Normalizing Transgenderism in Schools

R-71 UPDATE: Referendum 71 can proceed to the November ballot. Judge Thomas McPhee issued his ruling yesterday afternoon, essentially clearing the way for R-71 to be on the ballot. The homosexual activists could conceivably appeal, however the ruling was so tight that it is not likely they will proceed.

I spoke with our attorney Steve Pidgeon late yesterday afternoon as he left the court. He told me that Judge McPhee found that the Constitutionally protected rights of the people to the Referendum process favored the Secretary of State's counting of the signatures.

Steve said, "The Judge found against the plaintiffs on both their counts. He found that no signature is required on the back of a petition form, that the Secretary of State had properly counted signatures that were registered to vote in the last instance."

In that the plaintiffs have failed to prevail twice using the same arguments, it is not likely they will appeal. If so, we will respond.

It's now time to get to the issue of same-sex marriage. The people of the state will rightly decide if they want to redefine marriage. You will be an integral part of that conversation.

The signatures of those who signed the referendum petitions are still sealed. That case will be revisited on Friday of this week.

Reminder: You can follow updates on R-71 and other important cultural issues on Twitter. _________________________

Normalizing Transgenderism in Schools

Massresistance, a New England-based pro-family organization, is concerned that the homosexual movement in New England is using transgender-"rights" law to force middle school and high schools to provide unisex bathrooms.

Forget the bathrooms, here in the Northwest, transgenderism seems to be blooming.

As kids returned to school this year in one Northwest town, a teacher they had known as Mr., has come back as "Ms." And the principal is calling it, " a teachable moment."

A transgender activist has announced he/she will run for mayor of Nampa, Idaho, a pastor of a Methodist Church in Portland has recently shared with his congregation that he/she is transgender, but it is a teacher who has taught math for 20 years in the affluent Portland suburb of West Linn, that will likely impact the most impressionable--the kids.

Nicholas Kintz has taught math at West Linn High School for 20 years. This year kids returned to school and found Mr. Kintz to be Ms. Kintz---Ms. Nicole Kintz--dress, hair and all.

He/she said of the previous life, "I've lived with this long enough to get to the point where I don't care what other people think."

In a letter of explanation to staff, Principal Lou Baily called this matter a "teachable moment."

Indeed it is a teachable moment. But what exactly are we teaching our kids? Has this become so "normal" we don't care? Are we afraid to speak up on these kinds of issues because it may not be politically correct?

Will Kintz try to influence kids in the classroom?

Well, he/she said she doesn't plan on teaching transgender issues.

However, Kintz's comments to the press raises concerns. He/she said, "They [the kids] might not have known anything about this before, but they're learning about it now and I'm the one that's going to teach them."

That should be very troubling. And it is to a number of parents. Parents who have already met with the principal, have been told there is nothing that he or the school district can or will do about it. In fact, parents were told they could not remove their child from his/her class for that reason.

The principal says, "The state changed the wording around discrimination a year and a half ago to address gender identity." Note that all the little "fair" laws that our legislators keep passing, often with no resistance, eventually reach critical mass and the culture is changed quietly, while many sleep.

Caleb Price, with Focus on The Family, says transgenderism was once kept in the background by homosexual activists but now there is a push to normalize it. Once homosexual activists felt the issue of transgenderism might hinder their agenda for homosexual "rights," now, however, that fear seems to have vanished.

Through a long term strategy and incrementalism, they have, while Christians and conservatives slumbered in a false sense that everything would turn out all right, advanced their agenda to the point where they energized to take the agenda even further to the extreme.

Activists are emboldened. We have seen the evidence of this in the campaign to place Referendum 71 on the Washington ballot.

Price says, "Ironically, we have now come to a point where pro-homosexual activists are asking us to believe that 'sexual orientation' cannot be changed, but somehow 'gender' can be changed."

He says a tiny minority of people who call themselves "transgender"---less than a fraction of one percent of the population--- is asking the rest of society to not only affirm them in their confusion and pain, but to radically reorder the ways in which the culture understands gender."

God help us.

_______________
Gary Randall
President
Faith & Freedom

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