'There can be ZERO dissent': Parental rights advocate blasts Newsom's law forcing schools to keep kids' transitions secret



California Democrats and the LGBT activists among them have ramped up their years-long campaign to drive a wedge between parents and their children.

Alvin Lui, president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, told Blaze News that the state has long sought to keep parents in the dark about their kids' manifestations of gender dysphoria and efforts to transition at school. However, some school districts have in recent months bucked the trend of secrecy and grooming at school and have instead clued in parents.

The Chino Valley Unified School District under the leadership of Sonja Shaw, for instance, became the first district in the state to embrace a policy last year whereby school officials must inform parents if their kids request to use the bathroom intended for members of the opposite sex as well as if their confused children ask to use names and pronouns that don't correspond with reality or their official documents.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta took legal action against Shaw's district on Aug. 28, 2023, claiming it violated privacy laws regarding transvestite students. In October, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge blocked the district from enforcing some of the related policies until the case was resolved.

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) went a step further, ratifying Assembly Bill 1955, which forbids districts like the CVUSD from engaging in such transparency.

Lui, who moved his family out of California upon observing how similarly radical policies were transforming the state, indicated, "AB 1955 was passed solely in response to several school boards being flipped because parents were waking up and in order to discourage good teachers and counselors who still respect parental rights."

The law, first introduced by gay Assemblyman Christopher Ward (D) and championed by the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus, prohibits school districts, county offices of education, charter schools, and state special schools from introducing or enforcing rules, regulations, or policies that require employees to disclose to parents "any information related to a pupil's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression."

'The children must be the state's at all costs.'

Contrary to the spin from Newsom's office, educators in all districts must now effectively keep parents in California in the dark about their child's sexual confusion and gender dysphoria unless the mentally compromised minor in question consents to looping them in. School employees in the meantime can hook the child up with possibly pro-transitioning counselors and activist resources.

AB 1955 — which Elon Musk has cited as cause to move two of his major companies out of the state — also shields employees from consequence if they have worked to conceal a child's confusion from their parents.

Courtesy of Courage is a Habit

Assemblyman Ward affirmed Lui's characterization of the law this week, indicating that it will force compliance from those school districts that have tried to keep parents clued in to what's happening with their children at school.

"Politically motivated attacks on the rights, safety, and dignity of transgender, nonbinary, and other LGBTQ+ youth are on the rise nationwide, including in California," Ward said in a statement. "While some school districts have adopted policies to forcibly out students, the SAFETY Act ensures that discussions about gender identity remain a private matter within the family."

"This is what communism is," said Lui. "There can be ZERO dissent. The children must be the state's at all costs."

Lui is not alone in his understanding of the threats AB 1955 poses.

Journalist Michael Shellenberger, whose think tank Environmental Progress published the damning WPATH Files, noted Tuesday that the new Democratic law "makes children vulnerable to irreversible and lifelong medical abuse and mistreatment. And it is all based on the pseudoscientific idea that some children are born into the wrong bodies and that we can change a person's sex through drugs and surgery."

In pushing through AB 1955, it is clear that Democrats chose to ignore the ever-growing mountain of evidence indicating so-called "gender-affirming care" is not as advertised.

England's National Health Service appointed Dr. Hilary Cass in 2020 to lead an independent investigation into the U.K.'s sex-change regime and its youth-facing services. Following a penetrating, multi-year investigation, Cass — an esteemed British medical doctor who previously served as president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health — revealed that so-called gender science was effectively rooted in pseudoscience.

Blaze News previously reported that among the many damning revelations about the sex-change regime in the Cass review was its finding that there was "no clear evidence that social transition in childhood has any positive or negative mental health outcomes, and relatively weak evidence for any effect in adolescence."

While "social transition" of the kind Newsom and California Democrats want to hide from parents apparently had no discernible impact on mental health, the Cass review further revealed that those children so groomed were much more likely to undergo sex-change medical interventions at a later stage.

Contrary to the core claim of sex-change activists, such medical interventions do not lessen the risk of suicide. A peer-reviewed study in BMJ Mental Health revealed in February that "medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk."

Besides underscoring the "weak" and unreliable nature of the evidence in support of "gender-affirming care," the Cass review also indicated that clinicians "are unable to determine with any certainty which children and young people will go on to have an enduring trans identity."

California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus Chair Susan Eggman, evidently immune to the scientific insights raised in the Cass review, BMJ Mental Health, and elsewhere, said AB 1955 was "life-saving legislation."

"Safe and supportive schools for all our children should be our top priority. And at the end of the day that's what this bill does, ensures our K-12 campuses remain safe and affirming places for our youth no matter how they identify," stated Eggman.

Those cognizant of the fallout of so-called "gender-affirming care" and supportive of parental rights aren't buying what Eggman and other California Democrats are selling.

'Moms and dads have both a constitutional and divine mandate to guide and protect their kids.'

Shellenberger stressed on X, "What Gavin Newsom has done is actively prevented schools from informing parents that their children have been put on a medical pathway."

"This is an outrageous attack on the rights of children and parents. Children have a right to go through puberty. No adult should be able to block their puberty. And parents have a right to know if their child thinks that they are the opposite sex or were born into the wrong body," continued Shellenberger. "The new law creates the grave risk that activist teachers, students, and outside groups will convince their children that they were born into the wrong body, and hide their 'social transition' from parents, which will lead to harmful medical mistreatment."

Jonathan Keller, president of the California Family Council, denounced AB 1955, noting, "Moms and dads have both a constitutional and divine mandate to guide and protect their kids, and AB 1955 egregiously violates this sacred trust."

