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The newest manifestation of the creepy desire of Springfield leftists to normalize deviance in children is the laughably named, “Keeping Youth Safe and Healthy Act” (SB 818)—a bill composed entirely of socially constructed leftist beliefs from leftist lawmakers aided and abetted by leftist pro-abortion and “LGBTQ” organizations.

SB 818 would require all public schools—including charter schools—to align teaching in grades K-5 on “personal health and safety” with “National Sex Education Standards,”  which too are leftist social constructions. And it would require all upper grade sex education to align with those same “standards.” Therefore, in order to understand what exactly Illinois children would be taught, Illinoisans must read—not just the bill—but also the National Sex Education Standards, which I did to save our readers time.

The bill also requires that all materials presented to K-5 students in health and safety units be “age and developmentally appropriate” and “culturally appropriate.” More on that shortly.

When the bill’s sponsor State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) was asked by State Senator Sue Rezin (R-Morris) for “the breakdown of what’s to be taught for second grade, fifth grade and eighth grade,” he responded,

In younger grades like kindergarten through second, the focus is on personal safety, what it means to be a good friend, and being able to talk to parents and trusted adults when someone wants you to do something that makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe.

He forgot to mention that since his bill would require all public schools that provide “personal health and safety” units in grades K-2 to align content with the “National Sex Education Standards,” by the end of second grade, students will be expected to “Define gender, gender identity, and gender-role stereotypes” and how those sex-based conventions “may limit behavior.”

They will also be expected to “Identify different kinds of families (e.g., … cohabitating … [and] same-gender …).”

This is the “breakdown” Villivalam provided for grades 3-5:

In grades 3 to 5, instruction continues to cover healthy relationships and safety, but also delves into what children at those ages are experiencing like the physical, social and emotional changes related to puberty.

Sounds innocent enough, except he conveniently omitted the following information, which comes straight from the National Sex Education Standards for “comprehensive personal health and safety.”

In grades 3-5, the National Sex Education Standards–and therefore Villivalam’s bill–would require boys and girls in co-ed settings to,

• “Explain common human sexual development including … masturbation.”

• “Describe the … potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender.”

• “Distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ.”

• “Define and explain differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive, and gender identity.”

• “Explain that gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum.”

• “Define sexual orientation.”

• “Differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Many parents would argue that it is not the role of government-employed “educators” to teach other people’s 8-11-year-old children about masturbation, hormone blockers for cross-sex identifying children, or gender expansiveness.

Remember, if this law passes, no school would be able to provide any teaching in grades k-5 on personal health and safety unless it included the information just outlined.

In 2020, Villivalam tried to pass the REACH Act, which would have required all public schools, including charter schools, to teach “comprehensive sex ed” in grades K-12. The bill failed, so that tricksy little devil rejiggered it in such a way as to get disordered, age-inappropriate material before innocent little eyes. He did that by requiring in SB 818 all “personal health and safety” teaching to align with the deviant National Sex Education Standards. Very cunning, indeed.

Villivalam then offered this skeletal outline of grade 6-12 teaching in response to Rezin’s question:

Then in 6th through 12th grade, sexual health education builds on previous lessons to continue discussions on personal safety, healthy relationships, identity, and begins to incorporate information related to sexual health.

Weeelll, that’s kinda, sorta what the National Sex Education Standards with which schools will have to align would require. I’ll try to slap some meat on those skeletal bones.

In grades 6-8,

• Students must be taught about intersex conditions.

• They must “Analyze how peers, family, and a person’s intersecting identities can influence attitudes, beliefs, and expectations about gender, gender identity, gender roles, and gender expression.

• Middle schoolers must “Recall the definition of sexual orientation and explain that most people have a sexual orientation.”

• They must “Define … bisexual, lesbian, gay, queer, twospirit, asexual, pansexual.”

• They must “Define vaginal, oral, and anal sex.”

• They must “Explain there are many methods of short- and long-term contraception that are safe and effective and describe how to access them.”

• They must “List at least four methods of contraception that are available without a prescription (e.g., … condoms, emergency contraception, withdrawal)”

• They must “Describe … pregnancy options, including … abortion.”

In grades 9-10,

Students must “Define reproductive justice and explain its history and how it relates to sexual health.”

