Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Florida’s social studies curriculum:

Last spring, several critics of Western Civilization, mostly atheists, took aim at Florida’s proposed social studies curriculum. Their phobia of religion was on grand display as they railed against supposed religious indoctrination. Over the summer, the draft of the curriculum was revised. Some changes were made, though none were substantial.

Critics were particularly exercised over any mention of the Judeo-Christian roots of Western civilization and American history.

Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) is one of the nation’s premier Christian-bashing organizations. The atheists were upset with the draft curriculum which they said emphasized “how Judeo-Christian values influenced American’s founding ideals and documents”; they also objected to asking students to identify “Judeo-Christian values.” An attorney for FFRF, Ryan D. Jayne, opined that “Public schools cannot present the government as a Christian or ‘Judeo-Christian’ entity.”

American Atheists also expressed its outrage over the alleged emphasis on the “Judeo-Christian” roots of the American founding, and the need to identify “Judeo-Christian” values.

Jocelyn Williamson of the Central Florida Freethought Community wrote a piece for the Orlando Sentinel where she feared students would learn of “Judeo-Christian” exceptionalism in American history.

These critics are all dishonest. In the draft curriculum, the term “Judeo-Christian” is never mentioned. They made it up. The final version makes one mention, saying it is important for ninth grade students to recognize the historical and religious roots of Western civilization, including the “Judeo-Christian influence.”

FFRF does not like the term “God-given rights” in reference to the Declaration of Independence. It should be happy knowing that it was deleted in the final document (though reference to “In God We Trust” and “one nation under God” remained). Similarly, the word “Creator” in the Declaration initially was mentioned twice but was cut to one.

All of these critics were unhappy with mentioning the Ten Commandments, and some were angered over the term “Protestant work ethic.” The former appeared once in the draft and was excised from the final document; neither the draft nor the approved version makes any reference to the “Protestant work ethic.”

The fact is America has benefited from the Protestant work ethic, and indeed those who do not embody it tend to be at the bottom of the socio-economic scale. Importantly, our rights as Americans do not come from government—they are “God-given,” the result of our “Creator,” as noted by Jefferson in the Declaration. Moreover, the Ten Commandments are the moral edifice of Western civilization, which is based on our “Judeo-Christian” values.

The assault on the religious roots of our heritage is not something we should tolerate. The truth can never be sacrificed on the altar of radical secularism.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue speaks to the issue of school choice:

As we begin the new school year, school choice has never been more important than it is now. Coming off a year where approximately 6 in 10 public school students worked from home and did not attend class—as many as 6 percent skipped school altogether—parents need to be given the choice of sending their children to a Catholic school or a Christian school. For starters, unlike their public school competitors, most of those schools stayed open.

Last year was a mixed year for Catholic schools. While enrollment was down, the demand for Catholic schools was evident in states where school choice programs were operative. There are many good reasons why parents elect to send their children to a Catholic school when allotted a voucher or other school choice initiative.

The Catholic school student-teacher ratio hovers around 13:1, considerably lower than in the public schools. Almost all, 99%, of Catholic school high school students graduate; of those, almost 90% go to college. Minority students benefit the most: they are more likely to graduate from high school and attend college than their peers who go to a public school. That’s because academic achievement is greater in Catholic schools. They are also much safer, with less student misbehavior.

A recent survey by the Herzog Foundation found that in the Protestant community, parents who sent their children to Christian schools last year were much more satisfied with the results than were parents who sent their children to a public school. Like the Catholic schools, Christian schools were much more likely to stay open during the pandemic, making it easier for parents to manage their child’s assignments; their children also exhibited good morale.

Other alternatives to traditional public school education are charter schools and homeschooling. Both witnessed a spike last year. Florida led the way, with more school-choice reforms than any other state.

School choice is making headway, though 19 states still have no such program, and many of those that do need to be expanded. Survey after survey shows that parents overwhelmingly want school choice, and this is especially true in minority communities. But resistance from teachers’ unions, and their Democratic allies in government (whom they lavishly grease), continue to stand in the way of progress.

Many of those who oppose school choice like to talk about “intersectionality,” a condition where demographic variables such as race and class intersect, often with horrific consequences for those at the bottom of the socio-economic scale.

These anti-choice activists are phonies—they should instead speak about their contributions to intersectionality.

