On Monday Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) filed S.B. 43 prohibiting drag performances on public property or in view of children.
The bill effectively would prevent drag shows at public libraries, public schools, or anywhere else where children might be.
Over the past few years public schools, colleges, and libraries in Arkansas have scheduled drag performances — including performances intended for children. Some of these events have been canceled following public backlash.
At public libraries in particular there has been a push to let men dressed up as exaggerated, hyper-sexualized caricatures of women read books to children. In some parts of the country events like these have exposed children and families to sexual predators.
Drag shows should not take place on public property or anywhere near children. S.B. 43 would protect children from these performances.
Phyllis Schafly, founder of Eagle Forum, was a longtime opponent of the federal Equal Rights Amendment.
On Wednesday a three-judge panel for the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed a lawsuit attempting to enact the federal Equal Rights Amendment.
The federal Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) would amend the U.S. Constitution. The amendment reads, “Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.”
Congress referred the amendment to the state legislatures for ratification in 1972, agreeing to add the amendment to the constitution if 38 states ratified it by 1979. However, only 35 state legislatures ratified the Equal Rights Amendment by the deadline, and five states that ratified the amendment later revoked their ratifications.
The Equal Rights Amendment is intended to prevent discrimination on the basis of sex, but the way it is worded could cause it to have a number of unintended consequences.
The ERA arguably would erase all distinctions between men and women in federal law.
That could affect everything from college fraternities and sororities at public universities to how men and women are housed in federal prisons to labor laws that protect women in the workplace to girls’ and boys’ athletics at public schools.
States that have enacted measures similar to the ERA have even been forced to pay for abortions with taxpayer funds.In a 2019 letter, the ACLU told Congress that “the Equal Rights Amendment could provide an additional layer of protection against restrictions on abortion.”
It’s important for men and women to have equal rights under the law, but the ERA simply carries too many unintended consequences.
That’s why major groups like National Right to Life, Concerned Women for America, and Eagle Forum oppose the federal Equal Rights Amendment.
That’s why Family Council has opposed efforts to ratify the ERA in Arkansas as well.
And that’s why it’s good to see federal courts dismissing efforts to implement the federal Equal Rights Amendment.
On Thursday President Biden’s U.S. Department of Justice filed a statement of interest opposing Arkansas’ Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act in federal court.
The SAFE Act is a 2021 law that protects children in Arkansas from sex-reassignment procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones.
The DOJ’s statement filed on Thursday calls sex-reassignment procedures “life-saving care” and argues that the SAFE Act violates the U.S. Constitution.
The brief also claims that Arkansas’ reasons for supporting the SAFE Act are “mere pretext for animus against transgender minors” — in other words, that Arkansas’ policymakers must secretly be motivated by hate instead of a desire to help children.
But as we have said time and time again, researchers do not know the long term effects puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones can have on kids.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has never approved puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for the purpose of gender transition. Doctors are giving these hormones to kids off-label, in a manner the FDA never intended.
That is why many experts agree that giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children is experimental, at best.
It is deeply disappointing that the federal government would use taxpayer dollars to oppose a law that protects children from experimentation. Fortunately, Arkansas’ Attorney General’s office is fighting back, and we believe that federal courts will uphold this good law.
