Parental Rights and Teen Sexuality

I just read an op-ed from a feminist author, published by CNN, who I will leave unnamed (no need to give her career free publicity), attacking the concept of parental rights.

One of her biggest arguments for taking decision-making rights away from parents and giving them to minors was related to LGBTQ+ students and more specifically transgender students. Ironically, she argues that adults should not have the authority to make decisions for minors, but then she infers that some adults SHOULD have that authority (just not parents). She believes it is abusive and potentially harmful to a child’s mental health to prohibit them from making life-altering decisions about their sexuality and even their own bodies.

The irony is she believes schoolteachers, physicians and politicians SHOULD have the right to facilitate major life-changes for these impressionable young people. The idea is that anyone who wants to help them reassign their name, gender or even physiology is good, but those who would keep them from doing so is an abuser (in this case…parents).

This is the kind of propaganda coming from the media, government-school system, Hollywood, the music industry, social media, and most of popular culture. Parents are bad and children need to be protected from their parents’ desire to help guide and direct the upbringing of their own offspring.

Targeting Young People

In America, the younger you are, the more susceptible you are to being targeted and groomed by LGBTQ+ activists. According to the Williams Institute, young people aged 13-24 are almost twice as likely on average to identify as transgender as those who are in older age brackets. It seems there is a “full-court press” (to borrow a basketball term) to reach those who are still too young to know the psychological harm of denying your biological sex.

The number of young people identifying as transgender in the U.S. has almost doubled since 2017, according to a Centers for Disease Control & Prevention report.

One psychological agency published a press release last year stating:

“The Government yesterday announced that the proposed ban on conversion therapy will not cover trans conversion therapy. We are disappointed at this decision. At (name withheld) we believe that talking therapy that has the intention of changing either someone’s sexuality or their gender identity should not be allowed, and should be a criminal offence.”

In their view, parents should be prosecuted for even talking with their child who is aligning with the LGBTQ+ lifestyle. This is despite the fact that depression and suicide attempts among LGBTQ+ individuals are very high compared to that of the general populace! This is especially true of those who experience gender reassignment surgeries.

The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS) found that 81.7 percent of transgender individuals seriously consider suicide during their lifetime and 40.4 percent actually attempt taking their lives. Activists on the social left insist this is simply because there is a lack of acceptance (which to them means “celebration”) of their decisions, but this argument ignores basic facts. It wasn’t long ago we rightly used the term “dysphoria” who denied their biological sex. Today, confusion about one of the most basic aspects of our humanity is being touted as essential to “tolerance and diversity.” When someone becomes detached from their most basic biological identity, everything else in their life becomes clouded and confused.

What Can Parents Do?

On one level, parents cannot completely protect their children against the designs of those who would seek to morally corrupt them. There are so many inroads today it is almost impossible to turn them all off. But I would suggest:

1. Removing your children from government schools.
2. Restricting smartphones and other devices until students are older teens.
3. Using internet filters and accountability software to know what your teens are doing online.
4. Drastically reducing screentime and access to movies, music and gaming that encourages sexual activity for youth.
5. Limiting social activities where your teens are spending a lot of time alone with other young people who do not share your religious values.
6. Seriously rethinking on-campus college experiences. I have heard several stories just in the last month of conservative families whose students came home from college and announced they were “out of the closet.” Indoctrination on college campuses is rampant.

Most importantly, have conversations with your children from a young age about their sexuality and God’s design for men and women. Parents are the first and most important go-to for information about sex and children will usually embrace their parents’ values, unless of course the parents abdicate their training to others who don’t share their values.

The world will not encourage your right to be a parent to your children, so you need to insist on it. Despite what the world tells you, be the parent and never apologize to anyone for being a wise, guiding light for your own child. God gave you the right to parent your child, so do it regardless of whether anyone else agrees with you.