This week, lawmakers in Louisiana advanced two pieces of legislation to protect children from sexual orientation and gender ideology curriculum and to protect parents’ rights in the child’s education.
According to Fox News, the legislation banning classroom lessons on gender identity, H.B. 466, was passed by the House Education Committee in a 7-5 vote on Wednesday. It now heads to the full House for a vote.
Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton, who authored the bill, said that it has “nothing to do with someone’s personal lifestyle,” but that it was created to “protect all children.” Horton reportedly said that the Republican supermajority in the House and Senate could override a veto from Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.
Additionally, Republican lawmakers advanced H.B. 81, a measure that would allow teachers to address students by the pronouns that align with their biological sex rather than their gender identity.
Republican state Rep. Raymond Crews, who created the bill, reportedly said that it is meant to “solidify and identify parents’ rights to raise children” and stop politicization at schools.
Opponents of the bills argue that they are similar to Florida’s Parental Rights in Education legislation, dubbed by the left as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Last fall, Townhall covered how a federal judge refused to block the law after leftist parents and organizations challenged it. Polls covered by Townhall showed that the majority of Americans supported Florida’s law.
According to WWL, as of March, there have been at least 30 proposals similar to Florida’s law, filed in 16 different states, including Alabama, Arkansas, and Kentucky. And, many states are moving forward with legislation protecting women’s sports from transgender athletes and protecting women’s spaces, like locker rooms and restrooms, from transgender students.
Since Biden took office, several school districts have been ousted for keeping parents in the dark about their child’s “social” gender transitions at school. This includes going by a chosen name and preferred pronouns that align with a student’s gender identity rather than their biological sex. As Townhall has covered, school districts in Virginia, Kansas, and California were exposed for concealing this information from parents. And last year, Republican Sen. Tim Scott (SC) introduced legislation that would prevent schools from hiding information about a student’s gender identity from their parents.
“These schools are sabotaging the parent-child relationship and encouraging children to keep secrets from the adults who are charged with protecting and defending them – their parents,” the bill said. “Children do best when their parents are actively involved in their education.”
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