Parental Rights vs. Gender Ideology: The Battle for America's Schools

The American education system has become ground zero for our nation's most heated cultural battles. From religious expression to gender identity policies, the classroom is now where opposing worldviews clash with mounting consequences for families.

Colorado's proposed "Kelly Love Act" represents a troubling development for parental rights advocates. This legislation would allow courts to consider "deadnaming" or "misgendering" as forms of "coercive control" during child custody disputes. The implications are stark: parents who refuse to affirm a child's chosen gender identity could potentially lose custody rights. A Trump administration spokesman has already declared opposition, stating they "will not tolerate" such infringements on parental authority. The fundamental question emerges: who ultimately decides what's best for children—parents or government officials?

Meanwhile, Alabama is charting an entirely different course. The state House recently passed legislation requiring the Ten Commandments to be prominently displayed in public school entrances, classrooms teaching civics or history, and other common areas. With an overwhelming 88-11 vote, House Bill 178 passed alongside companion measures banning drag shows, prohibiting pride flags in classrooms, and preventing staff from using pronouns inconsistent with students' biological sex. Representative Mark Gidley framed the legislation as "returning foundational principles to schools."

We also explore the case of Parker Jensen, an 18-year-old Marine Corps enlistee from Maryland who was suspended after advocating for American flag displays in classrooms as required by state law. His subsequent lawsuit against Baltimore County Public Schools highlights how even seemingly straightforward patriotic expression has become contentious in today's educational environment.

These stories reveal the profound tensions shaping American education today. Share your thoughts on these developments and join the conversation about where we should draw the line between parental authority, student expression, and government oversight in our schools.

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Liberty Line each week on Sunday, look for topics on my X file @americanistblog and submit your 1-3 audio opinions to anamericanistblog@gmail.com and you'll be featured on the podcast. 

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Chapters

• 0:29 Morning introduction in rainy Alabama
• 0:57 Trump admin on parental rights
• 5:03 Alabama passes Ten Commandments bill
• 6:20 Marine hopeful suspended over flag controversy
• 8:24 Question of the day: favorite junk food

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:15

Well, hello, good morning, happy Thursday, no, yeah. Oh, my gosh, I don't even know what day it is. It is Thursday, welcome. It's raining again here in Alabama. I don't know if you can hear it or not in the background because, kenny, I'm in my car recording on my iPhone. Hey, okay, we have two things I want to talk about, and both of these stories are from Life site news instead of the new york post. Uh, go check that out, kenny.

Speaker 1: 0:43

So we have a trump admin. We will not tolerate states using gender ideology to strip parental rights. Well, we'll see. I think the supreme court is supposed to rule. Well, not necessarily that, but the parents in the Supreme Court thing about LGBTQ books want the option to be able to not allow their kids to come to school or participate in that kind of thing when it happens. So we'll see. I don't know if they've ruled on that yet or not. So here we go with. The trump administration spokesman said it will not tolerate infringements on parental rights, such as a proposal in colorado to make misgendering potential grounds to remove children in custody disputes. Wow, bear with me while I read this next paragraph or two, because it gets convoluted with legal talk, and you know they use way too many words, Then they have to, and so you get lost in the pattern. All right, here we go. Bear with me, named after a victim of the 2022 Club Q nightclub shooting perpetrated by non-binary anderson aldrich.

Speaker 1: 2:02

The kelly love act would establish that, when making child custody decisions and determining the best interest of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider dead naming, misgendering or threatening to publish material related to an individual's so-called gender-affirming health care services as types of coercive control. A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interest of the child. Now, I don't know what that means. In accordance with the best interest of the child? Now, I don't know what that means. Are they saying that that's for the parent that doesn't want the gender-affirming care, or is it for the parent who is pushing it? It's confusing to me. Maybe you smarter people out there can figure that out. I don't know. Let's see. It would also ban states courts from applying or giving any force or effect to another state's law that authorizes a state agency to remove a child from a child.

Speaker 1: 3:08

First of all, we're even talking about this. Crap is nonsense. It's. Why are we even talking about this? Why are we even talking about this?

Speaker 1: 3:16

This is, the person who wants their child to transition should be taken to jail for child abuse. Of course. Go through the court system and all that, have a trial, whatever. But the parent who is wanting to mutilate their child is child abuse. Why are we not doing that? Why are we not doing that? It's a basic, simple question Are there not laws out there against child abuse?

Speaker 1: 3:52

Are there not? Surely there are laws out there for child abuse. This could be. This is considered child abuse. I would think it's pretty common sense. You want to have your child, force your child to go through these surgeries to remove their genitals or make something there that's not, and put them on puberty puberty blockers. Y'all is raining hard now I'm sure you can hear it. Um, it's just asinine. So I put that out up there on my x file if you would like to go read it. Try to make some sense out of it, because I'm not sure what that means. Maybe further down in the article it explains what they're talking about. But the next topic I want to talk about, also from live site news alabama stepping it up alabama house passes bills mandating 10 commandments and banning pride flags in public schools.

Speaker 1: 4:49

Hallelujah, the alabama house of representatives passed a bill requiring k through 12 public schools to pronounce to prominently display the Ten Commandments in entranceways, in classrooms where US history and civics are taught and in other common areas. Thank you, I remember when this all happened, when they wanted to remove all of them, not just from schools but courthouses and everything else At the same time. The bill bans drag shows, forbid teachers from displaying pride flags in their classrooms and prohibit staff from using pronouns inconsistent with students. Biological sex were also passed. Thank you, hallelujah, praise the lord house bill hb 178, sponsored by representative mark gidley, passed with overwhelming approval 88 to 11.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Y'all get on x. Thank him for that, please, mark gidley. I'm sure he might. I'm sure he's on x. They're all on x, right? This is about returning foundational principles to schools to be taught. Gidley said I'm going to skip over all that other stuff. So I just hallelujah, praise the Lord, and I mean that sincerely.

Speaker 1: 6:00

Finally some common sense somewhere. All right, what else we got going on? All right? How about this story? Right here, a Maryland school suspends Marine Hopeful after American flag law controversy. The Baltimore County Public Schools system has allegedly did they suspend him, or not Enough with this allegedly Suspended a high school student after he pushed his school to hang American flags in two of his classrooms that did not have the flags displayed as required by law. All right, got that Required by law.

Speaker 1: 6:43

Parker Jensen, an 18-year-old Marine Corps enlistee, has since sued the school district, arguing he was wrongfully suspended for voicing his concerns about the flags at Towson High School north of Baltimore about the flags at Towson High School north of Baltimore. So I would say so If he was suspended for that and it was required by law to have the flags in the classrooms and he was inquiring about it and they suspended him, yeah, you're damn right, I'd sue him. The flags were missing from two of the classrooms and he approached the Baltimore Board of Education about the issue. He really thought there'd be something that could be resolved easily and he was looking forward to finishing out his senior year. Jensen's attorney, sarah Spitelnick, told Fox News Digital he's definitely discouraged by the school, took this route in a way that retaliates and punished him.

Speaker 1: 7:39

Blah, blah, blah. What do you think about that? That you can go on and read the rest of that story too, if you'd like, uh, new york post, um. But we need to get to the question of the day. All right, I'm gonna make it easy. What is your favorite go-to junk food, if you have? If you have any, what is your guilty pleasure with food when you're down, depressed, whatever I'm sure none of y'all are down and depressed, but when you crave something junky for food, what is it that you reach for? That's the question of the day. All right, thanks for listening. Gotta go Love y'all. Have a great day, bye.