Grooming your kids

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – There was a story in the Epoch Times the other week that to me encapsulates what is truly a war on our children. Over the years I have written and broadcast stories about how the progressive left, their allies in the media, politics, and academia groom your children to accept transgenderism as normal, but this story takes the cake. It deals with the transgendering of kids and doing so behind the backs of their parents. And this isn’t just about what some “wayward” faculty does out of sight. It is now being embraced by the Biden administration, the party it represents, as well as the entire left-wing of the body politic.

The story in question told about a school with a “transition closet” where an arriving student can change from the clothing of their biological sex into that of the opposite sex, change pronouns and names, behind the backs of their parents, and at the end of the day they can change back before going home. And like many other such schools, no one is allowed to talk to those actually responsible for the children, their parents and guardians.

The belief being the children are capable of understanding, if properly instructed, that the concept of biological sex is fluid and that it can be changed to the opposite sex or, for that matter, to any combination the child identifies as including no sex at all. And all with the help of a cabal of far left activists, teachers’ unions, and the dregs of our political class who now control the levers of power.

The school in question was Freemont High School of Oakland, Calif. Amare Roush, founder of the transition closet, says that they keep the existence of the closets “secret from parents” since they fear students will suffer abuse from their parents.

“The goal of the transition closet is for our students to wear the clothes that their parents approve of, come to school and then swap out into the clothes that fit who they truly are,” said Thomas Martin-Edwards, Spanish teacher at the Oakland Unified School District. He sponsors the transition closet and is himself transgender and has posted videos of himself in the classroom showing off the stilettos he wears.

This, of course, is out of sight of the parents, but under the nose of the school administrators. And this is not the only school that is engaging in similar nonsense with your children. Lawsuits across the country allege similar practices in local schools, including exposing children as young as four to pornographic pictures and videos all in an effort to “groom” impressionable youngsters into the trans community.

Jay Richards, Ph.D., director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, told my radio audience that this transgender movement is having an effect on children nationwide.

“The ideology is that our biological sex, that is our creation as male and female, that it’s not really a fundamental reality. What the fundamental reality is the subjective perceived gender identity that we all supposedly have and it is entirely independent of our bodies. That’s the philosophy behind all these weird movements that are now cropping up in places like Florida and at the school board level and that we are seeing in the national news,” he said.

It starts with what is called “gender-affirming care” in which the student’s gender identity is affirmed and ultimately ends with gender-affirming surgeries.

And, he noted, that this is not isolated to just a few renegade school boards, but is now the official policy of the United States as proclaimed by the Biden administration which has made gender-affirming care the polestar for all medical and psychological treatment of gender dysphoria cases involving children.

That gender-affirming care, which is now mandated by the government, begins with social affirmation, which starts with adopting gender-affirming hairstyles, clothing, name, pronouns, restrooms, and other facilities. This is followed by puberty blockers which stop pubertal development, and hormone therapy. Gender-affirming surgeries follow which permanently change the individual.

The Biden Justice Department has recently sent a letter to all state attorneys general warning them that if anyone, including the state or parents, interferes with a minor receiving gender-affirming care, they could be violating civil rights and other laws protecting the child. This means that a child who is still a minor, can request such treatment through a social worker, teacher, or some other adult, without the knowledge or approval of the parent. The choice, according to those who control the government, belongs to a child, even though the law considers the child incapable of any other legal choice.

Dr. Richards describes this “grooming” as almost comical. “If they are not put on this pathway, most kids who suffer gender dysphoria will grow out of it. Some 61 percent to 98 percent of these kids will naturally reconcile with their biological sex after going through puberty. In many cases puberty itself may be the cure for gender dysphoria.
“But that healing can be thwarted if a child is socially transitioned at home and school, and put on puberty blockers and then cross-sex drugs. The further kids go down this pathway, the less likely they are to turn back. And the greater is the cost for those who de-transition,” he said in an article published before his appearance.

He noted that the effect of keeping parents in the dark is to ultimately destroy the family unit. This is a “wrecking ball designed to destroy the institution of the family, which is the foundational cell of society in hope that some brand new utopia will come into play,” he told our radio listeners.

He also noted that the most susceptible children for this grooming tend to be those with other problems, such as being on the autism spectrum, having social anxiety, or even severe depression, that make for affirmative identity coaxing by trusted adults in a school setting more appealing where this activity has been normalized.