To be exact, those who deny school choice are promoting a sick milieu where race and class merge. After all, it is black and brown people from low-income neighborhoods who are the most likely to be victimized when school choice does not exist. By consigning them to schools which white affluent parents would never choose for their own children, the proponents of intersectionality are maximizing the very phenomenon they purport to loathe.

School choice is the wave of the future. It is time to label its opponents as generators of race and class discrimination.

This is the last installment of our three-part series on this subject.

• When no intervention is made 70% of children with gender dysphoria will grow out of it on their own.

•  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) lists eight conditions that are associated with gender dysphoria in children. A child is diagnosed with this condition if they meet six of them. They are:

–A strong desire to be of the other gender or insistence that one is the other gender
–A strong preference for cross-dressing or simulating [other gender] attire
–A strong preference for the toys, games, or activities stereotypically used or engaged in by the other gender
–A strong preference for playmates of the other gender
–A strong rejection of toys, games and activities typically associated with birth sex
–A strong dislike of one’s sexual anatomy
–A strong desire for the primary and/or secondary sex characteristics that match one’s experienced gender

• Most of the adolescent girls claiming to be transgender did not show any signs of these conditions in childhood. Further, social media can influence and coach these girls to say they meet the DSM-5 criteria for gender dysphoria and begin their treatment.

• The BBC reported on a study that showed some children taking puberty blockers reported an increase in thoughts of suicide and self-harm.'”

• “It showed that after a year on puberty blockers, there was a significant increase found in those answering the statement ‘I deliberately try to hurt or kill myself.'”

• A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine “found that 80 percent of gender minority students report having mental health problems, nearly double the rate of ‘cisgender’ students.”

• Renowned psychiatrist, Paul McHugh, said, “I believe that these gender confusions are mostly being driven by psychological and psychosocial problems these people have.”

• Professor Lisa Littman, a researcher at Brown University published a report “suggesting that some transgender-identified children might suffer from ‘rapid onset gender dysphoria,’ a phenomenon in which ‘one, multiple, or even all of the friends [in a group] have become gender dysphoric and transgender-identified during the same timeframe.” She believes that transgender identity is a social contagion. Littman hypothesized three things worked as the contagion:

–The belief that non-specific symptoms should be perceived as gender dysphoria and that their presence is proof of being transgender
–The belief that the only path to happiness is transition
–The belief that anyone who disagrees with the self-assessment of being transgender or opposes the plan for transition is transphobic, abusive, and should be cut off

• According to Littman’s study:

–Over 80% of the adolescents were natal females, with a mean age of 16.4.
–Most were living at home with their parents when they announced they were transgender.
–The vast majority had zero indicators of childhood gender dysphoria, and universally they failed to meet six of the criteria the DSM-5 requires to diagnose a child with gender dysphoria.
–A majority had had one or more psychiatric diagnosis and almost half were engaging in self-harm prior to the onset of gender dysphoria.
–41% had expressed non-heterosexual sexual orientation before identifying as transgender.
–47.4% had been formally assessed as academically gifted.
–Nearly 70% of the teenagers belonged to a social group in which at least one friend came out as transgender, and in some groups the majority of the friends had come out as transgender.
–Over 65% of teens had increased their social media use and time spent online immediately prior to the announcement of transgender identity.
–Among parents who knew their children’s social status, over 60% said the announcement brought a popularity boost.
–Over 90% of parents surveyed were white.
–Over 70% of parents surveyed had earned bachelor’s or graduate degrees.
–Over 85% of parents reported supporting the rights of gay couples to marry.
–Over 88% of parents surveyed reported being supportive of transgender rights.
–Nearly 64% of parents had been called “transphobic” or “bigoted” by their children for such reasons as: disagreeing with the child about the child’s self-assessment as being transgender, recommending that the child should take more time to figure out if the child’s feelings of gender dysphoria persisted, calling the child the wrong pronouns, telling their child that hormones or surgeries were unlikely to help, calling their child by his or her birth name, or recommending that the child work on other underlying mental health issues before undergoing medical transition.
–Fewer than 13% of parents believed that their adolescents’ mental health had improved after transgender identification, and over 47% reported that their mental health worsened.

• A study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that “More than half of transgender male teens [girl to boy] who participated in the survey reported attempting suicide in their lifetime, while 29.9 percent of transgender female teens [boy to girl] said they attempted suicide. Among non-binary youth [those who identify as neither], 41.8 percent of respondents stated that they had attempted suicide at some point in their lives.”

