Image courtesy of the Wikimedia Commons
The Coalition to Protect Kids New York met on Saturday, September 28th, to discuss the dangers of the so-called “Parental Removal Act,” otherwise known as Proposition One, or NY’s Equal Rights Amendment. They were hosted by Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization in the town of Clinton, housed within the Williams Mansion. Proposition One intends to codify abortion rights and civil rights protections, but conservative groups like Protect Kids NY are actively fighting against it. The afternoon’s biggest topics were the rights of transgender individuals and the discussion of gender and pronouns in schools.
Protect Kids NY is a group of “New Yorkers from all walks of life dedicated to defeating Prop One to the New York State Constitution, or as we call it, the Parent Replacement Act,” according to their website, and claims to be endorsed by other organizations such as Democrats for Life and the Catholic Church.
What is Prop One?
Proposition One expands the rights and protections of the NYS Constitution to members of the LGBTQ+ community, racial and ethnic minorities, and the disabled community, as well as provides protections to minors. This proposition also includes protection against discrimination based on circumstances such as pregnancy and would serve to codify abortion rights in New York. It also states that these new protections will be applied to all NYS laws past and future.
Why are groups against it?
Conservative advocacy groups are strongly against Prop One because of its specific changes in relation to LGBTQ+ individuals, abortion rights, and the rights of minors. The Coalition to Protect Kids is not concerned with anti discriminatory protections that their children would receive, but rather the possibility of their children having expanded autonomy and privacy from them.
The speakers at the meeting stated they were not advocating for discrimination towards the LGBTQ+ community, but simply “didn’t participate in these lifestyles.”
They also claimed that Prop One would allow minors to make “irreversible medical decisions for themselves like transgender operations and abortions in secret without any parental consent.”
The Coalition’s Discussion and Teachings
As soon as we arrived at AHI we were warmly greeted and offered cookies, pizza, and palm cards about the supposed dangers of Prop One. They were proud to tell us about the rallies and events their organization had planned in other regions of NY.
First, they claimed that Prop One would allow minors to socially and medically transition without parental consent, “If we now put age as a protected class… children under eighteen would have a right to irreversible surgeries, even transgender procedures.”
Though, it is true that a minor is able to socially transition without parental notification, but they cannot medically transition.
Currently in New York State, Students may choose to socially transition at their school and not have parents notified. There are many teachers that give surveys asking students their pronouns or preferred name as well as clarify whether they can be referred to this way when in conversation with parents. This is incorporated in NYS guidelines to protect students with transphobic parents who cannot otherwise express their identity and is considered vital for their mental and even physical safety.
A member of the Coalition shared her own concerns as a mother of a high school student. She stated that she has requested copies of all personal surveys given to her daughter and that she no longer be asked any questions related to gender or sexuality. She claimed that by allowing a student to fill out these confidential surveys it “makes those kids a target, so they know they can be that way with those students.” By “that way,” she meant being open about gender and sexuality in discussion, something these women view as dangerous and “indoctrinating.”
The Coalition sees this protection as disregarding parental rights and encouraging “secrecy.”
Jen Fonseca, a former educator and the main speaker explained, “Schools are already not disclosing to parents if a child or student doesn’t want the parent to know something’s happening with them, especially their sexual identity. So they can quietly do that at school with the social worker, the teacher, and the administration and establish that relationship of secrecy.”
Fonseca and the other attendees claimed that Prop One would “allow the government to have more authority over our children to make medical decisions for them.” Fonseca went on to claim that these gender affirming operations are “already happening in schools under a program that is teaching about gender identity.” This claim was also made during the Presidential debate by Donald Trump and has already been widely disputed and fact checked as false.
Minors may not transition without parental consent. In no case is this legal or logistically feasible. No where in the language of Prop One would cause this to change. While minors do have the right to medically transition, they can only do so with parental consent. Organizations such as the American Medical Association have independently stated that medical professionals are all required to follow the laws of their respective states.
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