Seeing this headline makes us want to shout for joy. Finally, we have a victory for conservative principles, a victory for our kids.
But then, after we’re done celebrating the headline we are forced to take a step back and wonder how we ever got to this point. Were our teachers really forced to play a part in the mental degradation of kids?
According to Fox News, the Kentucky Senate passed a bill Thursday allowing teachers to refuse to refer to transgender students by their preferred pronouns — a proposal that was touted as protecting free-speech rights in classrooms but denounced by a lawmaker whose transgender son died recently.
The measure cleared the Senate on a 29-6 vote after the emotional debate, sending the culture war topic to the House. Republicans have supermajorities in both chambers. The bill’s lead sponsor, Republican Sen. Max Wise, is the running mate for gubernatorial candidate Kelly Craft. Craft is among a dozen Republicans seeking their party’s nomination in Kentucky’s May primary.
Wise pointed to parts of the bill that he said would empower parents, strengthening their communications with schools regarding health services and school curriculum around sexuality.
Of course, we are going to celebrate this as a major victory for conservative values and the mental health of children. But, that doesn’t take away from the fact that we are now overly reliant on the government to teach us right and wrong.
Fox News continued:
But much of the debate revolved around whether to allow teachers to decide whether to use a student’s preferred pronouns. The bill would prevent policies compelling school staff to use pronouns that don’t conform to a student’s biological sex.
In opposing the bill, Democratic Sen. Karen Berg said referring to children by their preferred pronouns in the classroom is a “simple accommodation.” Transgender advocates warn that the measure would put transgender youths at greater risk of harm.
“What this bill does is it takes the single most important thing that can be done to improve a child’s health and well being and makes it entirely optional,” Berg said during the senate debate. “There is no religious or ideological conflicts with children being trans.”
Berg’s son, Henry Berg-Brousseau, was a transgender rights advocate who died late last year at age 24. The cause was suicide, his mother said.
In his presentation, Wise said the proposal was intended to “protect the First Amendment freedoms of staff and students as it relates to pronouns.”
“The terms ‘he’ and ‘she’ communicate fixed facts about a person,” Wise said. “And teachers should not be forced to violate their consciences regarding what they know to be true or not true.”
Wise said the measure “does not target or condemn lifestyles.”
“It does not prevent students from requesting identification by a non-birth-conforming pronoun, nor prevent staff and students from addressing those students with non-conforming pronouns,” he said.
Other Democrats denounced the bill as they watched GOP senators support the measure. Democratic Sen. Denise Harper Angel called it “the meanest piece of legislation” she had seen in her Senate career. Another Senate Democrat, David Yates, said children were being “played as political pawns.”
And there is the truth of it. Children are being used for wicked designs to further the liberal agenda.
That’s a topic that should require parents everywhere to stand up and get involved. We shouldn’t need the government to step in and protect our kids from evil liberals.