This, of course, should horrify parents or anyone who knows and loves a child, or, for that matter, anyone with a sense of right and wrong. So as I did last week with the column on post-birth abortion, we really need to take a hard look at the problem and see who is providing the impetus for this immorality.

First we must understand that this is totally immoral: It is an attack on young, innocent children for someone’s political or social gratification. The negative impact this will have on children cannot be overstated. Yet our leading politicians of the left, as well as the teachers’ unions, are all on board with this policy. We know who these people are, and, as I said last week, those who vote to continue them in office, where they can inflict this on our children, are morally complicit with this wickedness and will answer to a higher authority for their complicity in this evil.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com.)

Pro-Abortion Fascists Target Catholic Churches

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

The cops will hopefully be out in force this Sunday to monitor planned attacks inside Catholic churches. A left-wing fascist group, Ruth Sent Us, is asking its followers to crash Catholic churches on Mother’s Day.

Vandals have already struck in Boulder, Colorado, desecrating a church, and pro-abortion lunatics have rioted in Los Angeles.

Ruth Sent Us is named after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While she was an abortion-rights advocate, she also made it clear that the decision to legalize abortion should not have been made by the Supreme Court—it was up to lawmakers to render such a ruling. Moreover, she was never one to promote violence, never mind counsel a Nazi-like attack disrupting Mass.

Thus, Ruth Sent Us is wildly out of step with the thinking of the person they claim to be honoring. In fact, they are dishonoring her legacy.

We will press the authorities to prosecute any attack on a Catholic Church as a hate crime. These thugs need to be stopped in their tracks.

If President Biden does not address this issue, he is aiding and abetting anti-Catholicism.

Abortion Activists to Storm Catholic Churches During Mass on Mothers Day

CV NEWS FEED // A radical abortion group calling itself “Ruth Sent Us” announced this week that it is mobilizing activists to enter Catholic churches during Mass this coming Sunday in response to reports that the Supreme Court is set to overturn Roe vs. Wade.

“Whether you’re a ‘Catholic for Choice’, ex-Catholic, of other or no faith, recognize that six extremist Catholics set out to overturn Roe,” the group stated on Twitter. “Stand at or in a local Catholic Church Sun May 8.”

Ruth Sent Us included a video with the post, which showed activists dressed in Handmaid’s Tale costumes in a sacred building, disrupting worshippers with shouts of “Abortion on demand and without apology!” 

The same radical group earlier this week published the locations of pro-life Supreme Court justices’ private homes, calling on activists to show up at their houses. “We must rise up to force accountability using a diversity of tactics,” the group stated.

A Ruth Sent Us TikTok account uploaded a video of activists marching toward the doors of a Catholic Church. “Sometime a*****es need a beating,” the post stated.

Ruth Sent Us tweeted out another video of protesters interrupting Mass in another sacred building. The activists marched in and stood between the holy altar and the parishioners. “For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has been an institution for the enslavement of women,” shouted one.

“This is what Mother’s Day should look like,” tweeted Ruth Sent Us. “Catholic and Evangelical Churches nationwide.”

CatholicVote Communications Director Joshua Mercer says Catholics throughout the country should be wary and prepared when they attend Mass, especially this coming Sunday.

“In the past, we might have blown off the words of these activists as empty threats. But given the recent rash of very real attacks on Catholic statues and churches, it makes sense to be cautious,” Mercer said.

He added that Ruth Sent Us and other activists are quite explicit about their anti-Catholicism. “If they wanted, they could have just focused on the issue of abortion. But instead they chose to highlight the Catholic faith of some of the pro-life justices,” he said, noting that the radical abortion group called the justices “extremist Catholics.”

CatholicVote has called on Catholics to pray for the justices whose addresses were published. “We’re talking about human beings, with children,” Mercer said. “And this Sunday, keep your eyes open. These are ruthless people, and they’re looking for a confrontation.”

Below readers can view the radical activist group interrupting Mass.

https://twitter.com/RuthSentUs/status/1521502035887144962?s=20&t=X4mTg2HJtM-R3f0omtaKPg

https://twitter.com/RuthSentUs/status/1521566593850826752?s=20&t=XBPtKqBSGS4grbHwNbRXig

Biden Says Kids Belong to Their Teachers - The Stream

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This week’s Faith On Trial program

Here is a link to this week’s program with Chuck Hurley, vice president and chief legal counsel for The Family Leader:

https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/faith/episode/329a8757/dobbs-case-and-leak-of-draft-5522

Faith On Trial is heard every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM and 94.5 FM Des Moines; 88.5 FM Adel, and 90.9 FM Creston, or catch it streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com where you can find podcasts of our older programs that you may have missed.

