Yesterday, the Supreme Court vindicated parental rights, upholding an injunction against California’s gender secrecy policy, which mandated that school staff hide a student’s claimed transgender identity from parents unless the student expressly consented to reveal it.
This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America. The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back.
This is also a big vindication of religious liberty, although we question whether PARL will see it that way. They tend to side with the progressive left on most issues. To recap:
The state of California, so left-wing on many of these moral issues, is pressing the transgender agenda. It set up policies where children and teenagers were told that they could change their gender identity at school without parents being informed. Teachers were instructed to conceal this information from the students’ parents. And you have political figures in California who have bragged about that policy.
In this case, the court ruled for parents in particular, stating that California, through its public school system cannot deny knowledge to parents concerning their children, and that means minors under age 18 who may be, for instance, at school using an alternative gender identity or even using an alternative name, and alternative pronouns. And the issue is not over despite the Supreme Court ruling yesterday.
Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji I-don’t-know-what-a-woman-is Jackson dissented from the SC decision (no surprise there). Both of these women are left-wing justices.
Story
The court’s opinion recounted the story of two parents who didn’t know their eighth grade daughter publicly identified as a boy until after she attempted to commit suicide and was hospitalized. Months after her daughter left the hospital, she returned to the hospital after further risk of self-harm. Their daughter attended a different California school for ninth grade and once again identified as a boy; that school also hid her gender transition, expressly rejecting the parents’ wishes. The daughter is now receiving psychiatric care.
Some good news: the court concluded that “the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim.”
California’s policies “substantially interfere with the ‘right of parents to guide the religious development of their children,'” the court ruled, citing Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case in which the court ruled that parents have the right to opt their children out of receiving LGBTQ+ instruction.
But it’s Not Over—Far From it
There’s a giant clash coming. There could be as many as 40 cases working through the federal courts headed towards what will have to be an eventual settling of the issue by the Supreme Court of the United States. It's virtually impossible for us Christians to overestimate the importance of what we're talking about here. Adventist families, Christian parents, and Christian leaders, you better pay close attention to what's happening here. Know this, the radical left is coming for your children, eventually in every state.
For now, we are grateful that the Supreme Court of the United States handed down a very considerable, very important decision.
Stay strong, stay in the Bible, and stay faithful in Jesus Christ.
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“My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments; for they will add length to your days, years and peace to your life” (Proverbs 3:1).