Thursday, September 06, 2018



Communities Push Back On 'Drag Queen Story Hour' For Children

As the "Drag Queen Story Hour" for children holds more events at public-funded libraries across the country, it's beginning to experience growing pushback from communities, particularly in the South.

The reading sessions at public libraries feature men dressed as women presenting "gender fluidity"-focused stories and commentary for the express purpose of providing "positive and unabashedly queer role models" to children.

"Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH) is just what it sounds like—drag queens reading stories to children in libraries, schools, and bookstores," the organization's website explains. "DQSH captures the imagination and play of the gender fluidity of childhood and gives kids glamorous, positive, and unabashedly queer role models. In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where people can present as they wish, where dress up is real."

While the Associated Press suggests the story hours have been generally accepted in big cities, including LA, Chicago, New York and New Orleans, in "smaller communities," the gender fluidity children's programs have "sparked protests from conservative and religious groups."

AP reports that the president of the local public library board in Lafayette, Louisiana recently resigned amid the debates over the planned October 6 drag queen children's hour, while the Lafayette mayor has signaled that he might cancel the event. In Columbus, Georgia, protesters gathered outside the library to express their disapproval of the event.

A group based in Mobile, Alabama is also pushing back, planning protests over a September 8 children's event. AP notes that at that event "drag queen Khloe Kash is scheduled to read 'Rainbow Fish,' a 1992 story about the value of sharing, and 'Stella Brings the Family,' about a little girl fretting over what to do about her school's upcoming Mother's Day celebration because she has two fathers."

"The program is designed to purposely target children so as to make sexual perversion acceptable through repeated exposure," Mobile-based Common Sense Campaign Tea Party wrote on its Facebook page.

AL.com has also reported on the growing pushback from religious leaders

SOURCE 






Court Declares Cheerleaders' Bible Verse Banners Are Legal
    
There are two hard-and-fast rules in life: Don’t mess with Texas, and don’t mess with Texas cheerleaders. The Kountze Independent School District learned that lesson the hard way.

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday refused to hear the school district’s appeal of a case involving Bible verses written on run-through banners — all but ending a more than five-year legal battle that garnered support from U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

“Our clients are relieved that the Texas Supreme Court has brought an end to the school district’s scorched earth litigation tactics,” First Liberty Institute’s Hiram Sasser told the “Todd Starnes Radio Show.”

First Liberty Institute, one of the nation’s most prominent religious liberty law firms, took on the case back in 2012 along with co-counsel David Starnes (no relation) and Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher.

“As the football season kicks off across Texas, it’s good to be reminded that these cheerleaders have a right to religious speech on their run-through banners — banners on which the cheerleaders painted messages they chose, with paint they paid for, on paper they purchased,” Sasser told me.

Sasser said school districts across the nation should pay close attention to the Texas Supreme Court’s decision. “Stop harassing cheerleaders and accept that they are free to have religious speech on their run-through banners,” Sasser warned.

In 2012, seven cheerleaders sued the school district after they were banned from using Bible verses on banners that players would run through at football games. The verses, like “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” were mean to be inspirational and encouraging.

The state’s Ninth Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the cheerleaders in January — declaring the signs are “pure private speech. We find the cheerleaders’ speech on the pregame banners cannot be characterized as government speech,” the court wrote.

However, the school district argued that a cheerleader who cheers at a game engages in government speech, and therefore cannot write religious messages on banners.

The “banners were held by public school cheerleaders while they were cheering for the school’s football team, while they were in uniform at a school-sponsored event, and while they were on the school’s football field to which access was limited by the school,” school district attorney Thomas Brandt wrote in the Beaumont Enterprise.

The school district had no comment on the supreme court ruling.

“This is a total victory that protects the religious liberty of students everywhere,” attorney Allyson Ho, the lead appellate counsel, said. “This decision by the Supreme Court of Texas should be the final word on this issue for students and schools across Texas.”

One question remains unanswered — why did the school district spend thousands of dollars in taxpayer money to try and stop the cheerleaders from expressing their constitutional rights? Perhaps the citizens of Kountze might get an answer when school board members face reelection.

I reckon the Kountze cheerleaders have learned a very important lesson about perseverance over the past five years. You really can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

SOURCE 







Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is no need for “gender whisperers” in schools as news emerges of teachers being taught to spot potential transgender students­

Experts claim the move has contributed to a 236 per cent surge in the number of kids wanting to change sex in the past three years.

The training has been conducted by gender identity experts in public and private primary and secondary schools under the guise of professional standards development.

It involves teachers learning to identify key phrases such as “I feel different”, “I’m androgynous” and “I’m born with two spirits”, indicating transgender leanings in students­ as young as five.

Mr Morrison tweeted this morning that we do not need ‘gender whisperers’ in our schools. Let kids be kids.

A 236 per cent surge in the number of kids wanting to change their gender has partly been attributed to new teacher training.

Exclusive figures obtained by The Daily Telegraph show already this year hospitals have referred 74 kids aged 6-16 to gender dysphoria clinics geared to help children and adolescents transition.

In 2015, the number was 22 and in 2013 there were just two.

The figures have sparked a heated debate among health experts, with the huge increase denounced as a “tragic” and “dangerous” fad” fuelled by gender support experts in schools and celebrity trans cases. Gender counsellor ­Dr Elizabeth Riley, who has advised 40 private, public and Catholic schools in the past three years, said it was important to educate teachers given 1 per cent of students were transgender.

“I only go into schools I’m invited into. I teach the school how to deal with these children with special needs and to treat them like any other child,” she said.

“Trans children are in every school, they’ve been around since the 1800s … If a school has 1000 students, 10 of them will be trans, whether they go on to transition or not. It’s important we support them so they get the right advice­ early so they are not bullied or go into hiding.”

Western Sydney University Professor of Paediatrics John Whitehall said gender identity support experts in schools were creating more problems and more confused children. “They’re part of the problem as they mess with the kids by giving them a platform to believe they have a genuine problem,” Prof Whitehall said.

“It’s a sad, tragic and very dangerous fad, especially when medical treatment can involve hormones that interfere with the brain as well as the body, and progress to irreversible­ surgery and loss of fertility.”

He said mental illness such as ADHD and depression were often associated with gender dysphoria and should be treated first while the child was allowed to mature.

Sydney-based Gender Centre says it has provided transgender training to schools including Hamilton Public, Winmalee High, Menai High, Stanhope Gardens­ ­Catholic School and Toronto High. It attributes the rise in younger children transitioning to better educated parents­ spotting the signs early. “It’s not necessarily an explosion, it’s that people now identify earlier and parents­ are more open to what for years was a taboo subject,” spokeswoman Eloise Brook said.

Sydney Children’s Hospital Randwick, The Children’s Hospital Westmead and John Hunter Children’s Hospital­ report increases in children believing they are the wrong sex or diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Children are assessed­ and, as early as six, can undergo stage one gender affirmation sessions including swapping names and clothes. Stage two of treatment, from age 11, can involve the use of puberty blocking drugs. Stage three is irreversible cross-sex hormone treatment and surgery — of which the youngest patients­ have been 15.

Professor Whitehall said children should not even be allowed to undergo stage one treatment before age 18.

Under Education Department guidelines, schools operate their own professional development budgets. A spokesman said Dr Riley was not an employee of the department.

“Students who need support for whatever reason will receive it in NSW public schools,” he said.

SOURCE 


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