California Assemblyman Bill Essayli (R), who unsuccessfully attempted to advance legislation requiring parental notification in schools, said in a statement, "Today, Governor Gavin Newsom defied parents' constitutional and God-given right to raise their children by signing AB 1955, which codifies the government's authority to keep secrets from parents."

Essayli noted that the bill's ratification is "immoral and unconstitutional" and promised to challenge it in court.

Already, the Liberty Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging AB 1955 on behalf of the Chino Valley Unified School District and several Californian parents with children in the system.

Blaze News previously reported that Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) and 15 other attorneys general recently filed an amicus brief on behalf of their respective states asking that the U.S. Supreme Court take up a case regarding schools' covert efforts to transition children into sexually confused transvestites behind their parents' backs.

If the Parents Protecting Our Children, UA v. Eau Claire Area School District is taken up by the high court and the plaintiffs succeed, then there is a strong likelihood that AB 1955 and comparable laws across the nation will fall.

Human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali also condemned AB 1955, writing, "It is truly terrible news for children and for many Americans a key reason not only to flee California but also the Democratic Party. The madness and mass child abuse really has to stop."

Lui emphasized that while children are now at greater risk in California, particularly in those districts that once resisted the preferred policies of the sex-change regime, the problem is not limited to the Golden State.

"Parents must understand that public K-12 have already been keeping transgender secrets from parents in ALL 50 states through school counselors and 'mental health' Trojan horses," said Lui. "This isn't just a California or New York thing. Moving to another state doesn't get you away from it any longer. That is the fallacy that gives parents a false sense of security."

"I certainly advocate for all Americans to leave California, but whichever state you land in, you will still have to fight for and protect your children," added Lui.

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Teaching the 'Habit' of standing up for kids​



Like most political exiles, Alvin Lui and his wife were happy with their life and didn’t expect it to change. His career as an illusionist had made him a local celebrity in the pleasant San Francisco suburb of Dublin, and he took any opportunity he could to give back to the community.

The way he saw it, it was a long-term investment. “My wife and I are planning on staying in this city for quite a while, so it's our privilege to be able to donate our time and money to the very schools our future children will be attending," Lui told a reporter at a 2014 fundraiser to benefit a local educational charity.

Lui and his wife eventually had a daughter. It was when it came time for her to attend the local schools that Lui realized how much everything had changed. Gender ideology — the notion that children should "choose" whether they feel like a boy, a girl, or something in between — had crept into the curriculum for even the youngest students.

For Lui, a first-generation Chinese-American whose parents fled Communist China, this LBGT-powered cultural revolution was disturbingly familiar. So he packed up his family and headed for Carmel, Indiana, lured by the excellent schools and the promise of a sensibly traditional small-town life.

When Lui noticed the same ideology beginning to undermine the Carmel school system, he decided that he had to act.

As president of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, Lui offers educational materials that simplify and expose the machinations of the transgender activists’ playbook.

Courage Is a Habit also fights local legislation around the country that attacks parental rights.

The group recently scored a victory over a bill in Maine that, as Joe MacKinnon reported for Blaze News, "would allow the state to take custody of children whose families refuse to subject them to sex-change mutilations and other irreversible medical interventions."

The narrative surrounding the bill’s collapse was, predictably, head-spinning. The Advocate blamed conservative account Libs of TikTok and other “right-wing extremists online” for targeting “lawmakers who were considering the legislation.”

Yahoo! News reposted another article from the Advocate claiming that the “bill aimed to protect transgender youth’s access to care trigger[ed] outlandish claims of child-snatching as right-wingers wage a war of words on the proposed legislation.” Even local news furthered the myth of “gender-affirming care.”

In this endeavor, Lui has had to contend with EqualityMaine, which he describes as “the most radical transgender cult organization.”

On the national level, he has drawn more formidable, and more well-funded, adversaries, including the Southern Poverty Law Center. That group recently put Lui on its Hatewatch list, arguing that “radical parents’ groups including … Courage Is a Habit also took the opportunity to purchase some ersatz blue-tick legitimacy” on X.

“Each is part of a wave of such parent groups that galvanize followers to attack members and allies of the LGBTQ community, mask and vaccine mandates, and inclusive curriculum, such as critical race theory.”

For his part, Lui remains unbowed. As he often says, “you may not care about politics, but politics cares about your children.” Lui recently spoke with Align about the lure of the Midwest, finding a voice as an activist, and why he believes that courage is a habit.

ALIGN: You grew up in California, right?

ALVIN LUI: I did, I did. I was born in California. I lived there most of my life except for about four years in the East Coast, you know, early on. But other than that, yeah, I'm a California boy.

ALIGN: So it must've been pretty serious for you to pack up everything and move to Indiana.

LUI: Nobody just picks up and moves like that. It's tough, of course. But we didn't want to raise children there for a lot of reasons. I think your audience would probably understand that.

'All parents know how to defend their kids. They've crossed rivers and oceans, deserts to give their child a chance of a better life. So what makes this time so special that someone can point a finger in your face and call you a bigot and it makes you stand down?'

But when I got to Indiana ... people asked me why I would move. Because a lot of people who grow up in Indiana take it for granted. They don't understand how amazing it is to grow up in the Midwest.

Because all they see of California is Hollywood and the media. They don't see how it really is. And so, the easiest way I would [explain it] if I had 10 seconds is I would say, “Well, if I were to raise a daughter there, they would tell her the two most important things in her life are that she's female and she's Asian. And that everything bad that happens to her, every failure she'll ever have is because of one or both of those things.”

And that's just the culture. That's the entire culture of California. And at the time, I didn't understand why. I just knew it was really bad on top of the crime and the sanctuary states and the taxes going to everybody but the taxpayers. Coming to Indiana was like going back in time 20 years ... in a good way, a very good way. So it's been a blessing for sure

ALIGN: Was it a slow boil, or was there a particular incident that changed your mind and made the decision for you?

