parenting

Moms for Liberty Sues New Jersey School District for Hiding ‘Gender Transitions’ From Parents

Moms for Liberty filed a lawsuit challenging a New Jersey school district policy of hiding a student’s “gender transition” from his or her parents. 

The suit, filed by Thomas More Society, involves the School District of the Chathams’ (SDOC) “Gender Identity and Expression Policy,” which allows school employees to hide a child’s sexual identity confusion from parents. 

As Thomas More Society pointed out in both a letter to the district and its lawsuit, the policy violates parents’ constitutional rights, as affirmed by two recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings: Mahmoud v. Taylor and Mirabelli v. Bonta. 

But the SDOC Board of Education thumbed its nose at those decisions. After parents’ expressed concern about the legality of the “gender” guidance, Policy 5145.7, Board President Ann Ciccarelli responded:  

The Board of Education is required to adhere to State and federal law. The United States Supreme Court decision, Mirabelli, is not binding on public school districts in New Jersey. 

The Catholic legal aid firm argued and won the Mirabelli case, in a 6-3 per curiam decision where the Court ruled against similar “transgender” school policies in California. 

The organization said the school board is flat-out wrong. 

The Court ruled that parents have “the right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health.” This would include serious issues like sexual identity confusion – where a child rejects his or her sex and fantasizes that they can somehow become the opposite sex. 

Since then, Thomas More Society has pledged to help enforce the ruling “across the country by taking legal action and giving parents the tools to protect their families today.” 

In announcing this case against the SDOC Board of Education, the organization has launched its nationwide campaign to shut down transgender secrecy policies, as Senior Counsel Christopher Ferrara stated: 

When Thomas More Society prevailed at the Supreme Court, we made a promise: any school board or district that kept hiding a child’s so-called ‘gender transition’ from parents, or that punished kids for refusing to bow down to an ideology they don’t believe,would be held accountable.  

Thomas More Society explained that SDOC’s Policy 5145.7 “violates the First Amendment’s Free Exercise and Free Speech Clauses and the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause by”:

• Permitting school counselors to withhold a student’s asserted “gender transition” from parents.

• Permitting mixed-sex participation in sports, locker rooms, and changing facilities without advance notice to parents.

• Compelling students and parents to use a classmate’s chosen name and pronouns.

• Allowing students to be referred to outside “pro-LGBTQ” advocacy organizations without parental notice or consent.

The lawsuit asks the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey to stop the gender policy: 

Moms for Liberty is asking the court to declare Policy 5145.7 unconstitutional and to enjoin its enforcement unless the district amends it to require parental notice and consent before any social transition, name or pronoun change, mixed-sex sports or use of facilities, or referral to outside advocacy groups.

More than 12,300 schools across the country have transgender secrecy policies, affecting more than 12.3 million students, the parents’ rights organization Defending Education reported. 

Tina Descovich, CEO and co-founder of Moms for Liberty, explained what’s at stake when schools usurp parental rights: 

Parents are the primary educators and caregivers of their children, not school boards, not counselors, and not ideologues pushing secret gender transitions behind closed doors. The Chathams Board of Education’s open defiance of the Supreme Court’s clear rulings in Mirabelli and Mahmoud is an assault on the constitutional rights of every family in that district. 

She added: 

Moms for Liberty will not stand by while schools hide life-altering decisions from parents or persuade children to affirm an ideology that violates their conscience and faith.

Thomas More Society offers a model letter which parents can use to notify their school district of a sincerely held belief and identify the instruction or materials they want their child excluded from. 

Parents with children in districts with “Parental Exclusion Policies” can request legal help from Thomas More Society, which also provides guidance for school districts.

To find out if your district has a “Transgender/Gender Nonconforming Policy” that violates parents’ and children’s constitutional rights, check out this list at Defending Education, or search your local district’s website. 