• In a paper published by the American Journal of Psychiatry it was reported that “sex-reassignment procedures—both hormonal and surgical—do not bring the promised mental health benefits.”

• The authors point out that on one score—treatment for anxiety disorders—patients who had sex-reassignment surgeries did worse than those who did not. “Individuals diagnosed with gender incongruence who had received gender-affirming surgery were more likely to be treated for anxiety disorders compared with individuals diagnosed with gender incongruence who had not received gender-affirming surgery.”

• The study in the American Journal of Psychiatry also found that transgender individuals who had received a diagnosis of gender incongruence were:

–six times more likely to have a mood or anxiety disorder than the general population
–three times as likely to be prescribed antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications
–more than six times as likely to attempt suicide resulting in hospitalization

• Therapists usually practice gender affirmation. In other words, if a girl thinks she is a boy, therapists believe it is in the best interest of the child to affirm this. There is little evidence to suggest that this approach actually resolves the issues of gender dysphoria. Further, this approach is usually adopted without parental consent.

• Gender therapists tend to believe that adolescents know who they are. Rather than working to resolve underlying conditions that may cause gender dysphoria, they take the minor’s word as fact, and begin a treatment regiment based on what the adolescent believes.

• Gender therapists will essentially hold parents emotionally hostage by informing them that if they do not embrace their adolescents’ beliefs about gender dysphoria then their children will kill themselves. Rather than actively working to end self-harming behavior, therapists will use it to push the adolescents further down the path to transitioning.

• Gender therapists generally believe that gender identity is immutable and there is no way to convert a child out of a transgender identity. So instead of helping children move past their gender dysphoria, as they would 70% of the time without intervention, therapists believe there is no alternative to embracing the identity and moving forward with transition procedures.

• Many have described the transgender community, particularly its online presence, as a cult. They will constantly push one another further down the path of transition in the pursuit of a more genuine and authentic transgender lifestyle. Frequently, in social media postings, transgender influencers praise one another for how hardcore they are as they mutilate their bodies. Anyone perceived to have reservations about taking the plunge risks being perceived as less committed to the lifestyle, and not fully onboard.

• A 2020 study conducted by Britain’s National Health Service found a relationship between increased media coverage of transgender issues and rising number of teenagers, primarily girls, requesting sex changes. Journalists glorify medical transitions and present them to adolescent readers of celebrity publications as a solution to depression, anxiety and panic attacks. This is very appealing to adolescent girls, who traditionally have higher degrees of depression and anxiety than their male counterparts and were more adversely impacted by social isolation during the lockdown.

• During the isolation of lockdown, anxiety and depression grew in many girls. Last year, they followed an increasingly familiar pattern of rapid-onset-gender-dysphoria. It typically starts by transgender activists on Reddit, Tumblr, and YouTube promoting a transgender identity as a cure to all their problems. This then leads to the girls forming a new gender identity which schools then eagerly affirm. Any objections are treated as “transphobic.”

For a glossary of terms, click here.

This is the second of our three-part series on this subject.

• There are no medical criteria to determine if a child needs to undergo transition procedures.

• According to the Mayo Clinic “Feminizing hormone therapy” (the process of a male taking female hormones) comes with risks and complications including:

–A blood clot in a deep vein (deep vein thrombosis) or in a lung (pulmonary embolism)
–High triglycerides, a type of fat (lipid) in your blood
–Weight gain
–Infertility
–High potassium (hyperkalemia)
–High blood pressure (hypertension)
–Type 2 diabetes
–Cardiovascular disease
–Excessive prolactin in your blood (hyperprolactinemia)
–Nipple discharge
–Stroke
–Increased risk of breast cancer

• Taking female hormones can cause lasting damage in men. The risk of permanent infertility increases with long-term use of hormones, especially when hormone therapy is initiated before puberty. Even after stopping hormone therapy, testicular function might not recover sufficiently to ensure conception.

