INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (NETWORK INDIANA): A bill is advancing in the Statehouse that would codify the rights of parents to decide what’s best for their child.
The bill is meant to keep child services or other state agencies from removing a child who identifies as transgender from being removed from a home if the child’s parents refuse to provide gender transition treatment or refer to the child by their preferred pronouns.
Parents impacted by these practices spoke in favor of the bill in front of a House committee hearing on Thursday.
“If this were your child and the state came in and said ‘despite all your efforts, you cannot keep your child in your home because he’s transgender and you cannot support that because of your faith’, what would you do,” said Mary Cox, an Anderson mother who says DCS took her then 16-year-old son from her home.
She said it was because she would not refer to her son by their preferred pronouns when they came out as transgender, citing her religious faith and her understanding of science. Her child then told DCS that they did not feel safe in her home.
Opponents of the bill believe that it could narrow the amount of recourse a child has in trying to leave an abusive situation.
Zoe O’Haillin-Berne, a spokesperson for the Indiana Youth Group, an organization supportive of the LGBTQ community, says that refusing to affirm a child’s preferred gender identity is a form of abuse.
“A lot of times, personal convictions are something that is cited and I don’t think a personal conviction is a good enough excuse to harm your child,” she said. “I think we’ll see a lot of parents that feel they don’t have to take care of their kid anymore.”
Lawmakers advanced the bill out of a committee vote Thursday and will now be considered in the full House.
1 comment
Studies have shown the vast majority of gender confused kids grow out of it. At a minimum it is 80%+. Except of course if parents and teachers push it on the child. So this is a good idea. Parents have the responsibility and right to raise the kids in their own faith and morality. Schools are becoming garbage pits and so are many child service government organizations. This is a good bill and should be passed with rigorous enforcement provisions against overstepping do-gooder know-it-alls that tend to gravitate to the professions in question. Ironically many of these stooges cannot run their own lives successfully let alone tell others how to live theirs. They project their own failings on others all too often. Think Alec Baldwin, a rabid anti-gun guy, killing a person because he failed basic gun handling rules that a 100-million Americans follow every day.
Now I want to know, where is the TAXPAYERS BILL OF RIGHTS to protect us from out of control county assessors?? Where is the HEALTH CARE BILL OF RIGHTS to protect us from Dopey Prince Eric the Idiot of Hoosierville’s massive spending push on the state and county health tyrants?? Do not forget the last three years and the tyranny coming from these agencies. Where is the VOTERS BILL OF RIGHTS to protect us from silly legislators that take rights rather than SECURE RIGHTS???