Is Roe v. Wade About to be Overturned? And If So, What are the Implications? - The Stream

Is Roe v. Wade About to be Overturned? And If So, What are the Implications? - The Stream: According to an exclusive story on Politico, the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade when ruling on the Dobbs v. Jackson in June. An alleged draft of the majority opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito and leaked...

This week on FOT: the SCOTUS SNAFU: how will a leak affect Dobbs?

Chuck Hurley

This week on Faith On Trial we’ll be joined by Chuck Hurley, vice president and general counselfor The Family Leader, to discuss the events and possible ramifications of the unprecedented leak of a draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson, the case now pending before the United States Supreme Court that could overturn Roe v. Wade. He was instrumental in the amicus brief that The Family Leader filed in the Dobbs case. He will join Deacon Mike Manno and Julie Nelson, sitting in for the traveling Gina Noll.

Faith On Trial is heard every Thursday morning at 9:30 CT on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM and 94.5 FM Des Moines; 88.5 FM Adel, and 90.9 FM Creston, or catch it streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com where you can find podcasts of our older programs that you may have missed.

Statement of Thomas More Society on the leak of Justice Alito's draft opinion

“We applaud the legal excellence and persuasive power of the draft opinion, authored by Justice Alito, reversing Roe v. Wade, and returning the issue whether, and to what extent, abortions should be legally permitted to the political sphere to be fought on a state-by-state basis. But we remain deeply concerned. Some thirty years ago, we have been told, another draft opinion, reversing Roe, was circulated among the Justices, although not leaked to the public. We have been told, further, that the sharp reaction to this proposed draft reversal of Roe on the part of pro-abortion Justices persuaded three Justices -- O'Connor, J., Souter, J., and Kennedy, J. -- to change course and join in a concurring opinion that left the so-called "essential holding" of Roe intact, while subject to a new and unduly vague "undue burden" test applicable to state efforts to regulate and restrict abortion.

“We believe the leak of Justice Alito's draft opinion to the public -- an egregious breach of confidentiality at the high Court, that ought to be vigorously investigated and prosecuted -- was calculated to provoke a public outcry on the part of abortion providers and supporters, in the hope of intimidating one or more Justices to refrain from supporting Justice Alito's draft opinion. No doubt this blatant tactic was inspired by pro-abortion extremism. Thus Planned Parenthood is already orchestrating mass demonstrations at federal courts, as planned by the leaker or leakers of the draft opinion.

“We hope and pray -- with confidence -- that pro-lifers everywhere will stand firm and counter these efforts to intimidate our Justices, and that the Justices too will be steadfast in adhering to the rule of law. We look forward to the release of the Court's final official ruling, which we now hope and pray will be a true cause for celebration in witness of Roe's demise. And then, we will renew our determination to fight in the legislatures and courts of each of our 50 states to win full and final protection for the sanctity of each and every human being's life, from conception until natural death.”

Tom Brejcha, President and Chief Counsel Thomas More Society

How low can the Dems go?

By Deacon Mike Manno

(The Wanderer) – I have expressed in this space many times my concern about the extreme direction of the party of my former loyalty. My displeasure originally centered around its increasing support of abortion which is now turning into a full-blown war on babies.

Exhibit 1 is a bill in the California legislature, AB 2223, which recently passed out of the Assembly’s Judiciary Committee on a straight party-line vote. Under the bill, according to pro-life attorneys in California, it may soon be legal to deliberately allow an already born baby to die, and those responsible for the death might be eligible to a cash reward from anyone — state officials included — who attempt to investigate.

Think of it this way: Remember former Virginia Gov. Ralph “Blackface” Northam, who once opined that a baby born after a botched abortion should be made comfortable until its mother and doctor decided what to do? Well, this is much the same with two changes: First this will apply to all such children, and second, it applies not to mothers, but to all “birthing persons.”

What the bill does, in effect, is that it bans investigations into any perinatal death, which under state law could include deaths occurring 60 or 90 days (pick your code section) after birth. According to the proposed bill, which amends the existing state health and safety code:

“Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability or penalty…based on their actions or omissions with respect to their pregnancy or actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcome, including miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion, or perinatal death.”