In grades 11-12, students must

• “Explain how support from peers, families, schools, and communities can improve a person’s health and wellbeing as it relates to gender identity and gender expression” and “sexual orientation.”

• Students must “Analyze” how “homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, classism” can “influence decisions regarding sexual behaviors.”

Supporter of this pernicious bill, State Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) pontificated foolishly in debate on the Illinois Senate floor:

I think what we are doing when we are teaching—again, age-appropriate, medically accurate sex education—to our children, we are arming them with knowledge. And I don’t know when that has ever been a bad thing.  (Watch the video recording of the Illinois Senate debate.)

When seeking to indoctrinate children with leftist sexuality dogma, leftists blather on about “age-appropriateness” and “cultural-appropriateness” as if those terms describe some objective, transcendent, universal criteria rather than socially constructed and imposed leftist “standards.” Both terms are used to include ideas leftists love and exclude (i.e., censor) all ideas leftists hate.

Some steely-spined lawmakers should demand from leftists specific definitions for those terms. They should demand to know who exactly constructed the criteria that define “age-appropriate,” “developmentally appropriate,” and “culturally appropriate.” They should ask if the age-appropriate criteria are objective and inarguably true or subjective and arguable.

Holmes claims she doesn’t know when knowledge has ever been a bad thing. Has she not read Frankenstein? Has she not heard of “gain-of-function” research?

If knowledge is never a bad thing, why not teach children about polyamory, zoophilia, or kink?

Oh, wait, I know. Those particular forms of sexual deviance are not age, developmentally, and culturally appropriate—according to mysterious leftist criteria.

While conservatives busy themselves dismissing the incrementalism of leftists in Springfield, leftists in Springfield busy themselves with incrementally imposing their screwball ethics, disordered beliefs, and deviant sexuality with the determination of arrogant authoritarians everywhere.

**UPDATE: The Illinois House passed this highly controversial proposal by a partisan vote of 60 to 48 on Friday afternoon (May 28, 2021). It will be sent Governor JB Pritzker for his consideration. (Watch the video recording of the Illinois House debate.)

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to Gov. Pritzker’s administrative staff to urge him to VETO SB 818 as a terrible overreach of government. Impressionable students in public schools should not be exposed to body- and soul-destroying messages that promote leftist beliefs about sexuality.

You can also call the Office of the Governor in Springfield at (217) 782-06830 or in Chicago at (312)814-2121.

Listen to this article read by Laurie:

https://staging.illinoisfamily.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/SB818_House.mp3

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Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

Our Springfield snollygosters are working tenaciously to provide Christian parents with a plethora of reasons to abandon government schools in Illinois. On Thursday afternoon (May 20th), the Illinois Senate took up and debated another “comprehensive” sex education bill (SB 818) that so-called “progressives” and their evil allies–Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and Equality Illinois–are using to indoctrinate children starting in kindergarten.

This bill to corrupt children with leftist humanistic values is sponsored by Illinois State Senator Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) and passed by a partisan vote of 37 to 18 with four members not voting. It is now up for consideration in the Illinois House, where State Representative Camille Lilly (D-Chicago) is the chief sponsor.

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send a message to your state representative to ask him/her to vote against SB 818. Impressionable students in public schools should not be exposed to body- and soul-destroying messages that promote leftist beliefs about sexuality.

Background

The Illinois Senate debated this controversial legislation for almost an hour on Thursday afternoon. You can watch/listen to the entire debate on the IFI YouTube channel or on our newer Rumble channel. You can also watch the embedded version at the end of this article.

It was encouraging to see five conservative senators rise to question the sponsor and/or criticize the bill. Kudos to Illinois State Senators Sue Rezin (R-Morris), Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro), Darren Bailey (R-Louisville), Neil Anderson (R-Moline), and Jason Plummer (R-Vandalia) for boldly speaking against this terrible bill.

Regarding the hour-long debate, there are just too many fallacies, outright lies and corrupt intentions to address in one article. Here are just a few of the glaring problems.

State Senator Celina Villanueva (D-Summit), a former sex education teacher, rose to ask the sponsor, “What’s the main goal of this bill?” Senator Villivalam responded:

The main goal is to insure that our youth have the opportunity to be safe and healthy by obtaining and having access to age and developmentally appropriate, medically accurate information and making sure that no one, no one, feels excluded in their classroom. No one feels excluded in their community.