Related articles and resources: 

Barrett v. Kagan: Key Takeaways From Supreme Court Ruling on ‘Transgender’ School Policies

Blockbuster Supreme Court Ruling: Girls Sports Are for Girls

BREAKING: Judge Issues Preliminary Injunction Says California School District Cannot Force Teachers to Lie to Parents About Their Children’s ‘Gender Identity’

California Teachers Told to Hide Information About Students’ ‘Gender’ From Parents – They’re Suing

California Schools May Not Hide Students’ ‘Gender Identity’ From Parents

Exclusive Interview: Colorado Parents Expose ‘Gender Cult’ at Public School in New Documentary

Legal Aid Groups Demand Virginia Schools Comply With Title IX, Supreme Court Decisions

Maryland Teacher to U.S. Supreme Court: Strike Down Policy ‘Requiring Educators Lie’ to Parents

Supreme Court Affirms Parents’ Rights Over California’s ‘Transgender’ School Policies

Supreme Court Defends Religious Freedom, Parental Rights Over ‘LGBT’ Curriculum

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

One in Eight Young Men Watch Porn, Gamble and Play Video Games Daily

Help and resources to achieve freedom from pornography.

Around one in eight young men ages 18 to 29 watch pornography, gamble and play video games every single day, the Institute for Family Studies (IFS) reports.

Brad Wilcox, professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, a fellow at IFS and author of the book Get Married, recently highlighted this troubling trend on X.

“We have a generation of young men trapped in the ‘addiction economy’ – and the numbers are staggering,” he said. IFS reports,

  • 11.9% of young men use porn, gamble and game daily.
  • 23.3% gamble daily.
  • Over 25% use porn daily.

Grant Bailey, a research fellow at IFS, pointed out only 2% of young men never watch pornography, gamble or play video games. Ninety-five percent of young men play video games, 70% watch pornography, and 57% gamble at least sometimes.

These statistics demonstrate a frightening reality. Many of our young men today are engaged in harmful and destructive behaviors when they should be becoming responsible adults, focused on their faith and starting a family.

The negative behaviors above are certainly part of the reason many young men are “unmarriageable” today.

In fact, the number of unmarried men between the ages of 20 and 39 is surging – growing from 20.7 million in 2000 to 30.4 million today.

It’s also not good that over 7 million men between ages 25 and 55, the traditional prime of working life, are unemployed and no longer even looking for work.

But it isn’t all bad news for young men. While some may look at the facts above and immediately conclude men are the primary source of society’s problems, there are heartening statics about young men returning to church and prioritizing family life.

Young men today are more likely to desire positive important life decisions – like going to church regularly, getting married and having children – than young women are.

According to Gallup, more young men today (42%) say religion is “very important” to their lives than at any point in the last 25 years. Young men are now more likely than young women (29%) to say religion is “very important” to them.

For the first time in American history, more men attend church than women – with the disparity especially pronounced among 20-somethings.

In terms of marriage, IFS reports that 68% of unmarried young men want to get married someday, and 62% of childless young men aspire to be fathers.

“What stood out was not indifference or a lack of worthy aspirations but the trying circumstances facing today’s young men,” said Joseph E. Davis, lead researcher at IFS. “They are not where they want to be, often feel trapped, and are unsure of what to do.”

Young men in 12th grade today are more likely than young women to say they want to marry and have children someday. While 74% of young men say they want to get married, just 61% of young women say the same.

More young men than young women identify as conservative (29% vs. 22%) while more young women than young men identify as liberal (37% vs. 28%).

Of young men who voted for Donald Trump in 2024, two of their top four life priorities (out of 13 options) included getting married and having children, NBC News reported. Of young women who voted for Trump, those priorities ranked numbers six and nine.

For young women who voted for Kamala Harris, being married and having children ranked in the bottom three (11 and 12, respectively) out of 13 options.

As NBC News summarized, “Gen Z men who voted for Trump rate having children as the most important thing in their personal definition of success. Gen Z women who voted for Harris ranked having children as the second-least important thing in their personal definition of success.”

In our day of declining marriage and fertility rates, both young men and young women face their share of challenges.

It could be said that while the problem with many young men is substantially behavioral; the problem with many young women is largely ideological.

At the same time, both sexes may share one source of the problem: social media.

As Maria Baer and Brad Wilcox write at IFS, “We live our lives online, and we decide how to live, in part, by watching what everyone else is doing (online). The result is pushing both men and women away from marriage, by making it harder for men to rise to the occasion of becoming marriageable and by making it harder for women, especially the liberal women who spend the most time online, to see the point of marriage in the first place.”

“Big Tech is degrading men’s marriageability even as it divides the sexes from one another ideologically.”

Young men must be willing to do the hard work of becoming men worthy of the marriage and family they desire. Young women must remember that marriage and parenthood are a source of some of life’s greatest blessings.

