Scharfenberger Endorsed By Group Fighting LGBTQ/Sex Ed In Schools

MONMOUTH COUNTY, NJ — The Republican assemblyman running for re-election this fall in Monmouth County has been endorsed by a group that wants to roll back new sex-ed and LGBTQ curriculum being taught in New Jersey public schools.

The assemblyman is Gerry Scharfenberger, former mayor of Middletown, who is currently running for re-election in New Jersey's 13th Legislative District. The group is called Protect Your Children (PYC), which called Scharfenberger a "hero" earlier this October.

One of the two Democrats running against Scharfenberger, Allison Friedman of Aberdeen, criticized him for the endorsement. She says the group is against LBTQ inclusion.

"PYC does its 'protecting' by forcing extreme religious and personal beliefs on those around them," she said. "How did Gerry Scharfenberger become a hero in the eyes of Team PYC? By being anti-LGBTQ, anti-reproductive rights and even anti-education."

In this op-ed, Friedman also said Scharfenberger is an "extremist."

Protect Your Children describes itself on its Facebook page as "parents, teachers, school board members, concerned taxpayers, mothers, fathers, church leaders, Christians, people of faith, Orthodox Jews, Muslims and Coptic Christians ... who want to protect the children from the pending LGBT curriculum. Our faith and our deep religious views are in peril."

In multiple Facebook posts, the group says it wants to spread "Biblical truths" and criticizes transgender people, saying in one post "children shouldn't be deciding if they want to be a boy or a girl. God already did that for them."

Scharfenberger did not reject the group's endorsement, and instead on Oct. 23 he posted "I want to thank Team PYC and all they do to protect the rights of parents and prevent government overreach."

In 2020, the New Jersey Board of Education released this new set of Health & Physical Education learning standards that by the end of fifth grade, teachers should "explain common human sexual development and the role of hormones (e.g., romantic and sexual feelings, masturbation, mood swings, timing of pubertal onset)." By the end of eighth grade, students should be able to "define vaginal, oral and anal sex." By the end of senior year, students should have had discussions with their teachers about safe sex practices, abstinence, Safe Haven laws, adoption and abortion.

Separately, the New Jersey Assembly passed bill A4454 last spring, which requires all schools in the state to include instruction on a range of topics, including: diversity, economic diversity, inclusion and tolerance in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, religious tolerance and unconscious bias. Gov. Murphy signed the bill into law in March and the new curriculum started in September.

The curriculum changes have been met by backlash: In Marlboro Twp. this fall, some parents have been waging a fierce battle to repeal the new curriculum, saying it includes "teaching subjects such as masturbation to fifth graders and gender identity to second graders."

In the revised DOE standards, it does call for classroom discussions of gender identity by the end of second grade, but the curriculum is not specific.

Similarly, in Toms River parents have been asking the school board "not to teach the sex stuff," particularly discussions of masturbation and anal sex.

New Jersey Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli said he too is against some parts of the curriculum, saying at an event at a Flemington gun range in July, "You won’t have to deal with it when I’m governor [because] we’re not teaching gender ID and sexual orientation to kindergartners. We’re not teaching sodomy in sixth grade. And we’re going to roll back the LGBTQ curriculum. It goes too far.”

Friedman said that Scharfenberger was out knocking on doors with the Protect Your Children group in Marlboro in October.

Scharfenberger said that is not correct; that he has never campaigned with the group but he does not reject their endorsement of him.

"Are you asking if I am against teaching anal sex to elementary school students? Of course I am," he told Patch. "This is insanity to me; let children be children. Do we have to sexualize second graders, for God's sakes? I have a fourteen-month old granddaughter and I don't want her to be exposed to this stuff."

"Look, I'm a free-market person. Do whatever the heck you want in your own home. I don't want to know about it," he said. "But it's ridiculous to try and force this onto elementary kids. These are topics better left to the parents. The place for discussions like this is between a parent and a child."

When asked if he supports same-sex marriages, Scharfenberger responded:

"It's the law of the land; I'm sworn to uphold the laws of the land. So that's a moot point."

His Democratic opponent Friedman said Scharfenberger's alliance with a group like Protect Your Children only divides people.

"There are two people living in Legislative District 13 that I look at as heroes: High school student Brad and his middle school sister Sarah," she said. "Brad came out to his family and friends as gay despite the isolation and bullying that coming out could bring upon him. Sarah, Brad’s younger sister, not only stands by his side in support but has begun forming a club she calls 'Safe Space.' It should not take a heroic act to be true to who you are but, in these times, for teenagers like Brad, it is heroic."

Scharfenberger is the same assemblyman who plans to introduce a bill in Trenton to outlaw critical race theory from being taught in New Jersey schools, despite lack of evidence that it's being taught at all.

"I have always said that curriculum should be strictly about academics; we have been veering too greatly into social engineering in our schools," he said. "We are getting our academic butts handed to us by other countries."

New Jersey's 13th District includes the towns of Aberdeen, Atlantic Highlands, Fair Haven, Hazlet, Highlands, Holmdel, Keansburg, Keyport, Little Silver, Marlboro, Middletown, Monmouth Beach, Oceanport, Sea Bright, Rumson and Union Beach.

The Republicans running are Scharfenberger, state Senator Declan O'Scanlon and Vicky Flynn of Holmdel.

The Democrats are Friedman, Vincent Solomeno of Hazlet and Erin Howard of Fair Haven.

The election will be Nov. 2. Monmouth County residents can vote mail-in, vote on Election Day or vote early by machine at these following 10 places from Oct. 23 - Oct. 31: https://patch.com/new-jersey/m...

Here is a Q&A with all the candidates in NJ's 13th District: Republicans Vs. Democrats In Battle For NJ 13 Statehouse Seats (Oct. 6)

Be the first to know. Sign up to get Patch emails: https://patch.com/subscribe Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com