LUI: It was pretty sudden. [It's like that saying], a fish doesn't know [it's] wet. And so, when you're living in California, you don't realize it until you have a family, until you start being a business owner.

They want to get to the kids very early on. They want to get a 16-year-old to vote. Because you simply have no rearview mirror of life [at that age]. Let's face it: When you're 25, you barely have a rearview mirror of life. And until you start failing in life; until you start paying taxes; until you start building something, then failing, then building again; until you have something to worry about other than yourself; until life knocks that narcissism out of you, you don't really understand. .

[Look at] the way they throw up all this red tape, to make it as difficult as possible for you to be successful and to be financially independent. But if you're a failure, they make it as easy as possible for you to stay a failure.

And those are the policies in California.

For me, it was two things. It was the sanctuary state, sanctuary city, opening up the borders. I know today you and I are having this conversation — today in 2024 and the whole country is talking about it, but this has been a problem in California for 20 years.

And then when transgenderism came again and they started really saturating our young people with it.

Your family, your safety, and keeping a child's innocence are the most paramount. You could be poor. You could always make money. But when you rob somebody's physical safety, which is what illegal aliens do, and then you take a child's innocence — those two things. If it goes wrong, you don't get those things back.

A girl in a city right next to mine got killed by an illegal alien in San Francisco walking around with her dad. It was heartbreaking. She died in his arms, and she was in her late 20s.

And I thought, "God, this man raised her through all the barfing and the diaper-changing and then hurting herself and then worrying about her friends and worrying about her grades and making sure she came home on time and graduating high school and maybe she went to college.

"But then she's 27 and he's thinking, 'I've done it, she's a woman and she's moving on with her life and she's doing great.' And they're spending time together walking around San Francisco in Pier 39 — a touristy place — and she died in his arms."

And it was because of an illegal alien who had been was deported five times. They kept letting him come back into San Francisco because it's a sanctuary city at the time. San Francisco was the first sanctuary city in the country, and they would not work with ICE to arrest him. And he shot her.

ALIGN: What you're doing with Courage Is a Habit is offering educational tools to people and letting them decide for themselves. Talk to me about that mission and what pulled you in that direction, where the idea came from, and what you offer with Courage Is a Habit.

LUI: So I guess let's start with the name. When I got to Indiana, I was quite naive, because I really loved Indiana. But [I realized] that the one thing that makes no difference in a red or blue state is public education, K-12.

There's no difference when it comes to red and blue states. The indoctrination is the same, and that's one of the things that parents have a hard time accepting.

So I saw a lot of the same seeds that were planted in Indiana that will eventually grow to the policies that destroyed my old home in California. Obviously to a lesser degree because we're not as far along in Indiana as California, but all the pillars and the foundations were already laid in K-12.

It just hasn't saturated yet into the community and into legislation. It was starting already, and even in the four years that I've been here, we can already see a difference.

This was something people didn't know. So I was very naive when I got here and I said, “Oh, I know what's going on. These people just don't know. I'm a nobody. I'm just gonna say, ‘Hey, look, I'm gonna be super honest. I'm from California and here's the reason why I left: You guys are already having these things in there.'"

And so I thought that if I would just get my dumb ass on the radio and maybe in some newspaper articles and just say, “Hey, I love Indiana. Love you guys. You guys have been great. You've welcomed us. I just want you to know, just to say thank you.

"And, look, you guys aren't racist. Don't fall for that. Don't go down that path. Don't go down that path because this is where it leads.”

I thought that if I said that, people would go, “Oh, man, yeah,” and then they'd rise up and speak out.

I was wrong. People reacted the same way that we did in California when people told us this 25 years ago. It won't happen here, you're fear-mongering, it's just white privilege, it's all that stuff. So I was really taken aback by how afraid people were. How afraid people were to speak up even though the people knew what I was saying was true.

But waiting for it to happen was better than speaking out and having an insufferable white woman in your neighborhood call you a racist and a bigot, right?

So anyway, I found myself starting to go around speaking to parents, mostly focused on education. And I eventually started off my speech with this little blurb.

I said, “Isn't it kind of funny that all of you very wonderful, successful people find yourself on a Friday night or Saturday night in a strange auditorium listening to a stranger from another state tell you how to defend your children? This has never happened before in the history of parenting, right?"

And I said, “Why is that? You know, all parents know how to defend their kids. They've crossed rivers and oceans, deserts to give their child a chance of a better life. This is what the American dream is made out of, inviting immigrants, legal ones, to come here. So what makes this time so special that someone can point a finger in your face and call you a bigot and it makes you stand down? Why is that?”

Then I said, “Well, in order to understand why that is, you have to go back a little bit as to how you got here over the last, let's say, five to seven years.

"And it started with something very simple. Maybe it was at your workplace. They asked you to put up a Black Lives Matter or a rainbow flag, or asked you to take this anti-bias training and said you had unconscious this and unconscious that. And you knew this was wrong. You knew that wasn't true, but you went along with it.

"So over time, you've made fear a habit.

"It wasn't one or two things, it wasn't four or five things, but it was just over time, you made fear a habit.

"So now, they're coming after your kids, and you told yourself, 'When it really counts, I'll be able to stand up.'

"But the problem is, that's not how habits work. If you make fear a habit, even when they come after the thing that you love most in life, which everybody in this room," I said, "obviously it's your children and grandchildren, because you would run into a burning building for them.

"But you wouldn't go fight for them if someone calls you a bigot. And now, you find yourself in an auditorium asking me how you defend your children."

I said, "You know how to defend your children. You just have to make courage a habit. And every time you want to speak up and your heart's coming out of your chest, and you know someone's going to call you a bigot or a transphobe or whatever, and you say it anyway.

