There's a national conversation occurring right now about the role of parents in the lives of their children—specifically, the role a parent has in critical decisions regarding their child's sexuality and gender identity.
In Virginia, a bill is being debated right now that would compel teachers and administrators to disclose to parents if their child is identifying as a different gender from their birth while at school. Critics call this a forced outing. I discussed it in this space last week in detail.
This is an issue that should be completely non-partisan and not even worthy of debate. So, of course, because woke Democrat lawmakers are involved, it has become highly partisan and a heated debate.
When most observers contemplate this issue and engage in the emotional discussion that inevitably ensues, one's perspective will naturally gravitate toward either the parent who would like to know what's going on with their child when they're at school or that of the child who might wish to keep certain secrets from their parents.
Lost in this discussion is the role of the teacher.
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The most outspoken representatives of the education class will advocate for secrecy to prevail. They believe they are the only adults who can be trusted with such things and that the parent inevitably is a judgmental abuser who will force their child to suicide rather than compassionately deal with their gender identity issues.
But suppose you think this policy through, a habit not often associated with left-wing advocates. In that case, you'll realize the position of the Democrats and the professional educators who are on the side of secrecy or really on the side of deception.
In short, their position is for teachers to be compelled to lie to keep their jobs.
Read that sentence again.
The position of the Democratic Party on this vital issue involving adolescent and pre-adolescent children is to force teachers to lie to parents in order to keep their jobs.
In California, a teacher just lost her job because she refused to lie to a parent about this very issue:
A California teacher, who lost her job after refusing to comply with a California district's gender policies, citing Christian beliefs, is blowing the whistle on the expectations she felt as a teacher to not only hide students' gender transitions from parents, but also to keep them in the dark through lying.
"I knew immediately, like in my gut, in my heart, in my soul, that there was a decision I had to make because, you know, these two things were totally butting heads," Jessica Tapia, who worked at the Jurupa Unified School District, told Fox News Digital. "I essentially had to pick one. Am I going to obey the district in the directive that are not lining up with… my own beliefs, convictions and faith? Or am I going to stay true…, choose my faith, choose to be obedient to… the way the Lord has called me to live. And so it was crazy to be in the position where I realized that I couldn't be a Christian and a teacher."
For anyone advocating for the teacher, school counselor, or school administrator to keep sexual and gender identity secrets with a child secret from their parents, they need to recognize exactly the scenario they are creating.
Say a parent recognizes that their child is going through something in their life. They're not sure what it is, but they know that they're not the same. They're behaving strangely around the house. They're concerned. So they call their child's teacher.
"I've noticed that Jane is not herself lately. She is secretive, she dresses differently, and she's very moody. Please, tell me, have you noticed anything at school? Is there anything going on that I should know about?"
Now, what is the teacher supposed to do at this moment? According to the Democrats and the policy that they're promoting, they want the teacher to tell this parent, this concerned parent, this parent who is doing all the right things and trying to find out what's going on with their child, the Democrats want this teacher to lie. They want this teacher to tell the parent that everything's fine and there's nothing going on that they should know about.
And if the teacher doesn't feel comfortable lying to a parent about something so serious, they are fired.
Now, if you listen to the left, this entire issue comes down to forced outing and eventual suicide for the adolescent child who chooses to out themselves to their school but stays in the closet to their parents. And I suppose from a 12-year-old's perspective, that's all that matters.
But what if you're a teacher? What if you actually care about the child's future? What if you think, in your judgment, that the parent should know about this?
Too bad. You will lie, and you will deceive, or you will be out of a job.
Now, we're used to electing officials lying, and we're used to government workers lying, and we're certainly used to Democrats lying, but this may be the first time in American history that the party is advocating that their lies be instituted as policy for government workers going forward.
There's a lot at stake in this issue, and it all comes down to one very important value: the truth.
What side are you on?
