Action needed to protect free speech for teachers and students
The Trump Administration has issued a memo directing that civil rights investigations be launched against schools that don’t enforce the use of “preferred pronouns” of transgender students.
This federal pressure means that schools are likely to force teachers and students to refer to a boy as a “she” or refer to a “gender-neutral” person as a ze or a zir.
This comes as something of a surprise, given that the Trump Administration earlier reversed President Obama’s edict requiring schools to open up bathrooms based on gender identity.
But perhaps the directive shouldn’t have come as a big surprise. The person who issued the memo, Candice Jackson, is the acting director of the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education. Given that she was appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – who has been attacked mercilessly by the Left – some may assume that Jackson is a pro-family conservative.
Yet Jackson, who has been in a same-sex marriage for more than ten years, is known for her vocal support of the LGBT movement. In January, she tweeted an article about the gay community getting an ally in Trump, adding the comment: “Reasonable LGBT citizens (as opposed to the militant leftwing LGBT movement) have reason to cheer POTUS Trump; he’s shifting the GOP.”
Regardless of the motivations, though, this directive poses a serious threat to the free speech and religious liberty of students, teachers and school administrators. After all, the Bible is clear that God created every child as a male or female. And science confirms that sex is identified not merely by genitalia, but by every cell of the human body.
But if this directive is not altered, Jackson and her army of over 550 investigators and support staff will have free rein to investigate and punish schools for allowing teachers and students to use speech that conforms with both science and their deeply held religious convictions.
And in the process, they will be using the power of compulsory speech to ingrain within this generation of young people the very uncommon-sense notion that people can change their sex.
Please speak up now – before our kids can no longer speak the common-sense truth.
TAKE ACTION: Click here to quickly send a message to Secretary DeVos – along with President Trump and Vice President Pence – asking that this directive be rescinded or altered to protect the free speech and religious liberty of all Americans.
