Maryland parents are on the warpath against gender ideology, which they believe is steering their children onto the wrong track.
And so the mothers and fathers of Frederick County have petitioned the County Superintendent of Schools to notify a parent when his or her child signals a desire to change gender.
On March 23, a public forum in Eldersburg, Maryland, heard from a panel of experts that public schools are grooming vulnerable students to transition away from their sex at birth.
The gathering was sponsored by Moms for Liberty and co-sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the Leadership Institute.
The word “grooming” might refer to two types, according to Dr. Jay Richards, director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion and Family at the Heritage Foundation, who spoke to the gathering.
“One is grooming a child for sex,” he said, “but there is also ideological grooming that gets a child in a total new thought world.
“That’s why the word ‘grooming’ is important even when the teacher is not a pedophile,” Richards added.
“Introducing children to these concepts in gender ideology whereby you can have a gender identity that is totally contrary to your biological sex is the worst toxic ideology you could teach to a kid because you are teaching a child that he or she is born into the wrong body.”
“What the schools are doing is definitely grooming,” said Utah-based advocate Dr. Erin Brewer, co-founder of Advocates Protecting Children and Compassion Coalition, at the gathering.
Brewer added: “It allows teachers to talk to small children about their genitals, breaking down barriers, and teaches the kids to deceive their parents, telling them ‘what goes on in this classroom, don’t go tell your parents!’”
Brewer said she is a former “trans kid” who was helped back to reality by good cognitive therapy, which is today being banned for children.
