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Parents' rights vs. sex-ed bills in MA Legislature - public hearing this Tuesday

POSTED: May 12, 2013

Across the country there are battles over the explicit sexuality, homosexuality, and transgenderism being pushed into the public schools. In Massachusetts, the battle is brewing again this month in the State House.

Vulnerable kids are persuaded to join "gay" groups at school. And parents have no power to intervene or even be informed. [MassResistance photo]

This Tuesday, May 14, the Education Committee is taking up the major pro-family (and anti-family) bills affecting public school curriculum and programs. The hearing begins at 10 am in Room A1. It is scheduled to last 3 hours, but could likely last longer. If you are unable to attend, it's still valuable to submit your written testimony to the Committee, by email or US mail.

On one side is the Planned Parenthood and homosexual lobby that wants to push more of their skewed materials and make the "health curriculum" (as they define it) a legal requirement. On the other side is MassResistance and pro-family allies who want to stop this and give parents the control.

(An additional school-related bill was taken up last Tuesday, May 7, by the Judiciary Committee -- see our report.)

Here is the list of 15 bills being heard on Tuesday. Eleven of them are of particular interest, which we've divided into two major groups:

GOOD BILLS at the hearing on Tuesday:

At issue is the current Parental Notification Law (Ch. 71 Sec 32A). This law was written by MassResistance (known at that time as Parents' Rights Coalition) and was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Weld in 1996. But back then, no one had predicted that homosexuality, transgenderism, and other deviant sexual behaviors would be aggressively pushed at children in the schools. It's no longer only about graphic and inappropriate "sex education." In addition, the current law is "opt-out", which has proven to be ineffective for parents.

Right now, parents have no legal protection against the homosexual and transgender agenda being pushed on their schoolchildren. In 2007, in the infamous David Parker case, a Federal Judge in Boston ruled that current Massachusetts law, including the Parental Notification Law, does not allow parents to opt-out their children, or even be notified, regarding homosexuality, transgenderism, and similar issues. This even includes children in elementary school! Parents are helpless and this needs to be rectified.

MassResistance has filed Bill H333 to stop this. It closes all the loopholes and is "opt-in" rather than "opt-out."

All four bills below re-write the current Parental Notification Law.

The new Parents' Rights bill:

H333 "An Act Regarding Parental Notification and Consent"
This landmark strong, effective opt-in legislation, written by MassResistance will protect parents and children. It has bi-partisan support among legislators. Read more about the bill HERE.

Alternative bill:

H440 This is an alternative version of H333. It is a re-filing of last session's bill but without our recent updates to it.

Weak parents' rights bills:

H431 and H466. Both of these are older, weak versions of the opt-in bill for sexuality education, filed by well-meaning Republican state reps. They are seriously flawed, however, because they fail to include the various methods used for instruction on sexuality issues and LGBT indoctrination beyond the formal curriculum.

BAD ANTI-FAMILY BILLS at the hearing on Tuesday:

The focus of most of the anti-family bills is the infamous Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Frameworks document. Written in 1999 by activists working with the Department of Education, it is a controversial work that includes various grade-level teaching requirements on issues of family life, sexuality education, the normalization of homosexuality, abortion counseling, and other hot-button issues, starting in elementary school and going through high school.

The homosexual lobby and Planned Parenthood are fighting hard to require schools to design their curriculum around this.

Currently that document is just an optional guide for schools and is not legally binding. But since 2005, Planned Parenthood, the homosexual lobby, and their allies in the Legislature have introduced legislation to make it mandatory in state law, and alongside that to require Planned Parenthood-style sexuality and homosexuality education in the curriculum.

Over the years, they've lobbied very hard for that. In 2007, Planned Parenthood declared it as their "official goal" to get it passed, and even had a lavish press conference the day of the public hearing. They came back at the 2009 hearing, and again in 2011 attempting to get it passed. But each time MassResistance helped fight back even harder, and as a result none of the bills ever got out of Committee.

Unfortunately, there is now a well-funded national advocacy coalition which will likely support the latest effort to implement "comprehensive health education." See here and here.

So we need to fight this again. Here are the anti-family bills being taken up on Tuesday. (Note that these bills were filed by the usual Planned Parenthood allies.)

A. The following five bills write the Massachusetts Comprehensive Health Curriculum Frameworks document into state law and also would require that Planned Parenthood-style sexuality education be taught in all schools.

S209 (Sen. Katherine Clark)
H450 (Rep. James O'Day)
S202 (Sen. Harriett Chandler)
H366 (Rep. Marjorie Decker)
H421 (Rep. Carlos Henriquez and Sen. William Brownsberger)

B. The following bill requires Planned Parenthood-style sex ed, but does not include the Health Frameworks document.

H388 (Rep. Gloria Fox)

C. The following bill waters down the current Parental Notification Law to remove parental notification or opt-out ability for any "activity or material designed to promote tolerance and respect, including difference in sexual orientation."

H509 (Rep. Aaron Vega)

Will Planned Parenthood (and the LGBT lobby) be there?

In the past, Planned Parenthood and their LGBT lobby allies have tried to stack the hearing with panels and "expert" witnesses. We have a feeling that this time the hearing will have less of that, and they will do more of there work behind the scenes. (See the new national effort behind them here.) Or maybe not -- we'll see.

In 2007, Planned Parenthood brought in panels of "experts" (above) to testify at the public hearing. We brought in panels of parents and citizens (below).

Will pro-family people be discriminated against at the hearing, as has happened in past years? On Friday we talked to the Education Committee staffer in charge of organizing the testimony. She promised us that the meeting will be run fairly (unlike the previous week's Judiciary Committee hearing below). In other words, we were promised that pro-family people would be treated equally with the radicals, and not be forced to wait until the very end when most Committee members have left.

Citizen input is very important! Can YOU come and testify?

If you live in Massachusetts and can come to this State House hearing on Tuesday and testify for parents' rights, please contact us immediately! (Email us back or call 781-890-6001.) Your presence would be vital! If you can't make it, you can send them your testimony.

Date: Tuesday, May 14
Time: 10 am (until 1 pm or later)
Place: Massachusetts State House, Room A1

Although the major lobbying doesn't take place at the hearings, it's very important that they hear from you in that venue.