'Parental Rights' Is An Expression You Should ALWAYS Be Skeptical Of
It's even worse than I thought.
It’s been a while, but I have a new column up at Xtra Magazine on the history of “parental rights” movements. Obviously we’ve been hearing that phrase a lot when it comes to our schools, whether it’s over COVID safety policies, the accurate history of race in America (“critical race theory”), or any discussion about LGBTQ+ people’s existence — let alone their affirmation.
But I have to tell you, I learned a lot about these movements from writing this piece and it’s all even more disturbing than I realized. It’s to the extent that, honestly, if you ever hear someone invoke “parental rights,” you should immediately be on your guard. For over 100 years, “parental rights” have provided cover for some of the most insidious attempts to undermine public education and impose a white, conservative Christian agenda. That agenda, notably, has little respect for the rights of parents in any other kind of family!
I also think it’s important to note just how many angles this dangerous movement attacks from: laws banning books and topics in education, “school choice” vouchers that undermine public schools, homeschooling curriculums that indoctrinate, and attempts to takeover school boards. Recognizing the scope of these campaigns, it’s easy to see that this isn’t just a fight over how our young people are educated, but over democracy itself.
Click on through to Xtra to read the full piece. Here’s an excerpt:
Under the banner of parents rights, conservatives have been trying to block gender-affirming care for trans kids, any teaching in schools whatsoever about the existence of LGBTQ2S+ people and any accurate history lessons that might make white kids feel “uncomfortable” about the very real and brutal things white people have done over the past 500 years of North American colonization. They want schools to out their trans kids so they can reject them at home and they want their teachers to have to hide their queer and trans identities. These anti-diversity attempts to discriminate and whitewash history carry the hallmarks of not only bigotry, but also creeping fascism under the banner of Christian nationalism.
In some ways, we’re seeing a natural backlash against society’s growing acceptance of gender equality and LGBTQ2S+ identities. Conservatives are fighting to make sure schools only teach their espoused—if not practised—beliefs that sex should only be reserved for monogamous, heterosexual couples who marry, form nuclear families and conform to misogynist gender roles.
But the parental rights campaign is also emblematic of conservatives’ efforts to chip away at progress in seemingly benign ways. Their anti-abortion campaigns in the U.S., for example, included incremental limits on access to abortion, from requiring hospital-admitting privileges to particularly wide hallways to transvaginal ultrasounds. Individually, these changes didn’t ban abortion, but they did make accessing abortion harder until abortion was effectively banned in some states well before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Small cuts to LGBTQ2S+ inclusion or minor changes to history lessons can add up over time until there’s little left resembling the inclusive policies or accurate curricula that these conservatives object to.
I hope you’ll read and share the piece as you’re able.
In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out where I want to be in this media landscape. I’m still on the dumpster-fire we once knew as Twitter, but I’m increasingly finding Bluesky to be its worthy successor (and yes, I have some invites). I’m also continuing to try to engage on TikTok and build my audience there. Come give me a follow won’t you?
Until next time, stay platinum.