Well, the bill also demands that comprehensive sex education classes be “culturally” appropriate, which the bill defines as follows:

“Culturally appropriate” means affirming culturally diverse individuals, families, and communities in an inclusive, respectful, and effective manner, including materials and instruction that are inclusive of race, ethnicity, language, cultural background, immigration status, religion, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and sexual behavior.

Culturally diverse and culturally appropriate? This Planned Parenthood legislation is neither inclusive nor respectful of orthodox Jewish, Christian or Muslim families. What families from these faith traditions deem to be “developmentally appropriate” is wildly different from what Planned Parenthood, the ACLU and Equality Illinois celebrate and promote. This point is further illuminated by the floor statement made by State Senator Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago):

In my history, before I came here, I was a preacher, and I preached on a regular basis. When I looked at bills like this it was really, really hard for me to get my hands around it, because it was so contrary to what we teach in church. But this is a law this is not a church. And we are representatives of the people in our district. We are not their preachers. We are not their pastors. We are not the ones that’s gonna make them keep the values right or their morals right. 

I learned by being here that many of the things that we held true in the church was actually hurting our community. And I think not having that knowledge not letting those children have the knowledge about what this is [is not good]

…

I’m standing in support of this bill as a new Patricia, not the Patricia that came in here. Because the Patricia that came in here would have had a hard time even voting for it, more less standing up and saying ‘yes, these children need to know what’s happening to them.’

State Senator Van Pelt has been in Springfield since 2013, and by her own testimony, it appears she has been thoroughly corrupted by the Springfield swamp. The “new Patricia,” must have a heart of stone because she has repeatedly ignored the Holy Spirit’s promptings to do what is right. The “new Patricia” no longer has a problem upholding sexually corrupt material being taught to children.

It was also disappointing  to hear State Senator Doris Turner (D-Carlinville) assert that “families come in very different sizes and boxes and no one has the right to define what a family is and what a family should consist of.” As with “marriage,” the God of creation ordained family. It is He who has the right to define what a family is and what it is not.

Senators Van Pelt, Turner and many of their colleagues think that “knowledge” will solve the problems caused by a sexualized culture. State Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) even stated on the floor during debate:

I just don’t understand it, I think what we are doing when we are teaching–again, age-appropriate, medically accurate–sex education to our children, we are arming them with knowledge, and I don’t know when that has ever been a bad thing. 

Maybe Senator Holmes doesn’t remember, or maybe she was never taught the creation story. Genesis 2:15-17 tells us:

Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

Knowledge of evil is not a good thing. It leads to death. Comprehensive sex education as proposed by Planned Parenthood, et al. is evil. Exposing young, innocent and impressionable students to Planned Parenthood’s  view of “age appropriate” material normalizes early and high-risk sexual experimentation.

Perhaps the clearest denunciation of this atrocious bill came from State Senator Darren Bailey who rightly said it will put “perversion into our schools.”

I sat here and I listen to this, and I participate in what I expect to be a prestigious body. And here we are dealing with absolute nonsense of putting perversion into our schools. Yeah, that’s what it is, it’s perversion.

Thank God we still have some state lawmakers in Springfield with the moral clarity and backbone to boldly tell the truth about this insidious agenda to undermine and subvert Judeo-Christian values.

You can watch/listen to the entire 57 minutes here:

More info:

The War on Children [VIDEO]

Stop CSE Tools & Resources

Sign the Online Petition

A Plea to Exit Public Schools ASAP

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Click HERE to learn about supporting IFI on a monthly basis.

This bill will put more impaired drivers on the road,
more impaired employees in the workplace
and more children at risk.

Before the regular session ended on May 31st, State Representative Kelly Cassidy (D-Chicago) and State Senator Heather Steans (D-Chicago) were able to pass legislation to decriminalize marijuana. The bill passed in both the Illinois House and Senate. Any day this dubious bill (SB 2228) will be sent to Governor Bruce Rauner, who will then have 60 days to sign it into law or veto it.

SB 2288 reduces criminal penalties from possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana to a civil law violation of $100 to $200. There are no limits to the number of civil law violations a person can receive, plus their record will be expunged every January 1st and July 1st.

