Parents Should Have Option for Kids to Skip LGBTQ+ Readings in School, Lawyer Says

TMZ

Little kids are being indoctrinated in public schools through readings from LGBTQ+ books ... and parents should have the power to prevent their kids from consuming that content ... according to a lawyer on a case being heard by the Supreme Court.

Transcript

00:00Explain to us the underlying point here.

00:08Is it that the books are a form of indoctrination?

00:16What is it that would push a parent out,

00:20take a parent to take the child out of the classroom?

00:23Is it the notion of indoctrination?

00:26Yeah, it really is.

00:27When the board selected these books,

00:29it said it was looking for books

00:30that would disrupt cis-normativity,

00:32disrupt power structures.

00:35It would encourage kids to rewrite the norms.

00:38Teachers were told to tell kids,

00:39hey, doctors just guessed at your sex when you're born.

00:41You can be a boy or a girl or both or neither.

00:44It's really up to you.

00:45You know yourself best.

00:47One of the books, most outrageous to me,

00:49one of the books says,

00:51my pronouns can change like the weather

00:53depending on how I feel.

00:54So this kid in this book,

00:56he spends all day agonizing over,

00:58oh, right now I feel this way.

00:59Which pronoun should I use?

01:00Right now should I feel this way?

01:02Which pronoun should I use?

01:04By the end of the book,

01:04he's watching fireworks display and he says,

01:06oh, I feel like fireworks.

01:08So now I'm they, them,

01:09at least for today.

01:11These books are highly confusing to kids

01:13who are as young as three years old.

01:14And most parents just want to give their kids

01:16a period of innocence

01:17when they don't have to think about things like,

01:19am I really a boy?

01:20Or just because I want to play with other boys

01:23on the playground,

01:23does that mean I'm gay?

01:24And these are questions that young kids

01:26shouldn't have to deal with.

01:28I know that one of the things

01:29that the parents were upset about

01:31is that you have these kids,

01:34young kids,

01:35kindergarten through fifth grade

01:36who cannot opt out,

01:37yet you have older kids

01:39in junior high and high school

01:41who can still opt out of sex education

01:44if parents choose to do that.

01:47And it does seem imbalanced.

01:50Seems absurd on its face, right?

01:52I mean, high school students

01:53who actually have the ability

01:54to kind of make these types of decisions

01:56for themselves

01:57to kind of weigh the different,

01:58you know,

02:00benefits and consequences,

02:02challenges of issues around sexuality

02:04and gender identity,

02:05they can opt out of this instruction

02:08even in high school,

02:09but a kid who's in pre-K story hour

02:12can't opt out.

02:13And for parents,

02:14you know,

02:14across the political spectrum

02:15in Montgomery County,

02:17that really just seems absurd.

02:18Really like 70% of Marylanders

02:21have indicated that they think

02:22that these books are inappropriate

02:23for kids at this young age.

02:25And so we're all,

02:26you know,

02:26the school is free to continue teaching.

02:28We're not asking to remove the books

02:29from the library

02:30or the schoolroom bookshelf.

02:32We're not asking teachers

02:33not to teach the material.

02:35We're just saying

02:35for those parents

02:36who object for their own kids,

02:38they should have the right

02:39to go sit in the library

02:40during that hour.

02:41Yeah, I mean, look,

02:42I gotta tell you,

02:42I am gay.

02:43Um, I don't understand

02:46the point of doing this

02:48with young little kids like that.

02:51So, I mean,

02:52I get where you're coming from

02:54with small kids

02:56and not even so much

02:57about opting out.

02:57It's like, why so early?

02:59Why is it part of the curriculum?

03:01Yeah, and I understand

03:02the tolerance issue,

03:03but I also understand

03:05these are little kids

03:06that can be influenced

03:07in various ways.

03:08What if it's a 14-year-old

03:10and it's not,

03:11as you put it,

03:13indoctrination,

03:14but it's learning

03:15the history of LGBTQ.

03:17In a social studies class.

03:18Yeah, where it's...

03:19Learning about civic...

03:21Where it's more historical.

03:23Right.

03:23And not, you know,

03:25that Bobby can do this

03:26with Jimmy or whatever,

03:27but it's more historical

03:29and it's part of the curriculum

03:32just like you would teach

03:33black history

03:33or American history,

03:36you know,

03:36from the Revolutionary War on.

03:39Do you have the same feeling

03:41about opting out?

03:42Because that does open

03:43a big door

03:44that whenever a parent

03:45objects to something,

03:46they say,

03:46walk out of the classroom.

03:47Right.

03:48Schools in that context

03:49are certainly

03:49on a much stronger ground

03:50where they're just trying

03:51to teach information,

03:52trying to convey history.

03:54It's much harder

03:55for parents to insist

03:56that they have an opt-out.

03:57And from a practical purpose,

03:59it just doesn't happen.

04:00You know,

04:01this kind of instruction

04:02has been happening

04:02for a long time

04:03in public schools

04:04and parents aren't objecting.

04:06You know,

04:06you may have an odd objection

04:09here or there.

04:10And frankly,

04:10schools are allowing

04:11those kinds of opt-outs.

04:13I don't want to learn

04:13about evolution.

04:14I don't want to learn.

04:15I don't want to dissect frogs

04:16in biology class.

04:18And schools around the country

04:19actually allow

04:20those opt-outs already.

04:22But you don't see

04:22those opt-outs

04:23being requested

04:24very often at all

04:25because most people

04:26agree with you

04:27that like learning history,

04:28learning about,

04:29you know,

04:29different kinds of cultures

04:30and all those types of issues

04:33is normally

04:34what we expect

04:35in public education.

04:37Yet,

04:37the Trump administration

04:39is trying to ban

04:41Weathering Heights

04:42and a bunch of other books.

04:43So it kind of goes

04:44against that notion.

04:46Yeah,

04:46I mean,

04:46there's political issues

04:47that we're not involved in

04:48as litigators

04:49on these issues.

04:50Our parents really object

04:51to their young children

04:52being indoctrinated

04:53on issues

04:54that go directly

04:54contrary

04:55to their religious values.

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