For many years, progressives and assorted leftists have been threatening (and pursuing) law suits against schools, cities and towns, and cemeteries and memorials in an attempt to remove all evidence of religious faith from the public sphere.
The result has been a series of knee-jerk reactions by scared administrators who’ve preemptively banned prayer at senior centers or who’ve barricaded a mall Santa in a “glacier display.” The list is long (and silly, note the ban on the colors red and green).
The right has been slow to respond, but there are groups who are fighting fire with fire. According to the Cap Times, a local publication in Madison, Wisconsin, a school has canceled the reading of a transgender book to elementary school students. This decision was taken after the Liberty Counsel weighed in and threatened to take action.
The Cap Times reports:
On Monday, students at Mount Horeb Primary Center were scheduled to read and discuss “I Am Jazz,” a children’s book about a transgender girl. A letter was sent out to parents notifying them of the scheduled reading on Nov. 19th. The note, signed by the principal, school psychologist and a counselor, said that the school was working with a student that identifies as a girl but has male anatomy.”We believe all students deserve respect and support regardless of their gender identity and expression, and the best way to foster that respect and support is through educating students about the issue of being transgender,” the note reads.”It is our primary responsibility to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students,” the note says. “Please let us know if you have concerns about your child participating in this discussion; we respect the beliefs and convictions of all families.”
But the reading was cancelled [sic] after “concerned parents” contacted the Liberty Counsel, which threatened a lawsuit if the book was read to students, claiming it would be “a violation of parental rights.”The Florida-based group describes itself as a “non-profit litigation, education and policy organization with an emphasis on religious liberty issues.” The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Liberty Counsel as a hate group that advocates for “anti-LGBT discrimination, under the guise of religious liberty.”In a letter to the school district, the Liberty Counsel points out parents only had one business day’s notice of the reading, which “appears designed to catch parents off-guard.”
Also worth noting is the mention that the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the Liberty Counsel as a “hate group.” Considering SPLC’s shaky record on identifying hate groups and individuals, this designation is suspect.
Indeed, the Liberty Counsel is, as of this writing, the featured “hate group” on SPLC’s website.
Here is part of Liberty Counsel’s statement about this win:
On Friday a parent called Liberty Counsel after she received notice that the school planned to read I am Jazz by LGBT activist Jessica Herthel.“Jazz” Jennings (seen in this video discussing the book) is a gender-confused male, who has been permitted to undergo harmful gender reassignment drug therapy and hormone blockers, resulting in permanent physical changes to his body.I am Jazz is not only misleading, it is wholly inappropriate and disturbing. Transgender education substitutes the beliefs of the principal and school psychologist for those of parents. Bringing transgender activism into schools undermines the privacy rights of students, the free speech rights of teachers who cannot in good conscience address a child by the opposite sex pronoun, and the religious rights of families.
Watch the Liberty Counsel discuss a separate case in which a class assignment forced students to cross-dress and keep a diary of their feelings about it:
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