What these lawmakers have done is removed a deterrent to drug use and addiction. They are moving full steam ahead toward full legalization. “Medical” marijuana and incremental decriminalization are the first necessary steps.

“The key to it is medical access, because once you have hundreds of thousands of people using marijuana under medical supervision the whole scam is going to be bought. Once there’s medical access…then we will get full legalization.” Richard Cowan, former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send an email or fax to Governor Rauner.  Please urge him to veto SB 2228. Also, please call his Springfield office at (217) 782-0244. A tally report is given to the governor at the end of each day. There is a huge liability issue at stake that the governor should be concerned about. Who will assume responsibility for the increase in road fatalities, psychotic incidents, youth addictions, not to mention employer liability?

Too many lawmakers have been erroneously led to believe that our prisons and judicial system are overrun with “petty” marijuana offenses.  This is NOT the truth.  Please read a former Will County and Cook County Assistant State Attorney as he exposes this myth in an article he wrote exclusively for Illinois Family Institute: Cannabis Myths Exposed

This legislation was co-sponsored by State Representatives Barbara Flynn Currie (D-Chicago), Carol Ammons (D-Champaign), Sonya Harper (D-Chicago), Michael Zalewski (D-Riverside), Ed Sullivan (R-Mundelein), Christian Mitchell (D-Chicago), Jehan Gordon-Booth (D-Peoria), and Will Guzzardi (D-Chicago).

In the Illinois Senate, this legislation was co-sponsored by State Senators Michael Noland (D-Elgin) , Jacqueline Collins (D-Chicago), Jason Barickman (R-Pontiac), Toi Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights), Don Harmon (D-Chicago), Pam Althoff (R-Crystal Lake), Karen McConnaughay (R-West Dundee), Linda Holmes (D-Aurora), Napoleon Harris (D-Harvey), Emil Jones III (D-Chicago), Patricia Van Pelt (D-Chicago), Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), and Iris Martinez (D-Chicago).

Background

Contrary to one of the reasons lawmakers give for decriminalization, prisons are NOT overcrowded with marijuana users. Click Here and Here  and Here.

Marijuana is NOT Harmless. Cannabis Use is classified as a Disorder in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

The American Academy of Pediatrics opposes medical marijuana outside the regulatory process of the FDA and opposes legalization because of the potential harms to children and adolescents.

The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s policy statement warns of the negative effects on children.

The American Academy of Neurology warns that medical marijuana legislation is not supported by medical research.

The American Society of Addiction Medicine recognizes “there are several potential medical and public health consequences of marijuana use that require further research.”

Fatal car crashes involving marijuana double after states legalize the drug. States that have relaxed their laws are seeing a 24.4% increase in car fatalities.

Psychotic incidents increase with marijuana use. Click Here and Here and Here and Here and Here.

Children will be affected. As perceived risk decreases, use increases. Colorado has seen a jump in school drug cases.  Click Here and Here. Furthermore, a diminished IQ and cognitive performance and even brain abnormalities have been detected with “casual” use.

Drug use will become a big problem for employers.

With the state our state is in, why would lawmakers make it worse?

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Illinois doctors, nurses and medical personnel could be forced to make ethical choices between serving God and obeying the State with a bill being considered in the Illinois Senate.

Imagine for an instance that you’re a neurologist, and a patient comes to you for help with painful, paralyzing, never-ending headaches. You do everything you can to help him, but after months of experimental drug concoctions and nutritional experiments, the headaches worsen. Depressed and distraught, the patient decides he wants to end it all. He wants you to help him end his agony once and for all.

As a doctor, you’ve been trained and have sworn to “Do No Harm,” as Greek philosopher Hippocrates taught. Your pastor, church and the Scriptures say it is a mortal sin to end or assist with ending another human life.

But suppose that the state says that you must ignore your conscience or moral standards and deliver to the patient exactly what he wants. Your conscience and your religious beliefs are irrelevant. Or, it’s possible that a doctor refusing to assist with something as radical as suicide could be the basis for a lawsuit.

That’s what could happen with doctors, pharmacists, any medical personnel if SB 1564, State Senator Daniel Biss’ (D-Chicago) amendment to Illinois’ Health Care Right of Conscience Act, become law, says First Amendment attorney Thomas Brechja.

The proposal stipulates that a medical facility or physician must have an established protocol in place, printed to distribute to patients in response to any condition that the physician may find the patient seeking.

