Parents Bill of Rights Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Chair, I rise today in strong opposition to the politics over parents act as a member of the Education and the Workforce Committee, as a member of the LGBTQ community, but above all, as a teacher.
I am an educator and I know how important parental involvement is. All parents, including the parents of LGBTQ kids, have rights. They have rights to send their children to schools where they will be affirmed, protected, and free from harassment, and given the opportunity to thrive. They have a right to be free from bullying and humiliation.
Mr. Chair, I include in the Record a letter from a million MomsRising. [Mar. 21, 2023]
So-Called `Parents Bill of Rights' Is All Wrong for America's Moms, Families--A Toxic Plan That Will Create More Division, Damage to Our Kids and Communities
Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the so-called `Parents Bill of Rights' (H.R. 5) House Republicans are poised to pass this week:
``The badly misnamed `Parents Bill of Rights' the House GOP plans to vote on this week is all wrong for America's moms, kids, families, and educators. It is a recipe for censorship, bullying and book bans, and for division based on race, sexual orientation, and gender identity, masquerading as a bill of rights. If it were to become law, the Parents Bill of Rights would create more division by pitting educators against parents. It would do enormous damage to our kids, schools and communities.
``America's moms want schools to be safe and inclusive and to value diversity; for parents to be respectful; and for educators to be able to be honest about their identities and allowed to teach our country's truths, good and bad, and the values that got us to where we are today. We want our children to learn about the history and obstacles faced, and overcome, by members of our Black, Brown, AAPI, Native American, immigrant, religious-minority, LGBTQ+, and other communities. We want our students to be able to access unbiased health information. We want all our youth, regardless of income, disability, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity, to be safe and included in schools that prepare them to contribute to and succeed in our society.
``And we want a society that rejects `us vs. them' and puts in place the caregiving and other supports that will allow all families to succeed. MomsRising has more than a million members and we have been working closely with moms in every state for more than a decade. What this country's moms want from Congress is affordable child, elder and disability care; paid family and medical leave; fair pay; health care and medications we can afford; vastly improved maternal health care for all of us; the ability to make our own decisions about if, when and how many children to have; and laws that will end the scourge of gun violence and keep our children, streets, schools and communities safe.
``Coming soon, we will release the Moms Rising for Freedom Agenda with ten key policies lawmakers should support that moms across the Nation really want, instead of the divisive and harmful policies in the `Parents Bill of Rights.' That is how we build a society in which we can all flourish and thrive.''
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Mr. TAKANO. In committee, my Republican colleagues have preached about parents' God-given rights. I will tell you now that children have a God-given right not to be physically or emotionally harmed.
As a teacher, I know of instances where children were outed by staff, and as a consequence those children faced severe punishment at home. One student was viciously beaten by his father and transferred out of a district after his family was informed that he was caught being physically affectionate with another boy.
Imagine the situation in which educators are placed when government requires them to out their student to an unsupportive family. I will tell you what happens to those kids:
73 percent of LGBTQ youth report anxiety.
58 percent of them report depression.
40 percent of homeless youth are LGBTQ, and
46 percent, nearly half of them, have seriously considered suicide.
Good teachers care about their kids. Good teachers know that a relationship with parents is important. But when a home is not safe for LGBTQ kids, school becomes their safe place, and teachers need to be their cheerleaders, not their first bullies.
This bill forces good teachers to do bad things. It alienates students from their parents. It outs kids. It forces kids back into the closet. It is a fundamental invasion of privacy that puts children in danger.
In the first 3 months that this Congress has been in session, this is what Republicans have chosen to spend our time and taxpayer dollars on. The so-called Parents Bill of Rights Act is the exact type of Big Government overreach my colleagues across the aisle proclaim they are against, and puts the cost of their pursuit of political gain on the backs of students and teachers.
This is worse than simply bad legislation. It is a concerted attack on children, parents, and teachers.
Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the bill.
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