Rob Jackson, a counselor in Focus on the Family’s Counseling Services Department, told the Daily Citizen that young men engaged in negative behaviors must aim for worthier callings.

“Pornography, video games, and gambling waste time, energy, and money, and leave the young man with self-neglect and indifference to others,” Jackson shared. “Such things lead to a double life mixed with shame, regret, and addiction.”

“I encourage young men to realign their hearts, minds, bodies, and relationships with God and the greater purposes he has for them.”

Jackson also encouraged the parents of struggling young men to support them and pray for their children.

“Parents must face the reality of what they cannot change, take their grief to the Lord, and focus on loving their sons well without enabling them.”

To speak with a family help specialist or request resources, please call us at 1-800-A-FAMILY (232-6459).

Related articles and resources:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Young Men Need Your Help

Raising Boys to be Godly Young Men

Training Sons to be Confident, Capable Men

Parenting Resources: How to Stop Failing Young Men

Brad Wilcox: The Correlation Between Marriage, Happiness, and Wealth

Religion Increasingly Important to Young Men, Gallup Finds

Research Shows Young Men Want Marriage Yet Lack Confidence in Dating

Young Women Take ‘Anti-Nuptial Turn,’ Interest in Marriage Drops Greatly

Young Men Are Returning to Church

Are Government Policy and Culture Making Men Weak?

Photo from Shutterstock.

Protect the “Golden Window” of Childhood

If you pay attention to such things, you might have noticed that the term “Golden Window” was trending on X last week. A real-time algorithm measures the surge in “volume and velocity” of certain words and phrases on the site. If you’re interested, a quick glance will tell you what the online world is buzzing about.

This particular uptick was driven by one man – Brett Caughran, a former hedge fund investor and financial portfolio manager. He also teaches at Arizona State University and is founder of Fundamental Edge, an investment-research training company.

Writing on X to his 60,000 followers, Caughran wisely noted:

We tell young people in our society that the end of the rainbow is retirement at 65. We ought to tell them that “there is going to be this short but beautiful golden window from roughly age 3 to roughly age 12 where your kids are not only easy (comparatively to bottles & diapers), but are going to be these beautiful little creatures and it will pain your heart to be away from them for too long.

Brett and his wife, Jenny, whom he refers to as his “best friend,” have been married for 14 years. They have three boys – ages 13, 11 and 9.

He continued in his post:

You don’t get another shot at living the ‘golden window.’ And, for me, leaning hard into that golden window has made everything else in my life feel fairly insignificant in comparison. I have made plenty of mistakes as a father, but what I won’t have is the regret of having been distracted and absent from these formative years. In some cases, that has required financial sacrifices (declining a particular career opportunity that would have required relocation), but I personally have zero regrets.

The Caughrans’ story is an instructive and inspirational one for anyone trying to navigate the competing demands of family and career, which would be most people of a certain age. For 13 years, Brett was climbing the corporate ladder and working as a hedge fund manager in New York City. He was doing very well financially. But struggling with burnout, he began working with a career coach who asked him a fog-cutting question: “Is this what you want to be doing at 50?”

Brett Caughran knew the answer was “No,” so he quit the job and moved his family to Scottsdale, Arizona. Writing on X, he reflected, “I thought the peace and joy would flow immediately upon the move…remove the stressor and joy arrives, right?”

As it turned out, Brett said he began to spiral into depression. 

“I looked around me, and I didn’t feel special…I felt, for the first time in my life, average. I lived in an average house, drove an average car, and lived an average lifestyle. And it hit me harder than I thought it would. And I went through it. I struggled for a solid 18 months. I went through the letting go of my ego, the letting go of the identity that I had been so carefully crafting for nearly 20 years.”

Caughran eventually found his way out of the gloom, immersed himself in fatherhood, and began to appreciate just how special it was to be a dad who was active and present with his young children – boys who wouldn’t remain young forever.

As mothers and fathers of older children know all too well, the “Golden Window” doesn’t stay open very long. It’s a classic but true adage that “The days are long, but the years are short.” This time of year, especially, our social media feeds fill up with mothers and fathers posting about dropping their children off at college. It’s a bittersweet exercise that’s often filled with (happy) tears as the reality settles in that life, for both parent and child, is changing forever.