• According to the Mayo Clinic “Masculinizing hormone therapy” (the process of a female taking male hormones) comes with risks and complications including:

–Producing too many red blood cells (polycythemia)
–Weight gain
–Acne
–Developing an abnormal level of cholesterol and other lipids, which may increase cardiovascular risk (dyslipidemia)
–High blood pressure (hypertension)
–Type 2 diabetes
–Deep vein thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism (venous thromboembolism)
–Infertility
–A condition where the lining of the vagina becomes drier and thinner (atrophic vaginitis)
–Pelvic pain
–Clitoral discomfort and vaginal atrophy
–Endometrial and other forms of cancer

• Taking male hormones can cause lasting damage in women. The risk of permanent infertility increases with long-term use of hormones, especially when hormone therapy is initiated before puberty. Even after stopping hormone therapy, ovarian and uterine function might not recover well enough to ensure that a woman can become pregnant.

• Testosterone is a Schedule III controlled substance. It has serious health risks as noted above. However, to treat gender dysphoria, it is used by some as a cosmetic procedure rather than something requiring strict medical oversight. Some gender therapists administer the drug based on what the patient is feeling. In terms of a set dose, the only goal most medical professionals have is to keep the testosterone in the normal limit for a man.

• According to the British National Health Service (NHS): “Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria. Although the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be. It’s also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children’s bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations.”

• Lupron, a drug once used in chemical castrations, is a popular puberty blocker. Lupron has caused neurological damage resulting in impaired pituitary function. The pituitary is the major endocrine gland in the brain and is important in controlling growth and development and the functioning of other endocrine glands. The effect on the pituitary was not reversible for 62.5% of patients. While the FDA has approved this drug to halt precocious puberty, it is not approved to halt normal puberty nor is it approved for long-term use. Lupron is now prescribed off-label.

• Puberty blockers are not a neutral intervention. Although some gender therapists present them as a safe alternative to buy time to allow for a child to determine his or her gender identity, halting puberty is unhealthy. Side effects include suppression of normal bone density development, greater risk of osteoporosis, loss of sexual function, interference with brain development and possibly suppressing peak IQ. Additionally, these drugs alienate a child from his or her sex. Further, in some instances after a child stops taking them puberty does not resume even if they wanted it to. One clinical study found that 100% of participants who used puberty blockers ultimately underwent a full transition.

• Binders, a devise used frequently by teenage girls that constrict their breasts tight against the body to give them a more masculine appearance, can cause serious harm. Broken or bruised ribs, punctured or collapsed lungs, shortness of breath, back pain, and deformation of breast tissue can result from wearing these devices.

• In women, top surgery, or a double mastectomy, leads to a permanent loss of breast function and comes with the risks of complication associated with any surgical procedure.

• In women, bottom surgery, either phalloplasty or metoidioplasty, are extremely complex procedures that can result in complications.

–In phalloplasty, doctors take a graft and create a new appendage in the groin area. Blood clots and infections are common. Additionally, the forearms, where most of the grafts are from for this procedure, can also suffer significant damage permanently leaving an individual unable to fully use their arms. Usually, the urethra will be run through the appendage; however, this is not without its own share of hazards, most especially leaks both internally and externally.
–Metoidioplasty involves the clitoris to be shaped to look like a penis, though it has no functionality other than the urethra can be run through it allowing for urination.

For a glossary of terms, click here.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on President Biden’s Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein:

Personnel is policy. The people a president appoints to any job reveal his priorities. Even ambassadors, who are usually just major campaign donors, can tell a lot about what a president wants to accomplish. From President Biden’s appointment of Scott Miller to serve as the United States Ambassador to the Swiss Confederation and the Principality of Liechtenstein, we can see once again that Biden has clearly prioritized LGBT issues over Christians.

Scott Miller comes into his ambassadorship after serving as the co-chairman of the Gill Foundation, one of the largest militant and anti-Christian LGBT organizations in the country. The Foundation has long worked to trample the rights of anyone who morally objects to same-sex marriage. Miller, along with his “husband” Tim Gill, the founder and co-chair of the foundation, have not sought to find a compromise in which homosexuals and people of faith can coexist; rather, they have treated the relationship as a zero-sum game.

According to John Lomperis, the United Methodist Director at the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the Gill Foundation “has shown an extremist hostility to basic freedom-of-conscience protections for those who do not morally approve of same-sex unions.”

When open hostility will not suffice, the Gill Foundation works to subvert religious organizations from within. Frequently, the foundation partners with Jon Stryker and his Arcus Foundation. Together, they have backed efforts within Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim groups that reject their religions’ teachings on homosexual acts and relationships.