"The next time is not gonna feel easier, and the next time after that it won't. And I can't tell you, because I don't know your psychological makeup, how many times it'll take, but I can promise you, one of those times, it might be the 15th time or the 25th time, you will not feel fear any more, because you've made courage a habit instead of fear. But those first six times are gonna suck.

"No matter who you are, those first six times are gonna really suck. But when you can push past that, once you make courage a habit, you will never go back. You will never one day say, you know what, I think I'm gonna shut up again."

So that was how I used to start my little talks in Indiana.

When I saw that this education issue was not just isolated to big cities like Indianapolis, I started to realize that the thing that destroyed California has now escaped from the lab, so to speak.

It escaped Wuhan. And now it's everywhere. Now it's everywhere.

My great-grandfather ran from communism. He was an older man, you know, the Red Guard dragged him out of his little bakery. He wasn't rich; he was just a small business owner. He had two bakeries. They dragged him out and beat him. And he ran from communism so that his family could have a chance of not growing up in China, in Mao's China.

I never thought that I would have to move my family from one place to another because I was fearing the same thing. Obviously, it's nowhere near life and death as it was for my great-grandfather, but the idea was the same thing.

My father always made sure that my siblings and I felt very lucky to be born here. He never let us forget that.

If America goes the way of the Cultural Revolution, your children and my children will have nowhere to go. I wanted to do something that would spread nationally and not just locally, and that's how Courage Is a Habit was born.

When it was time to think of a name, I thought about that little opener I had; I also wanted a name that every time someone said it would give encouragement.

Those are the kind of subtleties we don't do enough of; our opponents do. They see the message in a name. And I wanted a name that every time someone said it, even if in a negative way, it reminded people that you don't need an organization. You know how to defend your children. This is in you.

This is why I very rarely say courage is contagious. That's a great saying, by the way. I love that saying. It's a beautiful saying, courage is contagious. The reason why I don't say it is when you say something is contagious, it inherently means you need other people around for that contagion.

So it means that if you don't have enough people to spread that courage contagion, then you don't have it. Or you might have it, but then when enough people fall away, and you look around and you go, "Oh, I only got like two people that believe me," then you start to be silent again. But when you make courage a habit, it doesn't matter if you have a thousand people behind you or nobody behind you.

Blaze News investigates: 'Where the fight is' — Virginia teen refuses to compromise her faith for gender ideology; takes school district to court



Virginia has fielded various battles in recent years over parental rights and radical gender ideology in the classroom. While those supportive of the former and antipathetic to the latter appear to have gained some ground in the swing state since the time of Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 win, it’s abundantly clear that this remains an undecided war.

While historically a fight between adults at kids' expense, a brave teen in Northern Virginia who found herself caught up in Fairfax County Public Schools’ leftist counteroffensive has stepped into the breach.

The high school senior, referred to as Jane Doe in court documents, is suing the Fairfax County School Board with the help of the America First Legal Foundation, alleging she has been compelled "to speak in a manner that violates her sincerely held philosophical and religious beliefs" and has been discriminated against on the basis of both her beliefs and her sex.

This young Christian woman has apparently refused to consent to the invasion of girls' bathrooms and locker rooms by transvestites and other opportunistic males seeking accommodation over their so-called gender identity. She has also refused to call "students who identify as gender-expansive or transgender ... by their chosen name and pronoun, regardless of the name and gender recorded in the student’s permanent pupil record."

The lawsuit, filed in the Circuit Court of Fairfax County, seeks an admission on the part of the FCSB that its rules have violated the teen's right to free expression, free exercise, and due process under the Virginia Constitution along with her right to be free from government discrimination on the basis of religion and sex. Additionally, Doe seeks an injunction along with a declaratory judgment that the district's gender ideology policy is incompatible with the guarantees of freedom provided by the Constitution and Code of Virginia.

Ian Prior, senior legal advisor with America First Legal, said in a statement, "Fairfax County Public Schools appears to believe that its policies and regulations can override the Virginia Constitution’s protections for religious beliefs, speech, and from government discrimination on the basis of sex and religious beliefs."

'Where the fight is'

Even though the Biden administration is poised to foist gender ideology on schools nationwide via its final Title IX regulations, some parental rights advocates are convinced that a win in this case would nevertheless be significant.

Alvin Lui, the president and cofounder of the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit, told Blaze News that Doe’s defiance and litigation is "where the fight is."

"When you have a lawsuit like with this young lady, this one young lady who presumably had the backing of her parents and her family — this is where the fight is," said Lui. "This lawsuit is hugely important because it reminds people not to wait for people to come. ... This is the pushback people need."

"If this goes her way, every parent group — and you can be sure that Courage Is a Habit will absolutely take advantage of this — every parent group out there from Moms for Liberty to Moms for America to all the other smaller groups should take that and distribute that to the local school districts and have their children push back ... because now a precedent has been set," added Lui, who has been working to protect American children in various states including Maine.

Victoria Cobb, president of the Family Foundation of Virginia, told Blaze News, "I'm proud of the student for standing up and saying that 'I am being compelled to do things and say things that I don’t believe.'"

"The idea that a student would have to sign away what they believe to attend public school is un-American," continued Cobb, whose faith-based organization has been fighting to ensure Virginians can freely live out their faith in the public square.

Cobb added that the requirement a student would have to surrender his or her "First Amendment rights to attend school is legally abhorrent. I think the [FCPS] will find themselves struggling on the back end of this lawsuit."

Should the Christian teen fail in her civil rights lawsuit, she will have at least demonstrated the cost of a clear conscience in Fairfax County.

