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| Taking Action in California You no doubt know by now about our efforts at the national level to introduce and promote the Parental Rights Amendment in Congress (more on that below). But you may not be aware of our state-level efforts to preserve parental rights. Recognizing that it is much harder to regain rights that have been lost than to preserve rights we still retain, however tenuously, we have joined forces with others in California to fight threats to parental rights this past week.
California (Senate bill) SB48 was signed into law in July and would require all public schools to teach on “the role and contributions of…lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans” in California and American history, and there is no opt-out provision for parents who might find this teaching inappropriate for young children. We believe that parents should have the ultimate decision-making authority over what their children learn, and that parents of public school children have a right to opt their children out of materials which the parents find objectionable. As a result, we contacted those of you in California and urged you to take action. (If you are a resident of California and missed that alert, see it here.)
California (Assembly bill) AB499 passed the Senate on August 29 and still awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown. This bill would allow children as young as 12 years to consent to certain medical care without parental involvement, paving the way for doctors to administer the controversial HPV vaccine to young girls through their schools or elsewhere. As this also infringes the fundamental right of parents to protect their children and to help them make important medical decisions, we wrote and urged our supporters in California to oppose this measure by urging Gov. Brown to veto the bill. Federal Level Update While this state-level activity is happening on the west coast, things on the east coast are deceptively quiet. We are once again rescheduling our call blitz, and not for what isn’t happening, but for what is. The new 30 minute docudrama, Overruled, is scheduled for release in October. At around the same time, it looks like we can coordinate efforts to introduce the Amendment not only in the House, but in the Senate as well. So, with the GOP debates drawing increasing attention to the parental rights issue and with these two big opportunities also coming up, we have determined that pulling everything together in October gives us the best opportunity to draw media attention and Congressional support.
In the meantime, we need to continue to grow our support network so that when the call blitz comes, the voice for parental rights will be as loud as possible!
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Director of Communications & Research |
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