In 2012, the Gill Foundation made a $100,000 general support grant to the Catholics United Education Fund. Catholics United used this money to promote same-sex marriage while attacking groups that promoted traditional values. In 2012, the group sent letters to pastors in Florida putting them on notice that they were watching for illegal political activity from the pulpit in an attempt to silence priests from speaking out against issues that directly concerned the Church in that election cycle. In 2013, Catholics United sparred with the Knights of Columbus claiming that the Knights were promoting a “far-right political agenda” hostile to “marriage equality.”

In short, Miller is a radical. The organization he co-chairs actively works to undermine religious liberty and subvert the Catholic Church and other faiths. Now, he will play an important part in shaping America’s foreign policy, and based on his history, we can say with the highest degree of confidence that he will not champion the cause of religious liberty. Indeed, he will likely undermine it.

Contact White House press secretary Jen Psaki: jennifer.r.psaki@who.eop.gov

This is the first of our three-part series on this subject.

• According to the updated National Sex Education Standards, by the end of the 2nd grade, students will be expected to define “gender, gender identity, and gender-role stereotypes.” Students will also be expected to “discuss the range of ways people express their gender and how gender-role stereotypes may limit behavior.”

• By the end of the 5th grade, students will be expected to “distinguish between sex assigned at birth and gender identity and explain how they may or may not differ.” They will also learn about the “differences between cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, gender expansive and gender identity.”

• “By the end of the 5th grade, students should be able to describe the role hormones play in the physical, social, cognitive, and emotional changes during adolescence and the potential role of hormone blockers on young people who identify as transgender.”

• Per the curriculum, 5th graders would be expected to “explain that gender expression and gender identity exist along a spectrum” and “describe gender role stereotypes and their potential impact on self and others.” 5th graders will also be required to “differentiate between sexual orientation and gender identity.”

• 8th graders will be expected to “access medically accurate sources of information about gender, gender identity, and gender expression” and “demonstrate ways to communicate respectfully with and about people of all gender identities.”

• “By the end of the 10th grade, students should be able to explain the human reproductive and sexual response systems, including differentiating between internal and external body parts and their functions, and that there are naturally occurring variations in human bodies (e.g., intersex)”

• “By the end of the 10th grade, students should be able to differentiate between sex assigned at birth, gender identity, and gender expression”

• “By the end of the 12th grade, students should be able to describe the human sexual response cycle, including the role of hormones and pleasure,” and by the time they graduate from high school, they will be instructed to become “advocates” for “people of all sexual orientations.”

• In 2019, the policy-making arm of the California Teachers Association (CTA) approved a proposal allowing trans-identifying minor students to leave campus during the school day to obtain gender hormone treatments without parental consent. In 2020, CTA moved to create “school-based health care clinics” that would provide students with access to confidential hormone treatments so their parents will not find out.

• New York, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, Northern Virginia and Oregon public schools have adopted radical approaches to gender in their curricula and policies.

• Five more states – Delaware, Iowa, Massachusetts, South Carolina and Wisconsin – require that sex education include information on sexual orientation and gender identity that does not affirm or discriminate against LGBTQ students.”

• New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois and California legally mandate that public schools teach LGBTQ history.

• Educators like Dr. Judy Chiasson, the program coordinator for human resources, diversity and equity for the Los Angeles United School District, view parents as the problem. They see themselves as the vanguard of the revolution because they view how parents teach the subjects of sexual orientation and gender identity as inferior and antiquated. Further, these educators find teaching about LGBTQ issues difficult when parents complain. Objecting parents are the real problem not the materials that are being taught. Dr. Chiasson argues that the role of the school is not just teaching, but also to provide a catalyst for social change and “in some places, lead the community.”

• Historical figures like St. Joan of Arc, Catherine the Great, George Eliot, George Sand and Sally Ride are frequently presented to children as “gender nonconforming” role models.

• In schools across America, kindergarteners are taught that biological sex and gender very often diverge. Frequently lessons include the “Genderbread Person,” a tool in gender identity indoctrination featuring a gingerbread cookie outline of a person with arrows locating the seat of gender “identity” at the brain, the seat of “attraction” at the heart, “gender expression” as the whole body, and for biological sex an arrow points to where the genitals would be.

