Family Council Joins Amicus Brief Urging SCOTUS to Address School Gender Transition Case
On Thursday, Family Council joined an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case over a Massachusetts school that helped an eleven-year old girl “socially transition” genders without her parents’ knowledge.
Our friends at Alliance Defending Freedom have discuss this case repeatedly, writing,
During the 2020-21 school year, a 6th-grade girl in Ludlow, Massachusetts, shared with a teacher that she had told a friend she ‘likes girls,’ was experiencing low self-esteem and depression, and needed help. The teacher shared these concerns with the girl’s mother, and both agreed to work together to help her. The student’s parents promptly got their daughter a therapist, informed the school she was getting professional help, and expressly directed school staff to have no further private conversations with their daughter about her mental health issues. But when the student sent an email to teachers and counselors informing them that she now identified as “genderqueer” and wanted to be addressed by a new name and a new list of pronouns, they began doing so without informing the student’s parents or asking for their consent. The parents found out and asked the district to stop, but it refused. The parents filed a lawsuit challenging the school district’s clear violation of their parental rights, and Alliance Defending Freedom filed an amicus brief in their support at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit. Unfortunately, the 1st Circuit failed to protect parental rights.
Family Council joined a coalition of 50 organizations in an amicus brief by Advancing American Freedom on Thursday. The brief urges the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the parents’ lawsuit against the school.
The brief also argues that parental rights are essential and that schools should respect them.
Over the years, we have seen pro-LGBT activists use public schools to promote transgender ideology to kids in many different ways — but policymakers have pushed back.
In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 461 to prevent male athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.
That same year, lawmakers passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act generally prohibiting doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. That law has since been upheld in federal court.
In 2023, Arkansas lawmakers passed Act 317 to protect privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities by requiring public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use.
Legislators also passed Act 274 of 2023 letting a child who undergoes a sex-change procedure sue the healthcare provider who performed the procedure if the child suffers any injury as a result.
In 2023, the Arkansas Legislature passed the LEARNS Act overhauling public education in Arkansas, prohibiting critical race theory in public schools, and protecting young elementary school children from inappropriate sexual material in the classroom.
This year legislators passed Act 955 by Sen. Blake Johnson (R — Corning) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R — Perryville) protecting physical privacy and safety of Arkansans in showers, locker rooms, changing rooms, restrooms, and sleeping quarters in government buildings, jails, and in shelters for victims of domestic violence.
Taken together, all of these good laws protect children at school and elsewhere around the state. Public school students should not be taught to question their sexual-orientation or their gender, and schools should not lie to parents about what their children are learning at school.
Family Council is pleased to take a stand for parental rights in federal court. We hope the U.S. Supreme Court will take up this case.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
