Most five-year-olds are learning to count objects, label colors, shapes, and letters. They are not thinking about intersex flags and systems of power in the social construction of gender. As a mother, I cannot recount one conversation with a single parent in the last 16 years that revolved around concerns of our children’s understanding of intersectionality or systems of oppression related to gender. Democrat, Independent, or Republican, moms and dads simply want children to learn to read and play when they enter school.
Fast-forward to 2025, and that is not what leftist politicians have in mind.
Recently, Maryland Democrat State Delegates Vanessa E. Atterbeary and Kris Fair sponsored legislation that would prevent parents from opting out of lessons on gender identity and sexual orientation. This echoes a move made in 2022 by the Montgomery County School Board that removed the opt-out option for parents who didn’t want their children seeing information about sex workers and drag kings and queens in storybooks. Sadly, the school board told them, “Too bad.”
Politicians like Delegate Kris Fair show their disdain for parents when they make education one of their top campaign issues to advance their personal activist agendas. He gets endorsed and funded by education labor unions as a “champion of education,” yet works and votes in accordance with the bureaucrats who sign the checks.
Teacher unions, such as the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) and the National Education Association, are steeped in gender ideology. Both donate to Atterbeary and Fair. In fact, MSEA’s Super PAC contributed $134,995 to the 2024 Montgomery County School Board races to support candidates intent on weakening parents’ role in education. Follow the money to find the motivation. Our “pro-education” politicians think they are the employees of Becky Pringle, President of the NEA—not employees of parents and certainly not children.
This is not a Maryland problem. It is a nationwide problem plaguing our education system, locking parents out, and preying upon children. Executive orders and withholding federal funds, on their own, will not stop this abomination. The way to resolve this is through pure grassroots movements and bold populist leaders starting at the most local level of government: school boards.