• Kindergarten teachers read from I Am Jazz, a story marketed for children about Jazz Jennings’ transition from a boy to a girl. Additionally, these young students are introduced to the concept they might have a girl brain in a boy body or vice versa.

• The ACLU, Planned Parenthood, and GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) provide curricula to schools, and their members routinely lecture to students on sexual orientation and gender. Additionally, they provide teacher training and videos and coach Gay-Straight Alliance clubs.

• California Board of Education provides a book intended for kindergarten teachers to read to their class called Who Are You? The Kids Guide to Gender Identity. The book states. “These are just a few words people use: trans, genderqueer, non-binary, gender fluid, transgender, gender neutral, agender, neutrois, bigender, third gender, two-spirit….” The book concludes by telling kindergarteners “You are who you say you are because YOU know best.”

• Lindsay Amer, an educator who self-identifies as queer, regularly visits schools to play the ukulele and sing a song Amer wrote for preschoolers. Some lyrics to the song are “It’s OK to be gay. We are different in so many ways. Doesn’t matter if you’re a boy, girl or somewhere in between, we are all part of one big family. Gay means ‘happy.'”

• Schools in Transition from the Human Rights Campaign has become one of the most widely used policy guides for dealing with transgender students in public schools.

• Positive Prevention PLUS is among the most highly respected health curricula that provides instruction on gender-identity. One activity listed in the curriculum instructs teachers to ask their students to imagine they are a different gender. The instructions ask the teacher to compel the students to participate and encourage students to think of what would be fun about being a different gender.

• Schools will frequently facilitate social transitions (refer to the student by a new name, use preferred pronouns on official documents, instruct all students to refer to the student by their new gender identity, etc.) without informing the students’ parents. The schools will even go so far as to send duplicates of official documents home that use the child’s real name and pronouns to keep parents in the dark. C. Scott Miller, a fifth grade teacher and Equality California liaison to CTA, explains these practices by saying that “it is not the schools obligation to call up and ‘out’ a child to a parent because you’re not sending that kid home to the gay pride parade. You’re sending them home to somewhere that’s going to be very unsafe and a lot of misinformation, a lot of anger and it’s not just going to be a safe place for that kid.”

• According to the National Education Association, “Not having their gender identity respected and affirmed in their daily lives will cause [trans-identified students] significant psychological distress.”

For a glossary of terms, click here.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the content of transgender curricula in the schools and the dangers they present:

Now that the new school year is upon us, it is important for parents to understand how the sexual engineers in education are trying to program students into accepting gender ideology. For an example of this, look no further than Illinois, where Gov. J.B. Pritzker on August 20th signed into law one of the most radical sex engineering curricula in the country. The scope of the Illinois curriculum goes far beyond conventional sex education programs. Indeed, it is the most extreme attempt to transform the norms and values of young people ever envisioned.

To that end, we have prepared a three-part series of reports on this subject; they will be rolled out this week.

Pope Francis has called gender ideology—the idea that the sexes are interchangeable—”demonic.” We call transgender surgery performed on minors “child abuse.” Unfortunately, the ruling class is not content to disagree: when they are not flatly lying about biological differences between males and females, they are engaged in censorship.

Over the summer, the elites went into high gear.

Twitter suspended several writers who dared to say that a male Olympic weightlifter who identifies as a female is a man.

The American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement saying, “Designating sex on birth certificates as male or female, and making that information available on the public portion, perpetuates a view that sex designation is permanent and fails to recognize the medical spectrum of gender identity.”

[Note: The AMA is factually wrong. Gender identity is a psychological variable, one that has become increasingly politicized. It has nothing to do with any “medical spectrum.”]

The American Academy of Pediatrics not only agrees with the AMA, it would not allow doctors to set up a booth at its annual conference challenging its flawed transgender position.

Fortunately, the American College of Pediatricians and the National Catholic Bioethics Center are both telling the truth. They understand, as even middle school students do, that boys are boys and girls are girls—that’s the way human nature works.

Even more disconcerting, President Biden is trying to force doctors to perform sex transition surgeries. He was stopped by a federal court in Texas, but this issue is not over. Our “devout Catholic” president has absolutely no respect for conscience rights and is promoting child abuse as well.

The first of our three reports will focus on school curricula examples of the way transgender subjects will be presented. The second covers the physical damage that is being done, and the third examines the psychological damage.

