MADISON, Wis. (ChurchMilitant.com) – Wisconsin’s high court has agreed to hear a parental-rights case involving a school district’s so-called transgender policy.
Deputy Counsel Luke Berg
Parents are suing the Madison Metropolitan School District over its policy of concealing from parents their child’s choice to “change genders.”
“We are pleased the Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to hear this important case,” announced Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty deputy counsel Luke Berg.
“The Madison Metropolitan School District cannot make decisions reserved for parents,” he stressed.
The school district issued its Guidance & Policies to Support Transgender, Non-binary & Gender Expansive Students in 2018. The guide exhorts school officials to assist students with “gender transitions” and prohibits parental notification without the child’s consent.
The document also specifies students are to be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns, with or without parents’ permission. The 30-plus page guide instructs that, when there are overnight field trips, gender-confused students “have the right to room with other students who share the gender identity they consistently assert at school.”
The Christian nonprofit legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom — along with WILL — filed Doe v. MMSD in February 2020. The Wisconsin Supreme Court will review a September 2020 partial injunction against the contentious policy.
Sen. Tom Cotton
As ADF and WILL fight for parents’ rights in court, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., plans a fight from the Senate floor to stem public schools’ overreach.
Cotton introduced legislation in October that would require elementary and secondary schools “that receive federal funds to obtain parental consent before facilitating a child’s gender transition in any form, and for other purposes.”
Collegiate Policy: North Dakota
Transgender policies — which erode parental rights and oppose Christian convictions — are infiltrating all levels of America’s education systems.
At a town hall meeting Tuesday, the mayor of Grand Forks, North Dakota, apologized for speaking out on social media against the University of North Dakota’s recently proposed LGBTQ+ policy.
Mayor Brandon Bochenski called the words he shared on Facebook “unduly harsh.” His social media post read: “In Grand Forks, North Dakota, we treat everyone with respect, dignity and civility. This exact statement is already in the UND Code of Student Life and a cornerstone of our Christian faith.”
He added:
This proposal by our beloved university spits in the face of everything we believe in. Compelling speech and forcing an ideology on our students, our children and our community is abhorrent. Is it possible for a university to focus on academic rigor and preparing our youth to enter the workforce with the skills of adulthood?! A sad day for my alma mater.
Accompanying his post was a letter from the North Dakota Catholic Conference, which Bochenski claimed to wholeheartedly support. The letter, dated Jan. 10, called on parents of UND students to persuade administrators to reject the university’s proposed policy.
The letter stated in part:
As you and your child consider prospective higher educational opportunities, we urge you to examine the campus enviroment and whether it is conducive or hostile to not only the Catholic faith but also the truth about the human person. Unfortunately, colleges and universities across the nation are enacting policies that not only impose flawed ideologies on students but also restrict their rights to free speech and religion.
The proposed policy at UND would require “campus-wide use of preferred pronouns” and insists students and faculty embrace students’ self-proclaimed gender identity and reject the existence of only two genders. The woke guidance would be imposed on all students, staff and campus visitors.
The Catholic Conference’s letter, signed by executive director Christopher Dodson, revealed that UND’s policy would allow men who say they identify as female to be assigned to dorm rooms with biological women.
At least one teacher successfully fought and won a legal battle that tried to compel him to use biologically incorrect pronouns at the request of students.
Policy Wreaking Havoc: Virginia
In October, a judge in Virginia found a skirt-wearing teenage male guilty of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old female classmate in a high school bathroom. The mother of the boy later revealed her son identifies as male and is a hormonal teen who just wanted sex. The boy was allowed access to girls’ bathrooms after Loudoun County Public Schools last year adopted Policy 8040, which requires teachers to address students by their preferred pronouns and allows students to use the restroom associated with their gender identity.
At least one archdiocese in the Midwest is taking action to quell issues that inherently arise from gender confusion. The archdiocese of Milwaukee has drafted a document titled “Catechesis and Policy on Questions Concerning Gender Theory.” It opens by quoting John 8:32 (“The truth will set you free”) and reminds readers that Christians are to “embrace the truth of who we are as children of God.”
The four-page policy, intended for use by “church employees, personnel, volunteers and those entrusted to the care of the Church” within the archdiocese, requires that, as a general rule, only a person’s biological sex is to be recognized. No person is to use a “preferred pronoun” in speech or writing.
The archdiocese’s policy, not yet publicly available, was leaked Wednesday on Twitter by pro-gay Jesuit Fr. James Martin.
Even in America’s Midwest, once known as a bastion of traditional Christian values, the fundamental right for parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children, is being opposed in schools and other institutions — many of which are working hard to leave parents in the dark.