Vote like your child’s human rights, education & life depends on it

By: E Roy (She/Her)
Address:Orlando, FL
Short Bio: Compliance, Litigation, Counseling and Education

How would you feel if laws were being passed that threatened your child’s existence, healthcare, and education?

Families, like ours, are doubling down to protect our most vulnerable humans when laws are being passed that tell them that their existence simply should not be.

Imagine if your child’s right to be who they are was deemed invalid because they did not fit others' perceptions of what gender should be.

After November 8th, the advancement of ideologies like these could very possibly become reality in Florida. Democracy, freedom, and our children’s future are at stake.

Groups like Moms for Liberty, associated with several conservative candidates, are backed by a legitimate hate group: the Proud Boys, a known white supremacist organization that helped plan a coup attempt on January 6th in Washington, D.C. Extremely conservative candidates are running to advance a hate-fueled agenda and create chaos in our public systems.

The same organizations waving banners of "parent rights" in education are stripping away "parent rights" when it comes to the health care of their children.

This is familiar ground; I grew up in a country where, at one time, education and my native language were outlawed in order to keep people compliant and ignorant. Teachers had to teach in hedge schools (in ditches, where teachers then saved the day too). The state, church, and government overlapped at the cost of similar basic medical access for women like me. Abortion and divorce were outlawed. Women were considered chattels (property), and in the 1950s, they had to give up civil service careers upon marriage. Thankfully, people voted, and society evolved and made legislation reflecting what most people wanted. Recently, in that small European country, steps were taken to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ persons, while here in Florida, those rights are being removed. Let's move forward in time rather than back!

In mid-October, I witnessed, during a Board of Education meeting, that one of the few teachers called to speak was then blocked from politely speaking as soon as she started. As a parent, the rights issues we’ve had in education stemmed from the top down, systemically. Few, if any, issues were caused by frontline teachers, who deserve to be able to teach real facts and not be halted from speaking about real humans of every kind without fear of losing their jobs and teaching licenses.

Having substituted in exceptional student and general education, it is disturbing to see the scapegoating of teachers.

In recent weeks, at the Florida Board of Medicine meetings, parents like me witnessed, for the first time, a medical board involved in banning life-saving treatments for transgender children. When gender-affirming care is medically proven to be life-saving care, is this what we want Florida to be known for? The disregarding of acceptable worldwide medical practice (WPath). Spin doctoring was the only doctoring I saw, as is evident in the public recording of last week's meeting, which ended almost 3 hours before the scheduled 6 p.m soon after topics such as public-record campaign donations by board appointees. When ending the meeting hours early only 8 members of the public had spoken.

The rights and protections that persons with disabilities have as fundamental, were called into question by the Board's sweeping determinations that comorbid conditions, such as autism, were excluded from commonly accepted treatment of gender dysphoria. Here's the thing; 25% of neurodiverse people are also non-binary. Without neurodiversity, we'd all be sitting in a cave trying to light a fire (Temple Grandin said that, I think). And no, correlation does not equal causation; if anything, those on the spectrum are less likely to be swayed by societal norms.

The freedom to be who we are, to love who we love, to have access to read and learn the truth, and to think critically. Only voting can protect such fundamental rights.

The current government waves a banner of parent rights in education yet removes those same parent rights in matters of life-saving treatments for children.

I don’t want the government in my kid’s classroom any more than I want the medical board making sweeping determinations that undermine the practitioner-patient relationship and any doctor's ability to apply the Hippocratic oath: do no harm.

So many scare words are bandied around, such as "grooming" and "pornography" in the context of parenting and access to books; it is all gaslighting and smoke screens to create a crisis around issues that do not exist—solely to advance these individuals' own radical conservative agenda. It is as much a waste of our taxpayer funds as flying immigrants from one state to another (to make a point). November 8th is your chance to make your point!

Will the government be protecting children when they are victims of bullying due to racial abuse or homophobia?

Is it within a parent’s right to let their child endure psychological abuse because school staff are mandated to tell them that their life experiences do not exist?

How will denying books and curriculum that will help students learn from the past to guide a future of peace and equality help adults feel "uncomfortable"?

Florida voters have a chance to put an end to the charades. As a parent, I am urging you: don’t let the government and the legislature encroach any further into our children's public school classrooms or medical appointments.

Don’t let them use hate to speak for you; go out and vote on November 8th!

Sincerely,

E Roy

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