FEAR!

There is a political cartoon going around by George Takei that hits the nail on its head. And fear is alive and well in Mount Horeb Wisconsin.

Mount Horeb school cancels reading of transgender book after lawsuit threat
By Ogechi Emechebe
The Capital Times
November 27, 2015

Around the same time a bill proposing restrictions on school bathrooms for transgender students prompted an emotional public hearing in an Assembly committee last week, one Dane County school made an effort to be more inclusive of a transgender student.


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."

Yes they wanted to do the right thing… educate the students. But then hate fear and ignorance got in the way. The parents contacted Liberty Counsel and filed a lawsuit to block the reading.

But the reading was cancelled 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."

And the school backs off doing the right thing.

You might remember Liberty Counsel they were the ones who represented the Rowan County, Kentucky court clerk Kim Davis. They were also here in Connecticut when Enfield wanted to hold their high school graduation in a church.

The Christian far right news agency World News Daily had this to say about the lawsuit,

Further, the team of lawyers at Liberty Counsel told the district its plan to support a student with gender confusion by requiring students to call a boy “her” and “she” … “infringes upon the other students’ rights to tell the truth, in accordance with their religious convictions, and reality.”

“No one has a moral right to compel others to participate in a fiction (including compelling teachers and others to use pronouns that do not correspond to objective biological sex),” the letter from Liberty Counsel to the district said.

And guess who they quote?

They continued, “No credible medical authority establishes the proposition that biological sex can be changed. Dr. Paul McHugh, former chief psychiatrist for Johns Hopkins Hospital, wrote in a June 12, 2014, Wall Street Journal op-ed, ‘Policy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered’ by refusing to treat transgender confusions ‘as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention.’ While students suffering from gender confusion should be treated with kindness and respect, schools should not, by their policies or practices, attempt to coerce other students and teachers into participating in what amounts to a harmful delusion.”

Dr. McHugh theories have been rebuffed and the data he uses have been taken out of context, the authors of the research studies have stated that their findings do not show the concepts that the doctor espouses.

So for now the school backed down with the threat of a lawsuit.