KY Family Foundation pledges to fight ‘indoctrination of children in schools’

Christians must embrace a Bible-centered, conservative approach to ward off a “morally toxic” culture led by America’s progressives where “children are targeted,” panelists at the Family Foundation’s family forum told the Associated Press on Saturday. supporters.

At the Kentucky Family Forum in Lexington, panelists speaking to about 250 people expressed strong opposition to Kentucky’s Amendment 2, calling for greater restrictions on pornography, tightening access to abortion pills purchased online and the removal of “inappropriate” books from school libraries.

“Roe v. Wade is gone, but the devil is back with a vengeance,” said Sue Swayze Liebel, director of state affairs at Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America,

It was one of several groups speaking at the forum attacking the “woke ideologies” that foundation leaders say are corrupting America.

“We say no to killing unborn children (and) to redefining marriage. We say no to attacks on religious freedom and the closing of our churches (and) to the indoctrination of children in our schools,” said David Walls, executive director of the Family Foundation.

The Family Foundation is a conservative Christian lobby group that supports “pro-family” policies.

That agenda included age verification restrictions on access to pornography, abortion bans without exceptions for rape or incest, opposing the legalization of medical marijuana and sports gambling, supporting a ban on gender-affirming health care for transgender teens, and support for conversion therapy. .

This is a discredited form of counseling that aims to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. It is based on the belief that living as an LGBTQ person is morally wrong and a sin.

The group’s second-annual forum was advertised as an educational event to “promote a biblical worldview, help build and unite the pro-family policy movement across Kentucky, and . . . equips Christians to participate effectively in culture.”

It showcased recent legislation in the Kentucky Legislature where the Family Foundation played a role in passing and teasing future policy ideas “based on truth, rooted in a biblical worldview (and) that brightened the path for our society to bring glory to God to bring,” Walls said.

Compared to last year’s event, where more than two dozen Republican lawmakers attended, far fewer members of the Republican Party attended this year’s forum. Sens. Gex Williams of Verona and Lindsey Tichenor of Smithfield were the only Republican lawmakers to speak on panels.

Similar to last year’s themes, panelists Saturday painted a bleak, conspiratorial picture of today’s America; one in which the far political left works diligently to indoctrinate children in ways that contradict Biblical teachings, while purposefully breaking up families not only by redefining marriage, but also by integrating LGBTQ culture.

“We live in a culturally challenging time, a time of moral revolution in which the very definition of what it means to be made in the image of God is under attack, (and) the rights of parents to direct education of their children is being questioned,” Walls said.

Complicit parties in this endeavor include non-Christian groups such as the government, the media and public schools. These institutions collectively coordinate the spread of “morally toxic” and “harmful ideology” in an effort to “transform our culture and defy our nation” with a “complete disregard for faith, decency and morality,” Walls said.

Part of that effort is being carried out by supporters of the “LGBTQ agenda,” several panelists said, which uses drag shows to “recruit your kids” and “bring his way of life to the younger generations,” said Joseph Kohm of the Family Policy Alliance. .

LGBTQ culture specifically targets children, says Jay Richards of the Heritage Foundation.

“The left realizes that you have to catch people when they are young. That’s why you have drag queen story hours for five-year-olds and not for retirement homes,” Richards said.

Public schools are working together on this agenda goal, they all agreed; The main option school counselors offer when a student is struggling with gender identity is “transgenderism,” because “like it or not, government schools are the main way they reach kids when they’re little,” Richards added.

And Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s recent decision banning the use of taxpayer money for conversion therapy “keeps the truth away from children who are suffering,” said Greg Chafuen, senior adviser at the Alliance Defending Freedom.

Policy priorities to uphold a ‘biblical worldview’

The event hosted by one of the state’s most influential lobbying groups was a fundraiser but also serves as a way to tease the policy goals and priorities of the growing far-right wing of the Republican Party, which controls both legislative chambers in Frankfort.

While specific bills were not mentioned, lobbyists, a handful of Republican lawmakers and conservative think tank staffers expressed interest in proposing a range of policies during the upcoming legislative session.

That list includes limiting cell phone use in schools; expanding age verification restrictions in pornography; codifying explicit definitions of “male” and “female” in state law; removing school library books deemed inappropriate; and increased scrutiny of abortion pills purchased over the Internet.

Liebel decried the wave of constitutional amendments across the country, including in Kentucky, that sought to preserve access to abortion. In 2022, Kentucky voted down an amendment that sought to change the state constitution to clarify that there was no constitutional right to abortion in the state.

Liebel said the current fight to protect “reproductive health care” also means “trans stuff,” adding, “Make no mistake, it’s not just about abortion. This is a Trojan horse for transgender people.”

At the podium next to Liebel, Addia Wuchner, executive director of Kentucky Right to Life, asked if any members of the media were present.

The Lexington Herald-Leader was the only media outlet present.

“If I’m going to reveal plans for the next session because the media is here, that’s not going to happen,” Wuchner said, likening the forum to a “church service.”

A few minutes later, Wuchner said that “we will look at” limiting the “buckets, handfuls, shipments of illegal abortion pills” that she said are “pouring into this state.”

Purchases of mail-order abortion pills continue to rise in states that have restricted abortion, including Kentucky, where the medical procedure has been banned since 2022 except in cases where a medical emergency threatens the life of a pregnant person.

These abortions are not always formally monitored by government agencies that monitor terminations of pregnancy under doctor’s supervision. Only 23 legal abortions were reported by health care facilities in Kentucky in 2023, according to the annual abortion report from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services Office of Vital Statistics.

Support for Amendment 2

Speakers of the day’s closing panel, “Amendment 2 and the Future of Educational Freedom in Kentucky,” characterized school choice as a necessary remedy to the liberal slant of public education, which is part of the larger plan to “indoctrinate” America’s children ‘. .

Amendment 2 will ask voters whether they want to change Kentucky’s constitution, which allows public dollars to go to charter, religious and other private schools. The Republican Party-backed amendment faces widespread opposition from public school teachers, administrators and districts across Kentucky, as well as Beshear.

The Kentucky Association of School Administrators was the latest group to speak out against the opposition, passing a formal resolution last week opposing Amendment 2, in part because it “will cause serious harm to public schools and the students they serve. ”

Panelists at the forum vaguely acknowledged this opposition, but Jesse Green of the Family Foundation attributed it to schools being “weaponized by opponents of family (and) conservative values.”

“School choice threatens their ability to continue using schools in similar ways because it provides an opportunity for families to get their families out of there,” Green said.

For Sen. Lindsey Tichenor, R-Smithfield, who sponsored the bill that put Amendment 2 on the ballot, her dissatisfaction with public schools began during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In 2020, when they closed our doors when they masked our children, when we saw what was happening inside the schools in the book and education curriculum that was really and truly a very deliberate attempt to keep parents out, I started to think : we have to have something different,” she said.

Amendment 2 “would open the door to more options for families,” Tichenor said. “We need those options for our children.”