Wyoming bans LGBT indoctrination, ‘social transitioning’ in schools without parents’ consent

CHEYENNE, Wyoming (LifeSiteNews) – Educators in Wyoming may no longer teach children about sexual orientation or gender identity without parental consent or withhold from parents signs that their child is struggling with gender confusion thanks to a new law Republican Gov. Mark Gordon objected to yet ultimately declined to veto.

(Article by Calvin Freiburger republished from LifeSiteNews.com)

SF0009 states that school districts in the state must “notify a student’s parent or guardian as soon as practicable if there is a change in the student’s educational, physical, mental or emotional health or well?being,” respect parents’ “fundamental right” to “make decisions regarding the care and control of their children” and receive “written or electronic permission” from parents or guardians prior to “any trainings, courses or classes that address sexual orientation or gender identity.” It also prohibits schools from denying parents access to any of “their student’s education, behavior, health and other records within a reasonable time.”

The bill cleared both chambers of the Wyoming Legislature by overwhelming margins, and the Cowboy State Daily reported that Gordon opted to let the bill become law without either his signature or a veto while writing a letter to Republican state Senate President Ogden Driskill expressing that he “struggle(s) to see what additional value this bill brings for an individual parent and their child,” and thinks the new law “further burdens public schools.”

He argued that state law, federal law, and local education policy already suffices to “broadly protect the rights of parents,” and that a new state law would interfere with local autonomy.

Republican state Sen. Charles Scott, co-chair of the committee that drafted the law, responded that existing law is not sufficing to prevent real-world cases of schools running roughshod over parents’ rights. “If current law handles it, there’s too many school districts that haven’t got the word,” he said. “If the governor thinks the current laws are adequate, he’s got to explain why the school districts aren’t paying attention to them.”

Supporters of the legislation cited the recent case in which Sweetwater County School District No. 1 allegedly helped a confused girl “socially transition” into a male identity without informing her parents. Republicans say other such cases have been reported in Laramie County School District 1. “We see it in some of the districts tolerating indoctrination on some pretty sensitive issues,” Scott said.

“This is just one more issue the governor seems to have his head in the sand on. He is clearly out of touch with Wyoming citizens,” said Republican state Sen. Cheri Steinmetz. Republican state Sen. Evie Brennan added that Gordon “seems to believe this notion that school board members and teachers know how to raise our children better than parents do. This is simply not true.”

The indoctrination of children with left-wing ideology on sexuality and other left-wing agenda items has long been a major concern in American public schools, from libraries to athletic and restroom policy to drag events to classroom materials to even socially “transitioning” troubled children without parental input. The influential American Library Association, currently helmed by a self-described “Marxist lesbian,” opposes denying children access to age-inappropriate materials.

A significant body of evidence shows that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them, or full knowledge about the long-term effects of life-altering, physically transformative, and often-irreversible surgical and chemical procedures.

The danger of keeping parents in the dark about such situations is grimly illustrated in the story of Yaeli Martinez, a 19-year-old to whom “gender transitioning” was touted as a possible cure for her depression in high school, supported by a high school counselor who withheld what she was going through from her mother. The troubled girl killed herself after trying to live as a man for three years.

Read more at: LifeSiteNews.com