For the last half-century, Focus on the Family has worked not only to remind mothers and fathers of the ‘Golden Window’ but also to protect what goes in it. Those years of innocence can be threatened by a wicked and fallen culture eager to grab hold of children’s minds and hearts. The season can be corrupted by radical administrators and teachers in some public schools who want to brainwash children. 

The ministry’s Plugged In outreach was established to help protect that window, too. It has long been a challenge for parents to sort through the seemingly endless array of movies, television, streaming platforms and video games. Our informed and wise analysts have done the heavy lifting for you and provide thorough online guidance.

Years ago, CNN’s Larry King was being interviewed by Charlie Rose.

“You’re not a father, are you?” Larry asked Charlie.

“No,” answered Rose.

“You miss the great joy of life,” reflected King, who was father to five.

If you’re a parent of a certain age, you’ve likely come to appreciate that a lifetime of success at work will never outpace the pleasures and satisfaction of pouring yourself into the task and privilege of raising a child.

If you still have young children in the home, enjoy the view and breeze from the “Golden Window” – and give thanks to the Lord for this wonderful blessing (Psalm 127:3).

ADF Calls on Colorado School District to Drop Explicit Sex Ed Curriculum

Parents shouldn’t have to go digging to learn what their children are being taught in school about sex, gender and their bodies. But according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), that’s exactly what’s happening in Colorado.

On August 11, ADF sent a demand letter to Roaring Fork School District in Carbondale, Colorado on behalf of local parents. The letter challenged the district’s choice of sex ed curriculum and the process by which it informs parents of their options to learn more about the material and opt their child out.

The district uses a sex ed curriculum called 3Rs (Rights, Respect, Responsibility). It was adopted in May 2023, despite protests from many parents, whose concerns were dismissed as “sensational.”

At the time, the district told parents there would be a clear opt-out process.

3Rs is a free curriculum authored by Advocates for Youth, an LGBT activist organization with ties to Planned Parenthood, to promote an “honest, inclusive sex education for all students.”

StopCSE.org, an online resource that collates information about comprehensive sex education curricula, gives this curriculum a very high harm score for children due to its “explicit and disturbing” content.

ADF’s demand letter alleges:

The 3Rs curriculum includes graphic visuals and ideologically driven content aimed at children as young as five years old — an offense compounded by Roaring Fork’s failure to provide adequate notice and opt-out rights to parents, violating their fundamental constitutional rights.

According to ADF, the 3Rs curriculum shows kindergarteners illustrations of naked male and female bodies and teaches them to identify certain body parts, including “vulva,” “nipples,” “anus” and “penis.”

Shockingly, ADF says the curriculum even asks kindergarteners how they like to be touched.

The ADF demand letter calls on the district to cut the reprehensible 3Rs curriculum completely from all classes.

At the very least, they urge the school district to change the opt-out procedure into an opt-in process to ensure parents receive meaningful notice of the sexually explicit material appearing in class and can exercise their constitutional rights to direct their children’s upbringing and education.

ADF maintains that doing nothing in response to the letter will constitute ongoing violations of parents’ rights by the school district.

In a press release, ADF Senior Counsel Kate Anderson, director of the ADF Center for Parental Rights, alleges that the district’s current notification process intentionally makes it difficult for parents to know what is being taught and how to opt out:

Roaring Fork Schools is not only introducing kindergarteners to explicit content but also burying the information from parents and denying them a meaningful choice to opt their children out — by design.
It’s understandable why parents are so concerned. Roaring Fork Schools must immediately abandon this controversial sex ed curriculum, or at the very least, allow parents sufficient notice to choose what is best for their family.

The letter details the stories of three different families in the school district who lacked sufficient notice, information and details to be able to opt their children out of the explicitly sexual materials.

ADF leaves no room for misinterpretation; if the school district fails to remedy the situation, they may soon face legal action.

No lawsuit has been filed, but ADF is putting the district on notice.

Parents, not school districts, have the God-given, constitutionally protected, primary responsibility to direct the upbringing and education of their children. The Roaring Fork School District controversy strikes at the heart of this right. The violation must be addressed.

The Daily Citizen will continue to follow this developing story.

Texas Conservative Activist Sues School District After Removal From Board Meeting

A conservative activist from Texas is suing the Houston Independent School District (HISD) after removing her from a board meeting for reading sexually explicit passages from a book available to students in the districts’ school libraries. 

