LGBT activists did their best in recent weeks to pressure Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine to veto Republicans’ Parents’ Bill of Rights. Their best was evidently not good enough.
To the chagrin of those averse to increased parental involvement and greater transparency about what children are subjected to at school, DeWine
ratified HB 8 on Wednesday.
The legislation declares that “a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent’s child.”
Blaze News
previously reported that the law, which takes effect 90 days after ratification, will:
require that any “sexuality content is age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate for the age of the student receiving the instruction”;
provide parents the opportunity to review in advance any instructional material that deals with sexuality and to opt their child out if so desired;
require swift parental notification of any major changes in a child’s services at school, including requests by a student to identify as a member of the opposite sex;
ensure that schools cannot inhibit parental access to their kids’ education and health records;
altogether bar school district personnel from encouraging kids to keep information from their parents;
require school boards to adopt a policy authorizing students to be excused from school to attend a course in religious instruction off school property so long as their parents sign off, arrange transportation, and cover related expenses; and
require parents to sign off before providing any type of health care service to a student with the exception of emergency situations, first aid, and other services required under state law.
“I think the basis for it for me, if you’re a parent, you want to be informed what’s going on in your child’s life,” DeWine said Wednesday,
reported the Buckeye Flame. “Parents are the best teachers.”
‘It was opposed by educators and the LGBTQ+ community alike.’
Aaron Baer, the president of the Center for Christian Virtue, an advocacy group that championed the bill sponsored by Republican state Reps. D.J. Swearingen and Sara Carruthers,
said in a statement following HB 8’s ratification, “HB8 protects children by safeguarding parents’ rights to make important decisions for their children.”
LGBT activist groups alternatively did not take the news well.
Dwayne Steward, executive director of Equality Ohio, an activist organization apparently keen on continued secrecy, said that “it’s deeply disappointing that Gov. DeWine has signed HB 8 when it was opposed by educators and the LGBTQ+ community alike because it punishes teachers and staff for supporting LGBTQ+ students who are already targets of bullying and harassment.”
By “educators,” Steward appears to have been referring at least in part to the leftist Ohio Education Association, a state-level affiliate of the National Education Association, which
opposed the legislation.
The transvestite activist group TransOhio expressed grief over DeWine’s bill-signing,
insinuating the Parents’ Bill of Rights was “hateful legislation” aimed at trying to “silence, erase, or harm” transvestites.
When asked Wednesday about whether the law would result in non-straight students being outed, DeWine reportedly said, “We love these students as we love anybody else. They’re not only welcome in Ohio, but they’re welcome in our schools. We want to protect them as we protect every other student. But I do believe parents are the most likely people to help that child.”
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Mike dewine, Ohio, Lgbt, Trans, Indoctrination, Leftism, Dewine, Hb8, Parental rights, Parental, Republican, Politics