Why? Because the state’s Democrat Party has found a new cause célèbre, reproductive justice, which they wrote into the bill’s findings:

“Reproductive justice is the human right to control our bodies, sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction. That right can only be achieved when all people, particularly women and girls, have the complete economic, social, and political power and resources to make healthy decisions about their bodies, families, and communities in all areas of their lives. At the core of reproductive justice is the belief in the right to bodily autonomy, the right to have children, the right to not have children, and the right to parent the children we have with dignity and respect in safe and sustainable communities…. “A critical part of realizing reproductive justice for people in California is clarifying that there shall be no civil and criminal penalties for people’s action, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcomes….

“Also across the country, pregnant people are under threat of civil penalties for their actual, potential, or alleged pregnancy outcomes and civil penalties have been threatened against people who aid or assist pregnant people in exercising their rights. . . .

“Civil and criminal penalties imposed on pregnant people is a critical issue for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, who experience adverse pregnancy outcomes as a result of systemic racial inequities and are more likely to be under scrutiny of state systems like child welfare or immigration.”

So, there is to be no investigation of fetal or perinatal deaths in the state, and should there be one the target or targets of the investigation have license to sue the investigator, be it a beat cop, social worker, or hospital medic.

Explains Susan S. Arnall of the Right to Life League in a statement appearing on the league’s website:

“Under Section 7 of AB 2223, if a 28-day-old baby dies from abandonment or the mother’s neglect and police investigate and eventually arrest her for the baby’s death, the mother can sue the police for monetary damages plus attorneys’ fees. Nor can the state prosecute other people complicit in committing perinatal deaths.”

She notes that the Democrats in the legislature have proposed more than 12 pro-abortion bills during the current session “to fully fund their atrocious and sweeping attack on the most innocent people among us.” The worst of these bills, she says, is AB 2223 which “actually legalizes infanticide, potentially allowing the killing of a baby up to two months old.”

 This “radical” abortion legislation is being pushed through the legislature at “warp speed” by a coalition of Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups, she said.

The bill decriminalizes infanticide, she says, and it does it by eliminating any penalty, civil or criminal, for abortions or perinatal deaths, which are defined as a deaths occurring 30 to 60 days after birth, depending on code section consulted. She opines that the legislature can further expand “reproductive justice” by simply redefining the word “perinatal” more expansively.

Additionally, the proposed law also protects those that assist the “birthing person” to do away with a troublesome pregnancy or child.

“In California under AB 2223, former Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell, who murdered three infants born alive after botched abortions, could not be prosecuted. And incredibly, someone like Gosnell who helped a California mother kill her newborn after birth will actually have a cause of action to sue police for investigating the matter if AB 2223 becomes law,” she said.

LifeSiteNews contributor Ashley Sadler, who recently joined us on the Faith On Trial radio program, reported that noted California attorney Charles LiMandri, a special counsel for the Thomas More Society, as well as a recent guest on the program, has opined that the bill does open the door to infanticide: Including the word “perinatal” in the bill expands its reach beyond abortion.

Of course this is not limited only to California. The Democrats in Maryland have introduced a similar measure in that state, Senate Bill 669, which party leaders claim they have the votes to override an expected veto by GOP Gov. Larry Hogan. Well-known pro-life writer Wesley J. Smith noted that 669 “effectively decriminalizes death by neglect for the first 28 days of life.”

Obviously these, and similar bills like them are being promoted as Dems fear the Supreme Court will strike down Roe v. Wade when it rules on the controversial Dobbs v. Jackson Woman’s Health Clinic later this year. Thus countless number of pro-abortion groups are gathering their political allies as a buffer against any loss of abortion “rights” by a potential court ruling.

Abortion has been seen by many as a personal right that should not be tampered with; concepts of bodily freedom and self-determination have played an important part in shaping the attitudes of countless voters, including Catholics, many of whom see this as just a political issue.

Needless to say, it is not a political issue, nor is it a partisan issue, and those who believe it to be so have a staggering misconception of the faith. Clearly it is a moral issue which requires a high degree of moral certainty to publicly oppose, even, unfortunately, within Catholic circles.

My hope is that the blatant immorality of these bills will finally shock the consciences of even those liberal Catholics who have refused, up to this point, to recognize what this debate is all about, the value of human life, and it is not something that can be traded in the political marketplace for any other secular issue.