Bonnie Wallace, a member of Protecting Texas Children and a resident of Texas Hill County, has repeatedly attempted to raise awareness about the abundance of inappropriate material readily available to minors in Texas public school libraries. 

Footage from a March HISD board meeting shows Wallace during public comment, announcing she would be reading from one of the “500 filthy books” on HISD library shelves. 

“If there’s children in the audience, they need to leave,” said Wallace. 

Board Vice President Angela Lemond Flowers promptly interrupted Wallace, saying, “You will not be allowed to read things that are not appropriate.”

“Oh, not appropriate?” said Wallace. “Then why are they in your schools?” 

Wallace began reading a direct passage from A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J. Maas, the fifth installment in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series – adult fantasy books widely known for their graphic sexual content. Focus on the Family’s “Plugged In” writes of another book in the ACOTAR series: 

The sex depicted is graphic and explicit and the conversations about sex are crude. … The acts are described in detail. … The banter between [characters] is sexually graphic.

A Court of Silver Flames also includes descriptions of violence, gore, past abuse, depression and self-loathing. 

As Wallace read the sexually explicit passage aloud, Flowers warned twice that she would be removed from the meeting if she continued reading the material. 

“If you don’t like it, remove it so that children don’t have access to it,” said Wallace before taking her seat. She was immediately escorted from the meeting by police. 

Wallace has since sued HISD for violating her First Amendment rights. The suit reads:

This was textbook viewpoint discrimination: HISD silenced Ms. Wallace precisely because she demonstrated the hypocrisy of its own policies, proving that if the content was too explicit for adults, it was too explicit for children. Such conduct is “an egregious form” of content regulation that the First Amendment almost never tolerates.

HISD filed a motion in July to dismiss Wallace’s case, claiming the lawsuit “identifies no authority requiring the presiding officer to permit the live oral recitation of sexually graphic passages in such a forum under those circumstances.” 

The HISD motion also cited 2 U.S. Supreme Court Decisions which asserted “the State’s substantial interest in protecting minors from exposure to sexually explicit material.”

Wallace responded in a statement saying: 

HISD claiming they had authority to remove me because I was reciting sexually explicit passages is such hypocrisy. They evidently thought the book was wildly inappropriate. I agree that this book, and thousands of others, are wildly inappropriate for minors. But HISD should explain why they squandered taxpayer dollars on this sexually explicit content and are now retaining it so minors continue to have access to it.
Their request to have the lawsuit dismissed by stating they want to protect minors from exposure to sexually explicit material is HILARIOUS! I guess they only want to protect minors from sexually explicit content during HISD school board meetings but not in HISD libraries!

Wallace and her attorneys have repeatedly referenced her warning that any children present needed to leave the meeting before she began reading from A Court of Silver Flames.

Corey DeAngelis, a research fellow for the Center for Education Policy at The Heritage Foundation, commented:

Houston ISD removed a parent from a public meeting for reading aloud from a sexually explicit book that the district itself has placed in school libraries including those accessible to elementary, middle, and high school students.
The school board doesn’t want the public to hear the material they’re giving kids. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities.

In 2023, Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed House Bill 900 – the READER Act. The legislation outlined standards for school library materials across Texas, including specific requirements regarding sexually explicit literature.

Abbott’s press secretary, Andrew Mahaleris, stated:

Sexually explicit material has no place in Texas public school libraries.
The Governor expects every school district to follow state law.

However, Wallace claims she has found over 2,100 inappropriate books across Texas public school libraries, and that HISD carries almost all of those books. 

She has repeatedly attempted to raise awareness about this problem by voicing concerns in school board meetings and to individual parents. The Protecting Texas Children’s social media pages feature videos of Wallace showing parents shocking samples of inappropriate literature available in public school libraries. 

Wallace’s case is scheduled for trial on September 13, 2027 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division. 

Please join Daily Citizen in prayer for Bonnie Wallace and the important work she is doing to protect America’s children from inappropriate, explicit material. 

Related articles and resources:

Is it ‘Book Banning’ to Keep Sexually Explicit Books out of Schools?

Three Ways the Media Supports Sexually Explicit, Inappropriate Books for Children

Liberal Father Seeks to Disprove Concerns Over Sexually Explicit Books in Schools, Becomes Convinced These Books Are Not for Children

Sexualizing Schoolchildren: Classroom and Library Books