Cartoon lampooning New Jersey governor's school agenda draws 'ecstatic' response: Republican

[Ivy]

Yeah, I realize this article came from Fox, but it's an example of the propaganda being used against us.

 

https://www.foxnews.com/media/cartoon-lampooning-phil-murphys-school-agenda-draws-ecstatic-response-republican-county-chair

 

I'm not going to post the actual cartoon, but you can see it in the article.

This is how not outing trans kids is portrayed to the public to stir up hatred toward us.

They're planning on putting it on billboards around the state.

Sometimes I just get get so angry at the misrepresentations.

[VickySGV]

To actually make it correct, the kid should be giving a middle finger salute to the parents instead of clinging on to them. 

 

I have two friends out here (both Cis allies) who are part of a special advocacy program for abused children who are wards of our court system.  Their young clients have been reported to the Department Of Children's Services for abuse caused by many forms of neglect as well as actual physical injury. DCS has conducted an investigation into the allegations and found cause for court intervention.  It is while the child is under court protection that the issue of being Trans or Non Binary comes out as the point of the parental abuse.  The trigger issues of LGBTQ  were NOT known by the originators of the abuse notification to the DCS, only the ultimate fact of the abuse.  My friends are volunteers appointed by the Courts to help the foster families of these children find and get medical and counseling services and it is during those times, the LGBTQ issues come to the surface for what they are and then the  DCS can present the best case IN THE CHILD'S FAVOR based on what the child has been finally able to discuss with responsible and caring adults.  There are actually cases they have had where parents hear the issue out in the open in court and simply say, "take the <expletive double expletive> and keep them away from me".   I have given Trans 101 training sessions to foster care home providers on several occasions and know that the homes want to provide the best care they know how to do.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

I grew up in a home that wasn't exactly friendly toward me.  I hid my lesbian identity (in my girl form) until my 20's when my parents figured it out.  So did my sister.  I get that kids don't need undue parental stress like I experienced.  BUT!  I'm a parent-ish figure in my family now, and even with my experiences in my younger years, I do NOT support schools intentionally hiding things from parents.  I don't think they should make a point of bringing up the conversation in detail, but instructing schools to deliberately hide information ought to be criminal.  Schools are essentially a service that parents PAY for.  As in, property taxes, fees, etc...  They are hired to do a job, not to act independently.  Parents have the ultimate authority, not school administration or staff.  The governor of New Jersey is way out of line, even if he did have positive intentions.  

 

This stuff is a big reason why my family sends the kids to a homeschool co-op, except for my teenage stepkids.  They won't go to public school until they are of an age where they can do critical thinking about abstract concepts, and know enough to be able to challenge any strange things that show up in books or classes.  This is even though we're in an area where the district isn't afraid to have the Lord's Prayer on the office wall or the Ten Commandments posted in the elementary school.  My husband has a teaching degree from a fairly conservative Christian institution, and he said that even there the professors were trying to indoctrinate teacher-trainees with anti-free-speech, anti-gun, socialist political stuff.  So, even teachers from supposedly good backgrounds aren't a guarantee if they don't think for themselves. 

 

My GF has told me about having to spend her childhood hiding her own and her sister's near-starvation to avoid separation from her sister and sexual abuse in the hands of anybody from "Child Protective Services."  I've known a couple of girls who were forcibly taken from their families and split up from their siblings....so I don't have a positive impression of any government agency claiming to look out for children.  When sexual abuse is so rampant that even my GF knew about it 20 years ago as a preteen and was more afraid of the government than an alcoholic father and running out of food...you know its bad.  The government both federal and state needs to get their sex scandals and other issues fixed before claiming they know how to advocate for kids or teach them anything about sex or gender. 

 

 

[Ivy]

12 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

I do NOT support schools intentionally hiding things from parents. 

I think the problem is in requiring the school to out the student.

Social service would only be involved if there was actual abuse.

I'm a big believer in family.  We raised a large family in what would be considered poverty conditions.  And we mostly still get along and help each other out when needed.

 

12 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

This is even though we're in an area where the district isn't afraid to have the Lord's Prayer on the office wall or the Ten Commandments posted in the elementary school… he said that even there the professors were trying to indoctrinate teacher-trainees with anti-free-speech, anti-gun, socialist political stuff

The thing is that not everybody is a conservative christian, or even christian at all.  If the exact words "wall of separation" are not in the constitution, the principal is there.  Free speech goes both ways.  Pretending that gay or trans people don't exist does not make it so.  I did that for years, but here I am.  One may not agree with socialism as a political system, but it is still a system, and people need to know and understand what it actually is.  High school kids are not too young to know about it.  As you said, critical thinking.

 

The cartoon is a gross exaggeration, and misleading propaganda.

[awkward-yet-sweet]

1 hour ago, Ivy said:

I think the problem is in requiring the school to out the student.

 

 One may not agree with socialism as a political system, but it is still a system, and people need to know and understand what it actually is. 

 

The cartoon is a gross exaggeration, and misleading propaganda.

 

I favor a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to sexuality in schools.  ( yes, I know that combination of words has some baggage. And I don't mean it in the sense that the US government did with the military)  Rather than actively outing kids or actively suppressing information,  schools could be neutral and just let things alone.  But leaving things alone isn't what most want to do...it seems to me like both sides prefer active indoctrination. 

 

Schools don't typically approach issues in a way that allows students to choose between multiple perspectives. They mostly seem to present information in one way, as THE truth, with the exception of religion. But for other issues such as evolution, climate change, or certain political hot button issues like Public Health policy or guns, schools don't seem to want students to think critically. They certainly didn't encourage me in that direction. There's a whole bunch of information I had to find out on my own later, or that was taught to me by people who know.

 

Why would parents assume it would be any different for sexuality?  Unlike other subjects, sexuality is something that schools don't have to teach. Kids will learn about it from parents or on their own. I certainly did.

 

Yes, the cartoon is an inaccurate exaggeration. That's what cartoons usually are in politics, and I think you can make an argument for that being the very definition of that particular art form. While I don't agree with the image itself, I definitely understand some of the feelings directed at the actions of the governor of New Jersey.