The legislation does not state that the protocol must include only legal recourses.

The idea of such a scenario may seem impossible to imagine, but that’s what Senator Biss’ plan in SB 1564 would set into place, Attorney Brechja said in an interview.

Even delaying the treatment by one day beyond what the patient demands could imperil an objecting doctor’s practice.

“If you’re impairing the patient’s health by delaying his or her access to a suicide pill, [for example], that may be ‘Brave New World,’ but we’re already living in ‘Brave New World,’” Brechja said. “Who knows what some court somewhere is going to decide. With this bill, you’ve certainly started down that path, and into the abyss.”

Once the law says a person’s conscience must yield to state or federal law, there’s no prediction where that may lead, Brechja said.

While Illinois’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act allows citizens to act upon their religious beliefs, Biss’ law would supersede the state’s RFRA.

Nationwide, some states’ conscience clauses explicitly cover abortion, contraception, sterilization, and the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatments.

Some clauses cover local conditions. For example in Oregon, a conscience clause describes a physician’s right of refusal concerning physician-assisted suicide, which is legal in that state.

Biss’ proposal contradicts the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, Brechja said, the first part of which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof …”

The legislation would overrule the religious beliefs of American citizens that practice medicine and encumber their constitutionally-guaranteed free exercise of religion.

The medical personnel would be required to have on hand printed information that can be immediately distributed to the patient with referrals to the desired service.

“This is dangerous legislation,” Brechja said.

Take ACTION:  Click HERE to send a message to your Illinois state senator to ask him/her to please uphold religious freedom and conscience for medical personnel in Illinois.  Ask them to reject SB 1564

The Illinois Medical Society and the Illinois Citizens for Life lobbyists agree. They are opposing SB 1564.

Thus far, only the Illinois Social Workers have signed on in support of Biss’ legislation.  However, the bill is co-sponsored by State Senators Julie A. Morrison (D-Deerfield), Toi W. Hutchinson (D-Chicago Heights), Linda Holmes (D-Chicago), Kimberly A. Lightford (D-Chicago), Michael Noland (D-Elgin), Heather A. Steans (D-Chicago), William Delgado (D-Chicago) and Iris Y. Martinez (D-Chicago).

SB 1564 may be heard on March 17, 2015 in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Biss’ office said.

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How did they vote?

On Friday, May 17th, the bill to legalize marijuana as “medicine” was debated on the Illinois Senate floor and then passed by a vote of 35-21.  This 200+ bill (HB 1) was sponsored by State Senator William Haine (D-Alton), and co-sponsored by Senators Linda Holmes (D-Aurora), Iris Martinez (D-Chicago), and William Delgado (D-Chicago).  

During debate, Senator Kyle McCarter (R-Vandalia) shared a heart-breaking story about the loss of his own child as a result of marijuana as a gateway drug.  Senator Mattie Hunter (D-Chicago), a certified drug and alcohol counselor, also spoke emphatically against the bill.  Senators Tim Bivins (R-Dixon), Darin LaHood (R-Peoria) and Jason Barickman (R-Blomington) also spoke in opposition to this proposal.

Democrats voting against the bill include Senators Bill Cunningham (Chicago), Mattie Hunter (Chicago), Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant (Plainfield), Gary Forby (Benton), Napoleon Harris (Harvey) and Julie Morrison (Deerfield).

Republicans voting for the bill include Senators Dave Syverson (Rockford), Pam Althoff (Crystal Lake) and Jim Oberweis (North Aurora).

See how your state senator voted HERE and how your state representative voted HERE.

This bill will now be sent to Governor Patrick Quinn .  According to various reports, Gov. Quinn is “is keeping an open mind about the issue.”  

Take ACTION: Click HERE to send an email or a fax to your Gov. Quinn today to ask him to veto HB 1.  You can call also call the Governor’s office to articulate your objections to having this bill signed into law.  The toll-free number to Gov. Quinn’s off is Call 800-642-3112.  Please do this today!  

Legitimizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes will encourage and increase destructive behavior, especially among young people. Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug in the United States. Research has found that adolescent and teen drug use rises as the perception of harm diminishes.

Click HERE to download the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) White Paper on State-Level Proposals to Legalize Marijuana.

Contact Governor Quinn now!

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