Who do children most fundamentally belong to? And who gets to make the key decisions that shape their upbringing and care?
Until recently, the vast consensus of American law and culture would have answered: parents. Yet today, a growing number of schools and government officials seem to think they know what is best for children. And they are increasingly boxing out parents in an effort to impose their own agendas on the next generation. That’s why a newly introduced bill in Congress, the Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act, is so needed.
We see the problem, for instance, in the teaching of critical race theory, which often pits children against the views of their parents. We see it in graphic sex education content and the refusal to let kids opt out of instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. But perhaps most disturbingly, we see it in the rising number of public schools that are pushing children down the path of gender confusion behind their parents’ backs.
Enter the Kettle Moraine School District in Wisconsin. There, school officials insisted that teachers and staff address a 12-year-old girl with a male name and pronouns. When the girl’s parents found out and demanded they stop, the school refused. The parents were forced to move their daughter to a different school to protect her mental health. My organization, Alliance Defending Freedom, joined with the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty to represent them and successfully defended their parental rights in court. Yet this victory is now on a collision course with a pending policy from the Biden administration, which will threaten rights of parents nationwide.
Currently, the U.S. Department of Education is preparing to redefine “sex,” for purposes of Title IX protection, to include “gender identity.” This would twist the original meaning of Title IX—which protects women based on sex—to protect subjective feelings about gender with the full force of federal law. The disastrous effects of this would be felt across American life—in women’s sports, locker rooms, bathrooms, and beyond.
But in addition, this policy would pose a direct threat to children and the rights of parents. Specifically, it would create intimidating pressure on schools to treat gender-confused kids as the opposite sex without telling their parents, just as happened in Wisconsin. If left unchecked, it could impact millions of children and their families nationwide.
Thankfully, members of Congress are pushing back on the administration and standing up for parents. On Jan. 10, Sens. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) introduced FRRA. This bill would do for parental rights what the Religious Freedom Restoration Act did for religious liberty a generation ago. It would require courts to apply the strictest level of legal scrutiny to federal policies that burden the rights of parents—ensuring that parental rights are treated as top-tier rights, just like freedom of speech and religion.
This clarity is much needed, especially since some federal courts have failed to uphold parental rights in the face of government intrusion. It is also necessary to allow parents to inject common sense into the gender debate, which has been hijacked by extreme activists who have little regard for science.
The latest medical research indicates that aggressive, experimental interventions are poorly advised for children with gender dysphoria. In Europe, where these practices were first pioneered, extensive reviews of all the available science have concluded that the harms of these interventions far outweigh the benefits. Research also indicates that, of the kids who experience gender dysphoria before puberty, the vast majority (61 to 98 percent) grow out of it if they are not pushed to “transition.” In response to the mounting evidence, the governments of Sweden, Finland, and the UK have restricted these procedures.
And yet gender activists in America remain undeterred by the science. When parents struggle with how to help their child who is experiencing gender dysphoria, it is all too common for activists and even doctors to give them a false choice: either let your child “transition” or be complicit if they commit suicide.
Parents are getting fed up with this ideological approach and are demanding the right to protect their kids. That is why a broad coalition of over 40 parent, community, and policy organizations have united behind the bill that Scott, Lankford and Foxx introduced. These groups are demanding government accountability, school choice and transparency, in line with the Promise to America’s Parents. Congress should heed their call by passing FRRA.
Despite what the administration may believe, children are not creatures of the state. They belong, most fundamentally, to their parents and families—the people who love and sacrifice for them in ways no school or bureaucrat ever could. The family is, after all, society’s first institution. It’s where we learn the values that shape our lives, and where we experience love, nurture, and discipline in the most intimate, hands-on setting. It is also where we learn responsibility toward others, which makes the family the cornerstone of healthy communities—the place where citizens are made.
Any government that values its own nation’s future must respect the integrity of the family. And America’s parents expect nothing less.
Kristen Waggoner is CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. Follow Kristen on Twitter @KWaggonerADF or follow ADF @ADFLegal.