Background

Virginians elected Gov. Youngkin in November 2021 largely due to his stances on parental rights and education. Given a mandate to take decisive action in these areas, Youngkin’s administration has taken steps to roll back some of the previous government’s radical policies.

However, various local public school districts, including the largest public school system in the state, have resisted the democratic will of the people, recommitting to rules that systematically advance gender ideology — apparently at the expense of some students’ safety and First Amendment rights.

In July 2023, the Virginia Department of Education released its final Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools, highlighting that the previous model policies under former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam not only "promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools" but had "also disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students."

The Youngkin administration ultimately tossed out the Northam model policies and instead emphasized parents’ rights "to make decisions with respect to their children."

In addition to making sure parents could not be left in the dark about their kids' possible manifestations of gender dysphoria at school, the final policies required schools to: use students' real names; refer to students with the pronouns in accordance with the sex indicated on their official record unless given a formal written request by parents; and require that students use sex-segregated school facilities that correspond with their biological sex.

Where federal law requires transvestites to share in otherwise sex-segregated facilities with students of the opposite sex, the new guidelines allow for parents to opt their kids out of using such facilities and to have them provided with alternatives.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares confirmed in October that the model polices curbing gender ideology and keeping students’ sports and bathrooms sex-segregated were both legitimate and constitutional.

Ideology-affirming care

Apparently keen to let students transition behind parents’ backs and to allow transvestites to use facilities designated for members of the opposite sex, numerous local public school districts rejected the new model policies, including Fairfax County Public Schools.

In the face of such leftist rebellion, Youngkin underscored that his model polices were "the law and they don’t have a choice."

Evidently, FCPS superintendent Michelle Reid figured she and her underlings were above the law, noting in an update last year that FCPS was doubling down on its radical policies and would continue to:

  • address students "by their chosen names and pronouns";
  • provide gender-confused students "with access to facilities, activities, and/or trips consistent with their gender identity"; and
  • keep students' "gender expansive or transgender status" under wraps.

According to Jane Doe's lawsuit, these policies, outlined in FCPS' Regulation 2603.2 concerning "Gender-expansive and Transgender Students," have been used to run roughshod over her constitutional rights.

Jane Doe’s complaint notes that Regulation 2603.2 "purports to apply equally to all students" but effectively "elevates the interests of 'gender-expansive' and 'transgender' students at the expense of all others."

The lawsuit suggests, for instance, that by enabling those anatomically correct males claiming misalignment between their sex and gender to use girls' lavatories or locker rooms, "The Regulation puts the burden of accommodation on biological females who want to use the appropriate restroom or locker room."

Besides ceding women’s spaces to gender ideologues, the lawsuit suggests further that the policy also surrenders linguistic territory on behalf of staff and students, tying Regulation 2603.2 to nondiscrimination and harassment policies, such as Regulation 4952.5, which forbids "gender-based harassment."

Harassment of this kind includes "gendered name calling, gendered remarks that are derogatory in nature — intending to demean or humiliate, and harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity/expression."

Jane Doe and other students whose deeply held beliefs are at odds with the ideology coded into school policy do not simply have to deal with the fallout. They apparently have to sign off on it.

Values test

Fairfax County Public Schools require students and parents to sign a student rights and responsibilities form (SRR) that states students have a right to "access restroom and locker room facilities and other non-stigmatizing accommodations that are consistent with the student’s gender identity" as well as to be called by chosen names and pronouns.

The SRR indicates further that students are required to "respect others' beliefs and differences" and "refrain from using words, images, or gestures that are obscene, violent, disruptive, or disrespectful."

The same document suggests that referring to a "transgender" student by their actual sex or legal name could qualify as "discriminatory harassment."

Failure to indulge a student's "gender identity" could land FCPS students various punishments, including weekend detentions, suspensions, and "behavioral instruction."

Lui of Courage Is a Habit suggested that schools are the primary vehicle for what he calls the "transgender cult." Regulation 2603.2 and similar policies are ostensibly a means of codifying cultist beliefs and curbing dissent.

"The majority of kids need to go to public schools. And so they spend the seven hours a day, five days a week, 13 years in the system, and that's where all this transgender ideology comes from," Lui told Blaze News. "There's a lot of young ladies like [Doe] in K through 12 that think like her, but they're bullied into silence — not only by fellow students but by the administration itself."

"Kids already have a hard enough time, you know, with peer pressure and things like that. Now, you've got counselors and teachers and principals and our entire culture saying, 'If you don't [use] my pronouns, there's going to be consequences. There's going to be punishments,'" added Lui.

Signing off on the problem

Doe, a senior at a FCPS high school, is a devout Roman Catholic "who strives to live in accordance with her faith daily" and "has sincerely held beliefs that govern her views, sincerely held beliefs about human nature, marriage, gender, sexuality, morality, politics, ethics, natural law, and social issues."

The suit notes that Doe "believes that referring to another person using pronouns that do not correspond with biological sex is harmful to herself because it forces her to lie." Furthermore, it indicates she believes on the basis of scientific evidence that gender ideology is more or less bogus.

At the beginning of this school year, Doe received the latest version of the SRR. Whereas in past years, parents would have to sign and acknowledge receipt of the SRR, now students must apparently watch a video, then take a test regarding the student rights they are to affirm and the corresponding responsibilities they are to assume.

"Signature and acceptance of the SR&R, a requirement of each student, was predicated on a student answering 70 percent of the questions 'correctly,'" says the complaint. "FCPS staff did not clearly explain to students that passing the test would result in the signature and acceptance of the SR&R."

Controversial elements of the SRR that are at odds with Doe's religious and philosophical beliefs made it into the video she had to watch and into the test she was expected to complete and sign.

Doe refused to take the test. This prickled her teacher who allegedly gave her written instruction to complete the test. Doe’s continued refusal reportedly prompted more urging by her teacher, both in person and over email.

