hamilton. “The oftener the measure is brought under examination, the greater the diversity in the situations of those who are to examine it, the less must be the danger of those errors which flow from want of due deliberation, or of those missteps which proceed from the contagion of some common passion or interest.”
SAFE Act-style bills have now been considered a great many times across a great many states. In just a three-year span, nearly half of all U.S. state legislatures (23, to be exact) have seen fit to implement protections for minors suffering gender dysphoria, who lack the long-term vision and decision-making prudence to clearly see the harms of irreversible gender transition procedures. Each of those states conducted extensive hearings, featuring testimony from both sides of the debate, and were exposed to public input (including rather rude protests from the Left) on the bills’ potential merits and effects. There has been no lack of examination or due deliberation.
In almost every state, a supermajority of the legislature (often two-thirds, or even three-fourths) voted in favor of the measures. In five states, a supermajority enacted the bills of a governor’s veto. Such overwhelming support, almost by definition, implies that these bills enjoy support from more than just an “extremist” faction, notwithstanding the slanders of their detractors.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
http://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.png00Family Research Councilhttp://drrich.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/logo_264x69.pngFamily Research Council2024-01-30 14:04:012024-01-30 14:06:22Opponents Call SAFE Acts ‘Extremist,’ but 5 Veto Overrides Suggest Otherwise