Please disseminate these reports widely. There is much at stake, including the well-being of our children.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on what is being said about so-called Christian nationalists:

Hardly a week goes by without some pundit claiming that the United States is being taken over by Christian nationalists. Accusations are being made that are completely without foundation, and few in the media are taking them to task.

Proponents of this view like to point to the presence of a few Christian signs that were evident in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. This has had almost no effect on most Americans, and with good reason: those who stormed the  Capitol were men and women who came to express their anger at the American ruling class. It was not an exercise in Christian nationalism. But to those who distrust white Christian patriotic Americans, the signs were proof that Christian nationalists are on the march.

No one beats Samuel L. Perry, a sociologist at the University of Oklahoma. “The Capitol Insurrection was as Christian nationalist as it gets.” His baseless charge was endorsed by the likes of Thomas B. Edsall of the New York Times and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Merely asserting that culpability belongs to Christian nationalists is all that matters these days. No proof is required.

Robert P. Jones is another author who is sold on the threat of Christian nationalists. Looking at the Capitol riot, he is convinced that “a significant number of the attackers on Jan. 6 were Christian nationalists and white supremacists.” He said he spotted a Christian flag at the event, adding that “Many people may not be familiar with it.” Good point: We took a poll of our Catholic League staff and no one had ever heard of it.

If the presence of a little-known Christian flag is enough to convince some activists and pundits that Jan. 6 was a Christian nationalist uprising, then it should follow that the burning of the American flag at Black Lives Matter and Antifa rallies—it happened regularly—is overwhelming proof of their anti-American agenda. They are the real threat to peace and safety, not Christian nationalists, whoever they are.

Author Katherine Stewart also maintains that Christian nationalists are a menace to society. In March last year, she cited evidence that Christian nationalists are “running the country.” Her proof? A remark made by President Trump that “by Easter” the Covid crisis would ease. That was all the evidence she needed—his dropping of the “E-word.”

Andrew Whitehead is a sociologist at Indiana University-Perdue University Indianapolis who wrote a book on Christian nationalists with Samuel Perry. Two years ago he said that Christian nationalists “think you have to be Christian to be truly American.” He did not quote anyone to that effect. Quite frankly, as one who runs in Christian circles, I never heard anyone make such a stupid comment.

Perry and Whitehead are quite the dynamic duo. They argue that if someone believes the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are divinely inspired documents, that proves they are Christian nationalists. The bar is obviously not set very high.

According to Perry, no one epitomizes the mind-set of Christian nationalism better than evangelical pastor Greg Locke. Edsall was so impressed by Perry’s observation that he cited Locke’s book, This Means War, as the definitive source of this dreaded movement.

Having never heard of Locke, I bought the book, which was published last year before the election, and searched in vain for anything Locke said about Christian nationalism. He never mentions the term. The best I could find was one throw-away sentence near the end of the book where he says, “When it comes to an election, you’d better be a Christian first and a Christian last.”

That was it. Most of the book is comprised of Protestant musings on the need for Christians to stand fast against challenges to our Judeo-Christian  heritage. If this is supposed to be Exhibit A in the arsenal of those convinced that Christian nationalists are about to take over the nation, they had better retire before more people find out about their fairy tales.

The lies about Christian nationalism have real-life consequences. Three months ago, Anthea Butler, who teaches religious and African studies at the University of Pennsylvania, accused white evangelicals of posing “an existential crisis to us all.” She said their ideas “may end up killing us all.” It is this kind of incendiary comment that should be challenged with regularity, but never is. That’s because Butler is black and white liberals  don’t have the guts to confront her.

Just as unnerving is the spectacle of states bent on adopting a new curriculum wherein teaching the truth about our Judeo-Christian heritage is considered taboo.

In Florida, one of the items deemed problematic for 7th graders holds that students should “Recognize how Judeo-Christian values influenced America’s founding ideals and documents.” Also found objectionable is the requirement that “Students will recognize the influence of the Protestant work ethic on economic freedom and personal responsibility.”

Both of these declarations are indisputably true. The problem is with those who object to them, not those who applaud them.

Christian nationalism is not only a myth, it is a pernicious lie. We should be celebrating patriotic Americans who are Christian, not castigating them.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on MSNBC’s latest attack on Christians:

Twice in one week, senior pundits at MSNBC have compared Christians to the Taliban.