In September, Doe was allegedly carted out of the cafeteria with other dissenting students to take the SRR test under supervision. Again, she apparently told the administrators to pound sand.

The next month, Doe's mother got involved, allegedly telling the school's principal Doe would not be taking the test as it "constituted 'compelled speech' on 'gender identity,' among other topics, which were contrary to their religious beliefs and family values."

Apparently, the FCPS was unwilling to give the student's mother the final word. Another employee reportedly told Doe's mom there was no opt-out for the SRR and that she would have to sign. She too refused, according to the complaint.

Extra to the pressure around the SRR sign-off, Doe has allegedly faced immense social pressure from educators over pronoun use and has had to share female spaces with males.

"It is well past time for FCPS to stop sacrificing the constitutional rights of its students so that it can implement a state-sanctioned ideology that demands compliance in speech, beliefs, and conduct," said Ian Prior of America First Legal. "Unfortunately, FCPS has repeatedly demonstrated that it will not voluntarily comply with the Virginia constitution and the Virginia Supreme Court’s rulings, so it will be up to students and parents to enforce their rights through the courts. We are proud to help them do just that."

In response to questions about the case and its particulars, a FCPS spokesman said in a statement to Blaze News, "Our current Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) policies are consistent with federal and state anti-discrimination laws."

"FCPS remains committed to fostering a safe, supportive, welcoming, and inclusive school environment for all students and staff," continued the statement. "Any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy in using a bathroom or locker room, regardless of the underlying reason, is provided with reasonable accommodations, including access to single user facilities."

Neither FCSB chairman Karl Frish nor FCPS superintendent Reid individually responded to requests for comment.

The governor's office did not provide comment by deadline.

Parental engagement

Both Cobb and Lui stressed that extra to taking legal action, parents need to remain engaged with regard to what's going on at their kids' schools.

"I think that parents need to demand the utmost transparency from their school boards and from their superintendents because many parents are simply unaware of the policies within their schools, and that’s intentional in some cases," said Cobb.

"It is a county-by-county battle because some counties have resisted now the good guidelines so, unfortunately, parents now have to be very wary of where they live and who they have in local school board office," continued Cobb. "Who is governing over the day-to-day experience of their child in that school? Because there are in fact still many school districts that have biological boys going into girls' bathrooms, biological boys playing on girls' sports teams, that have compelled speech."

Cobb referenced the Family Foundation’s "Protect Every Kid" initiative, which provides parents with Youngkin's updated parent-friendly model policies and what they need to put pressure on their respective school board members to ensure their schools are in alignment.

Lui, whose organization provides parents with various tools for fighting back against indoctrination in schools, stressed the importance of avoiding complacency in the wake of the occasional win. He cited as an example the mistaken sense that Gov. Youngkin’s election meant the war in the commonwealth was over.

"Once he got in, there was a sense of, 'We won. Yay. We can all go back now to our lives. Youngkin's got it.' And it's that outsourcing of parental responsibility that got us here in the first place," said Lui. "This was a good showing, but that doesn't solve anything."

Doe and other students are stuck dealing with symptoms of a broader problem that needs to be addressed, according to Lui. While Doe winning her lawsuit would be significant, Lui stressed that the social contagion must ultimately be dealt with at its source.

The parental rights advocate has his sights set on the "social-emotional learning" method and its champions at the American School Counselor Association, which he figures has been sneaking gender ideology into schools, in part through "language contamination."

"They use your vocabulary but not your dictionary. That's something that parents really need to understand is at the root of all of this: language contamination," said Lui. "Parents have stayed silent because they believe they're just teaching their kids empathy, but what they mean is that they're teaching the girls that when they see a boy in the bathroom, they need to quiet their own fears and needs and they need to empathize with the boy. They need to give empathy to the mentally ill man that walks into the bathroom. ... That [empathy] only goes one way."

Having students consent to the ideological takeover as Doe and others have apparently been asked to do is just an escalation in the culture war — "it's just the next level."

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'They want to trans children so badly': Maine's 'transgender trafficking bill' likely to pass and trigger interstate battle



Democratic state Rep. Anne Perry's LD 227, dubbed the "Transgender Trafficker Protection Act" by critics, is a radical piece of legislation that would codify the right to sex-change mutilations and abortion in Maine, shield sex-change surgeons from consequence, and bar authorities from notifying parents of the locations of their kidnapped children if those kids are said to be seeking "gender-affirming care" in the state.

In recent weeks, LD 227 was condemned by Republican lawmakers, the Maine Sheriffs' Association, and 16 state attorneys general who indicated that it was unconstitutional.

The parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit led a massive campaign this month to raise awareness about LD 227 and get it killed in committee.

The eight Democrats on Maine's Joint Standing Committee on Health Coverage, Insurance and Financial Services were evidently unswayed by parents' concerns and the overwhelming backlash, voting Thursday to advance LD 227.

Fellow travelers in the Maine Legislature and the governor's mansion will now likely see LD 227 through to becoming law, thereby setting up an interstate battle.

"This was already defeated in January," Courage Is a Habit president Alvin Lui told Blaze News, referencing the death of LD 1735, a similar piece of legislation killed in committee. "But they want to trans children so badly, and they want to separate them from their parents so badly, that they're getting it through by piggybacking on the abortion bill."

The bill

Blaze News previously reported that in addition to codifying the legal right to sex-change mutilations and abortions without age or time limits, LD 227:

  • helps health care practitioners escape professional discipline and legal accountability for crimes related to sex-change procedures performed in and outside Maine;
  • authorizes persons targeted with criminal or administrative action to sue those seeking to hold them accountable;
  • requires insurance companies to cover sex-change procedures but not the health care needs of detransitioners;
  • effectively prevents law enforcement from reuniting parents with children who have run away or been taken to Maine for abortions or sex changes; and
  • allows virtually any adult to take a child across state lines for "gender-affirming care" even if the kid is not their own or is "incapacitated."

Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby confirmed that under LD 227, an individual could take a child "from another state against the parents' wishes" to Maine for sex-change procedures.

"And Maine law enforcement would have their hands tied. Maine judiciary would have their hands tied — would not be able to actually help return that child to their lawful parents," added Libby.

Lui previously told Blaze News, "This is the nastiest bill I've ever seen. Even worse than anything that I've seen come out of California. I never thought I would say that."

The opposition

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and 15 other state attorneys general, convinced the bill was animated by a "totalitarian impulse to stifle dissent and oppress dissenters," told Democratic Maine Gov. Janet Mills in a March 11 letter that LD 227 is unconstitutional and "seeks to contravene the lawful policy choices of our States' citizens by imposing on the rest of the country Maine's views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children."

The attorneys general indicated they would take action if the bill was passed and ratified. Now that federal battle is all but guaranteed.

Mary-Anne LaMarre, executive director of the Maine Sheriffs' Association, stressed to the committee members Thursday that LD 227 "has unanimous opposition of Maine Sheriff's Association's legislative policy committee."

LaMarre noted that the association was "unable to find anyone that was consulted on the language of the bill."

Maine law enforcement fully rejects this horrendous Transgender Trafficking bill, LD 227
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Courage Is a Habit, various individual parental rights advocates, and some critics of gender ideology, including All-American swim star Riley Gaines, rallied against LD 227 and attempted to focus pressure on the Democratic committee members who ultimately supported the legislation.

The result and response

The bill cleared committee in an 8-4 vote along party lines.

Sens. Donna Bailey (D) and Cameron Reny (D), along with Reps. Poppy Arford (D), Anne Perry (D), Sally Cluchey (D), Anne-Marie Mastraccio (D), Kristi Michele Mathieson (D), and Jane Pringle (D) voted in the affirmative.

It will now go to the state House floor for a vote.

Video of the vote, with all 8 Democrats voting for the revamped Trans Trafficking bill to pass committee
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Planned Parenthood, an incentivized champion of the legislation, celebrated the advancement of LD 227.

Lis Margulies, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood of Northern New England, said in a statement, "Mainers can be proud today that 8 elected leaders said loudly and clearly: We will protect our state's health care providers and access to care from extremist attack."

"We have seen over the past few weeks that people both inside and outside of our state who are opposed to this safe, legal medical care will not stop their attempts to take away our rights and freedoms, and the protections provide [sic] by LD 227 are a step forward in ensuring Maine's clinicians can continue offering safe, legal medical care without fear of hostile actions from out-of-state actors," added Margulies.

When previously blasting the state attorneys general for taking issue with LD 227, Planned Parenthood recycled the now-debunked suggestion that sex-change procedures amount to "life-saving medical care."

The LGBT outfit Equality Maine similarly was delighted by the result, calling it "great news."

LGBT activist Erin Reed, Montana Democratic state Rep. Zooey Zephyr's boyfriend, tweeted, "A huge number of people emailed the legislators to let them know that bomb threats and the 'terrorists veto' should not be respected in Maine. But the work isn't done for those seeking to make Maine a safe state for all."

Courage Is a Habit responded on X, writing, "This is an all out war on children."

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Lui told Blaze News that there are two big takeaways for Americans. First, it is important to recognize that gender ideologues are playing a "long game." Accordingly, they are not dissuaded by short-term losses. By the same token, conservative victories — such as the defeat of LD 1735 — cannot be taken for granted or treated as definitive.

Second, Lui indicated that while critical battles are fought at the legislative level, the bulk of the war against radical gender ideology is cultural and fought locally.

"It's a good reminder that people transform their culture. [Gender ideologues] will stop at nothing to come after your children — until the cult is completely dismantled, until they're sued into oblivion," said Lui. "The transgender social contagion begins at school with school counselors; pronouns; keeping things from parents; all the transgender propaganda within the culture of the school; the teachers; the social workers; equity policies."

"So if parents really want to dismantle the cult, to end the social contagion, [they have to do it] at the school level," said the parental rights advocate.

Lui further suggested that a failure to prevent the indoctrination of younger generations in schools will guarantee more victims for the "cult" and an uphill battle in legislatures around the country.

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Maine Democrats push 'totalitarian' rebuild of defeated 'transgender trafficking bill' — with national implications



Democratic lawmakers in Maine attempted to pass a radical bill earlier this year that threatened to allow the state to seize custody of children whose parents — both in and outside Maine — refused them sex-change mutilations and other irreversible medical interventions.

Following a successful pressure campaign led by the parental rights advocacy group Courage Is a Habit and some mild Republican pushback, LD 1735, dubbed the "transgender trafficking bill" by critics, was killed in committee.

Maine Democrats are evidently not finished with their apparent attempts to break up families, shield sex-change surgeons from consequence, and altogether codify gender ideology in the state. In fact, they have doubled down, rolling some of the most consequential elements of LD 1735 into a new bill, Democratic state Rep. Anne Perry's LD 227.

A state committee will consider whether to advance LD 227 Thursday, affording critics just one more day to make their opposition known and potentially stop the initiative in its tracks.

Overview

Courage Is a Habit president Alvin Lui told Blaze News, "This is the nastiest bill I've ever seen. Even worse than anything that I've seen come out of California. I never thought I would say that."

LD 227 — referred to by Lui and other critics as the "Transgender Trafficker Protection Act" — would prohibit "interference" with abortions or sex-change mutilations, protect medical practitioners from lawsuits, and conceal the known whereabouts of interstate child runaways from their parents, among other things.

