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Babe Ruthless's avatar

"Better an uproar than a whisper..." (Chef's Kiss)

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Andy's avatar

This problem arises when ideology meets reality: it gets messy, and one must be able to differentiate rare contexts in which there may be exceptions. Picture this: your kid goes to a park or a friend's house, and one of their parents gives them access to a graphic novel that depicts sexual acts which are age-inappropriate, considering they haven't even reached puberty. Then this individual tells them some people are born in the wrong bodies if one "feels" more closely aligned to those of the opposite gender or perhaps somewhere in between based on their preference for stereotypes most closely aligned with that gender like "girls play with barbies and boys play with trucks" then perhaps they ARE that gender. Any parent would be rightly concerned with another adult exposing their child to materials that are not only inappropriate but without their knowledge or consent. These issues are hardly a matter of "free speech," as some may be quick to assume. Instead, these debates are about the prioritization of adult civil liberties above the laws established to protect minor children and parents' constitutional rights (14th Amendment.)

A federal statute and additional state statutes prohibit the distribution of obscene and pornographic content to minors. Even more concerningly, these debates also present citizens with another dilemma which implies that tax-funded institutions such as public schools have the right to infringe on a parent's rights AND are not expected to follow the same laws which govern their citizens. I encourage those to view the books Ron DeSantis is removing from schools, which ironically should not legally be there in the first place.

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