On August 14, MSNBC host Joy Reid, speaking of the Taliban, tweeted that “our own far religious right” is “dreaming of a theocracy that would impose a particular brand of Christianity” on American society.

On August 18, the lead story on MSNBC’s website, written by Dan Obeidallah, picks up on the comparison by criticizing Republicans who cling to “a narrow reading of their religious beliefs,” noting that they want to make their “religious beliefs into the law of the land.”

In both cases, the MSNBC pundits claimed that Christians are, just like the Taliban, against women’s rights. (They couldn’t have been thinking about Andrew Cuomo because the “former altar boy” is a Democrat.)

Reid accused Christians of wanting to “drive women from the workforce and solely into childbirth, and control all politics.” What a plainly stupid remark. Perhaps she can explain why a record number of Republican women—35 of them—were recently elected to the Congress. They are all Christians.

Obeidallah cites three issues to prove that Christians are Taliban-like creatures: their opposition to abortion; their opposition to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act; and their opposition to the Paycheck Fairness Act.

Regarding abortion, Christians are committed to protecting the life of unborn babies. The Taliban are known to kill pregnant women such as Masooma, who was dragged out of her house in 2019, taken to a Taliban court, shot dead, and had her corpse, and that of her baby, thrown into an open field. Her crime? She criticized the Taliban for committing atrocities.

Christian Republicans opposed the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act because it redefined “domestic violence” to mean wholly non-violent acts such as “verbal” and “emotional” abuse. If that is the standard, then we will have to restock all the prisons recently emptied by Democrats.

Women earn less than men, in general, because they are more likely not to work in dangerous jobs, are more likely to work part-time, are more likely to turn down overtime, and are more likely to turn down promotions, all of which reflect women’s choices and have nothing to do with discrimination. Hence, new laws are window-dressing ploys.

Now how about the way the Taliban treat women? Here’s a quick sample.

• Women are imprisoned in their home
• Girls are beaten for wearing white shoes
• Girls are not allowed to be educated after the age of eight
• Girls are only allowed to read the Qur’an
• Women are not allowed to speak loudly in public
• Pictures of women are banned from all media outlets
• Women are not allowed to appear on the balconies of their apartments

Last month, it was reported that the Taliban were ordering imams and mullahs in the Middle East to provide them with a list of girls above 15, and widows under 45, to be married to Taliban fighters. They are then treated as sex slaves.

Now there are reports that this is already happening in Afghanistan as the Taliban are going “door-to-door” looking for girls as young as 12 to become “sex slaves.”

Those who compare conservative Christians to the Taliban evince an extreme anti-Christian bigotry while denigrating the condition of women who are forced to live under Taliban rule. The comparison is obscene. So is MSNBC for giving these bigots a platform.

Contact Lorie Acio, VP of Communications, MSNBC: Lorie.Acio@nbcuni.com

Catholic League president Bill Donohue contacted the Pennsylvania Auditor General today about allegations that researchers at the University of Pittsburgh are engaged in harvesting the organs of unborn babies.

August 17, 2021

Hon. Timothy L. DeFoor
Auditor General
Department of the Auditor General Finance Building
613 North Street, Room 229
Harrisburg, PA 17120-0018

Dear Auditor General DeFoor:

As president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am writing in support of State Rep. Kathleen Rapp, and Sean Parnell, who are calling for an investigation of research being performed on unborn babies by the University of Pittsburgh. It is alleged that organs have been harvested while the baby’s heart is still beating.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has earned an outstanding reputation, and that is why reports that it is operating a fetal organ “chop shop” are so disconcerting. It is not for nothing that Judicial Watch is representing the Center for Medical Progress in obtaining documentation of this alleged human organ harvesting project.

Your role is critical. You could commence an investigation of state and federal funds being used by the University for arguably criminal activity.

If it is true, as some doctors have said, that in order to perform some of these procedures, “The baby’s going to have to be either born alive or be killed immediately prior to delivery,” then justice demands that a thorough investigation take place. I urge you to do so.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc:
State Rep. Kathleen Rapp
Sean Parnell
Univ. of Pittsburgh Chancellor Patrick Gallagher
Dr. Anantha Shekhar, Dean, School of Medicine
David Seldin, Assistant Vice Chancellor for News

Contact the Auditor General: news@PaAuditor.gov