OPINION:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, recently signed SB 107, a bill so evil that you’ll think I’m making this up.
Passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature, the law prevents California officials from enforcing statutes from other states that block quacks from plying minors with puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones and sexual surgery.
It comes in response to sane states such as Texas and Idaho that protect children from becoming guinea pigs for the mad science of gender switching.
Transgender activists and Democrats (who are interchangeable) call these policies “attacks on transgender children.”
Right. Just like laws barring minors from accessing alcohol and drugs, firearms, joining the military, signing contracts and even driving alone until their 16th birthday.
The portion of the human brain that governs risk-taking does not fully develop until people are in their 20s. This happens later for young men than for young women. Ask any insurance company.
Yet, sexual revolutionaries and Democrats (did I mention they were interchangeable?) insist that children have the right and maturity to choose to rend their God-given bodies if they feel like it. Puberty blockers and cross-hormones can wreak permanent damage and cause sterility.
“With this law, California is basically saying it can take temporary emergency jurisdiction over any child from anywhere if there’s a disagreement between a parent and the state of California over how to treat a child’s gender distress,” said Emilie Kao, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which is one of 50 groups that signed a protest letter to Mr. Newsom.
Imagine being a parent whose confused child has been kidnapped to California by some guy in a raincoat with pockets full of candy and taken to a “doctor” who thinks parents should butt out. Is Liam Neeson in the house?
In September, California Democrats enacted a law cutting California parents out when a minor seeks an abortion or transgender “care.” So, “parental choice” is allowed only when parents do what leftists want them to do with their children.
Mr. Newsom, whose every move seems fiendishly concocted to advance civil disorder and destroy his beautiful state, also wants to lower the voting age to 16.
For perspective, let’s review some creative writing from Democratic Texas gubernatorial candidate Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke, who waxed creatively about a dream he had. This is the guy who recently ran for president and is now trying to convince people that he, Beto, is clinically sane and will make their lives better by taking away their rifles.
Under the handle of “Psychedelic Warlord,” Mr. O’Rourke at age 16 wrote something that you may have heard about by now, but bears repeating: “One day, as I was driving home from work, I noticed two children crossing the street. They were happy, happy to be free from their troubles. This happiness was mine by right. I had earned it in my dream. As I neared the young ones, I put all my weight on my right foot, keeping the accelerator pedal on the floor until I heard the crashing of the two children on the hood, and then the sharp cry of pain from one of the two. I was so fascinated for a moment, that when after I had stopped my vehicle, I just sat in a daze, sweet visions filling my head.”
Democrats defend Beto by noting that he was only 16 at the time he wrote this. In other words, not responsible yet. But 5-year-olds are supposedly mature enough to “know” they are the opposite sex and entitled to secret help from schools to foster this?
I wonder what Beto was being taught at school. Democratic teacher unions and public schools have been feverishly indoctrinating children in poisonous ideologies like socialism, climate change hysteria and sexual perversity. Polls show it’s working.
A Gallup survey in February found that not only has the number of adults identifying as LGBTQ doubled since 2012 to 7.1% but more than 20% of Gen Z (born 1997 to 2003) think they are LGBTQ. The figure is even higher at elite colleges.
Remember when, without any replicated research, they claimed that it was genetic?
It’s not just the sex. It’s also race.
A counselor in northern Virginia recently said a mother told her how her son had come home from school suicidal. He said he hated himself and wanted to die because he was white. In fact, he now hates all white men.
School officials in his district continue to deny, despite clear evidence, that they teach critical race theory, an offshoot of Marxism.
With rampant inflation, crime and the open border, the parents’ revolt that upended Virginia politics in 2021 should be turning into a national tsunami.
We shall soon see how many voters have been paying attention.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His new book “Crooked: What Really Happened in the 2020 Election and How to Stop the Fraud” (D. James Kennedy Ministries, September 2022) is available at his website, roberthknight.com.
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