Hopefully our Church leaders will wake up as well. For too long they have seemed far too willing to adopt a laissez-faire attitude toward abortion. Now is the time for them to speak out, not only against the moral atrocity this represents, but against those who promote it.

(You can reach Mike at: DeaconMike@q.com and listen to him every Thursday morning at 9:30 on Faith On Trial on IowaCatholicRadio.com).

Justices Ask Whether Left's Wokeness Should Be the Only Religion Allowed in Public Schools - The Stream

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Transgenderism for kids

This week’s Faith On Trial with Dr. Jay Richards from the Heritage Foundation on the effects of transgenderism on children … listen here:

https://www.iowacatholicradio.com/faith/episode/1ba3a6a6/the-effects-of-trans-indoctrination-on-children-42822

Faith On Trial airs every Thursday at 9:30 CT on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM and 94.5 FM Des Moines; 88.5 FM Adel, and 90.9 FM Creston, or catch it streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com where you can find podcasts of our older programs that you may have missed.

Harvard's cheap reparations gambit

By Catholic League president Bill Donohue

Slavery has existed in every part of the world, and it was rarely considered to be morally wrong until Christianity condemned it. In fact, when the U.S. was founded in the late 18th century, Western Europe was the only place in the world where slavery did not exist. 

It is ironic to note that white people today feel obliged to provide reparations to black people when white people were the first to object to slavery. They sure didn't object in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia—they thought it was normal. 

Harvard University is the latest institution to offer its mea culpa, this time with a pledge to spend $100 million of its $53 billion endowment on an endowed "Legacy of Slavery Fund." No money will go to any individuals. The money will pay for memorials and curricula to honor the past and for exchange programs between Harvard and black colleges, as well as other ventures. 

This is a cheap gambit. What makes it cheap is not that it represents only .188% of its total holdings—what makes it cheap is that it does absolutely nothing to address the status of African Americans in the U.S. today. 

Tomiko Brown-Nagin is the professor who is leading a committee on this project. "The university is committed to deeply meaningful and sustained remedies that will endure in perpetuity," she said. "These remedies are focused on leveraging our expertise in education, which is consistent with our mission." 

If the committee is serious, it should endorse charter schools. Charter schools are public schools that are privately run, and they are a smashing success. Black parents love them, precisely because traditional public schools have failed them for decades. 

If the committee is serious, it should endorse school choice initiatives, programs which black parents also love. School choice would give these parents the right to send their children to a private or parochial school, places that have a proven record of academic excellence. 

If the committee is serious, it should break with the Harvard Graduate Council, which represents 12 Harvard graduate and professional schools. The Council supports Black Lives Matter, a racist and corrupt organization that seeks to punish blacks by destroying the nuclear family. It also wants to defund the police, a policy overwhelmingly rejected by blacks. 

If the committee is serious, it should stop segregating the races by having black graduation ceremonies and the like. 

If the committee is serious, it should start treating people of all races and ethnicities as equal and stop discriminating against Asians in its admissions policy. 

Grandstanding and chest-beating exercises are the cheapest way to address this issue. Why not finally do something that will really provide "meaningful and sustained remedies that will endure in perpetuity"? Why not support education reforms that gives blacks the same opportunities available to affluent whites?

 

What the Left Has Done to Women - The Stream

What the Left Has Done to Women - The Stream: Nothing demonstrates the power of left-wing ideology as much as what this ideology has done to women. The Left ruins everything it touches.

How much does transgenderism hurt your kid?

Jay Richards

This week on Faith On Trial we’ll be asking the question, does transgenderism hurt your child? And how should parents deal with unwanted transgender ideology coming home with your child from school? Deacon Mike and Gina will discuss this with an expert in the field from the Heritage Foundation, Jay Richards, who is director of Heritage’s DeVoss Center for Life, Religion, and Family.  Jay researches, writes, and speaks on policy that protects life, marriage, religious liberty and civil society.  He has authored or edited more than a dozen books and has written extensively for numerous academic publications.

You can listen to our conversation with Jay on Thursday morning, April 28 a 9:30 CT on Iowa Catholic Radio, 1150 AM and 94.5 FM Des Moines; 88.5 FM Adel, and 90.9 FM Creston, or catch it streaming on IowaCatholicRadio.com where you can find podcasts of our older programs that you may have missed.