The Real Agenda Behind ‘Parental Rights’

By Eric George Tauber

CINCINNATI, Ohio — While the nation focuses on the war in Ukraine, we must not neglect pressing domestic matters that are also putting people’s lives at risk only in more insidious ways. HB 1577, a bill in the Florida legislature has been dubbed “Parental Rights in Education” by its proponents and “Don’t Say Gay” by opponents.

This bill seeks to ban books and even class discussions around sexual orientation and gender identity that they do not deem “age appropriate.” In other words, the teacher cannot read Heather Has Two Mommies with her class and little Heather cannot talk about her two mommies in class. While other kids get to talk about their families, any discussion of Heather’s would be “inappropriate.” Upset parents could sue both the school district and individual teachers if their children report such matter being brought up.

Republican State Rep. Joe Harding included a provision that would require teachers to “out” students to their parents if they learn that someone identifies as queer. This would be disastrous. Queer students often confide in their teachers long before they come out to their parents. As a teacher — especially a drama teacher — this has been my experience. I have also worked in enough rough neighborhoods to know that homes are not always safe environments. So, teachers are often the first adults that our students will share this with. Fortunately, there was sufficient backlash from educators and advocates to withdraw this particular provision, but the rest of the bill remains.

Meanwhile, Texas Republicans want to classify Gender-Affirming Care for minors as “child abuse,” relieving parents of custody and their rights over their children’s healthcare. So, the same conservative party that often uses scare tactics by saying that the “tyrannical government is coming for your kids” now seeks to use the power of government to rip children from loving, supportive homes and dump them into an already overburdened, under-funded foster care system.

Roughly 2% of American youth identify as Trans or Non-Binary. As a percentage, that doesn’t seem very significant, but numbers are estimated between 750,000 and 1.1 million. About 72% of these youth studied report serious bouts of depression with half seriously considering suicide. However, according to a study conducted by the Seattle Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic, transgender youth who have supportive families and access to gender-affirming medical care, those numbers go down precipitously. A peer-reviewed study by The Trevor Project reports the following data:

• LGBTQ students who learned about queer issues in the classroom had a 23% lower chance of reporting a suicide attempt.
• LGBTQ youth who have at least one caring adult in their lives are 40% less likely to attempt suicide.
• LGBTQ youth who had at least one affirming space were 35% less likely to attempt suicide.
• Receiving gender-affirming medical care cut the rate of suicide attempts for trans youth in half.

Harding’s provision requiring teachers to “out” queer students to their parents was presumably added so that parents could “help” their “troubled” children by getting them straightened out through Conversion Therapy. CT is a harmful pseudo-science that has been condemned by medical and mental health professionals around the globe. In a report published in the American Journal of Public Health, youth who underwent CT were more than twice as likely to attempt suicide and 2.5 times more likely to make multiple attempts.

In my research, this information was not hard to find. These studies are credible, thorough, consistent and well-known in the medical community. Frontline Physicians, which represents 600,000 physicians and medical students, oppose any laws and regulations that interfere with doctor/patient confidentiality and discriminate against trans youth. So, I don’t believe for a moment that the Republican lawmakers sponsoring these bills are unaware of the information. This begs a crucial question: Why? Why would anyone sponsor a bill that is very likely to increase rates of adolescent suicide?

Unless an increase in suicide is the goal.

It sounds horrible to suggest such malevolence, and yet there are religious extremists who would gleefully execute the LGBTQ if they could. Some preachers of Christian Nationalism have stated so publicly. They believe with firm conviction that the United States of America was founded as a “Christian Nation” and that the Bible should be the law of the land.

Keep in mind that they’re not talking about Bible verses like “Love your neighbor as yourself,” (Lev 19:18) “Love your enemies…,” (Luke 6:35) or “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from a stranger…” (Lev. 27:19). They have no intention of living by those verses. However, “If a man also lies with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.” (Lev 20:13)  That one makes them rub their hands in gleeful anticipation of casting stones.

Thankfully, our society has laws against public stoning. Then again, it’s not “murder” if these youth end their own lives. In the 1980s, it wasn’t “murder” to let gay men die of AIDS while the government withheld funding for research. Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., the late founder of the ironically named “Moral Majority” declared, “AIDS is not just God’s punishment for homosexuals; it is God’s punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals.” So, it’s not unfair to ascribe such malevolent motivations.

For Republican legislators, it makes sense when you look at it mathematically. Dead kids don’t vote. Dead kids can’t protest. Dead kids can’t persuade others to their side. Now maybe I’m being unfair. Maybe they’re not really so malevolent, just apathetic. Yet, if you’re a parent whose child has just slit their own wrists because they couldn’t find a supportive environment —not at home and not at school — does the motivation of the lawmakers really matter?

There is no question that these bills in Florida, Texas and elsewhere are likely to increase the suicide rate of our LGBTQ youth. The only real question is: Who cares?

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Eric George Tauber, a former San Diegan now residing in Cincinnati, is a teacher, performer, and a drama critic. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com