Already 16 state attorneys general have threatened action against Maine if the bill passes, noting in a March 11 letter to Maine Gov. Janet Mills that LD 227 "seeks to contravene the lawful policy choices of our States' citizens by imposing on the rest of the country Maine's views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children."

Extra to underscoring the federal implications and unconstitutional nature of the bill, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and the other attorneys general suggested LD 227 is animated by a "totalitarian impulse to stifle dissent and oppress dissenters."

If passed and ratified, then the fates of LD 227 and the children it would victimize might ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. However, Courage Is a Habit has stressed that there is time left for Maine residents and other objectors to help sink it.

On Thursday, the following eight Democratic Maine lawmakers will determine whether to advance the bill in committee: Sens. Donna Bailey (D) and Cameron Reny (D), along with Reps. Poppy Arford (D), Anne Perry (D), Sally Cluchey (D), Anne-Marie Mastraccio (D), Kristi Michele Mathieson (D), and Jane Pringle (D).

Courage Is a Habit has created a simple form for individuals looking to share their thoughts about LD 227 with Maine lawmakers.

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'Transgender Trafficker Protection Act'

According to a recent draft of LD 227, the bill would apparently:

  • codify the legal right to sex-change mutilations and abortions without stipulating any age or time limits;
  • hinder efforts by states and persons to take legal action against health professionals involved in the facilitation or execution of sex-change medical interventions and abortions, apparently even in the case of medical malpractice;
  • spare health care practitioners from professional discipline based on crimes, civil actions, or convictions in other states for sex-change or abortion-related actions deemed acceptable in Maine;
  • authorize persons targeted with criminal or administrative action for their hand in "engaging in or for aiding and assisting legally protected health care activity" to "bring a civil action in this State for damages, punitive damages and equitable relief" — ostensibly meaning surgeons could sue detransitioners who bring malpractice suits;
  • prevent Maine law enforcement from notifying the parents of those child runaways said to be pursuing abortions or sex changes;
  • enable virtually any adult to take a child across state lines to Maine for "gender-affirming care" even if the child is not their own or "incapacitated"; and
  • prevent the arrest of persons "if the arrest is related to criminal liability that is based on legally protected health care activity or aiding and assisting legally protected health care activity."

"It's everything that LD 1735 was supposed to be, except it adds a bunch of other things," Lui told Blaze News.

For instance, Lui indicated LD 277 forces insurance companies to cover all sex-change procedures, but not the health care needs of detransitioners or therapy to resolve existing comorbidities before taking sterilizing sex-change drugs. It also "adds in protection for the transgender traffickers."

"So if somebody's blue-haired liberal aunt or some neighbor takes a child over to Maine, [the state] won't contact the parents — which was in the original transgender trafficking bill," continued Lui. "But now ... the parents can't sue. They can't say, 'Wait a minute, that adult has kidnapped my child to Maine so that they could get a surgery.'"

Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby recently confirmed that the blue-haired aunt from Lui's hypothetical who takes her "niece from another state against the parents' wishes would be allowed to do that. And Maine law enforcement would have their hands tied. Maine judiciary would have their hands tied — would not be able to actually help return that child to their lawful parents."

Libby emphasized that LD 227 is the "worst bill [she] has ever seen come through the legislature."

"The worst bill I have ever seen." \n\nRep. Laurel Libby expertly destroys the left-wing narratives regarding the revamped Transgender Trafficking bill.
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Federal implications and junk science

Attorney Joel Thornton, the COO and director of Advocacy for Child and Parental Rights Campaign, said LD 227 "is pretty outrageous as it extends the state's authority throughout the United States to protect what Maine is declaring to be the law in Maine, and effectively making it the law of the land to anyone who happens to be in Maine."

According to the letter from the opposed state attorneys general to Gov. Mills, "LD 227 not only purports to shield from liability those offering or aiding the provision of unlawful services to citizens located in our States — a provision Planned Parenthood asserts would 'safeguard' Maine providers and patients from 'out-of-state laws that ban or restrict care that is legal in Maine.'"

"The law also creates a private right of action for damages against law enforcement, prosecutors, and other officials in our States who are enforcing our own valid state laws, even laws whose constitutionality has been confirmed by federal appellate courts," continued the letter. "On top of that, LD 227 purports to block valid orders and judgments from our state courts enforcing laws upheld by federal appellate courts."

The attorneys general reduced Maine's proposed law as an unconstitutional and "novel effort at a state-sanctioned culture war litigation tourism."

Extra to likely running afoul of federal law, Lui highlighted how LD 227 relies on junk science, namely that given a gloss by the World Professional Association for Trangender Health.

The understanding of "gender-affirming health care" central to the legislation is, after all, defined in accordance with supposed expertise "in the field of gender-affirming care including in the Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People ... published by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health."

Blaze News recently noted that leaked internal documents reveal there are serious concerns behind closed doors at WPATH over the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of sex-change procedures as well as over the inability for children to provide informed consent for so-called "gender-affirming care."

The pseudo-scientific nature of "gender-affirming care" has become all the more clear in recent months:

  • England's National Health Service banned puberty blockers for minors, highlighting both their dangers and a dearth of evidence to support their efficacy.
  • Finland's leading child psychiatrist Riittakerttu Kaltiala told her government that the vast majority of kids will grow out of the delusion that their gender and sex are misaligned.
  • A massive Finnish studypublished in the esteemed quarterly journal BMJ Mental Health concluded that "medical gender reassignment does not have an impact on suicide risk."

Blaze News reached out to the sponsor of LD 277, Demoratic state Rep. Anne Perry, for comment. She did not, however, provide a response by deadline.

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