Republican lawmakers in North Carolina have pushed forward a bill to protect parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing, including the right to be informed of conversations the school has with their child about sex and gender.
The bill, similar to one that recently became law in Florida, would ban public school curricula for grades K through 3 from containing instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. In general, school administrators and employees would not be allowed to keep secret from parents any information related to the “mental, emotional or physical health or well-being” of their child.
Under the proposal, North Carolina schools would have to tell parents if their child wants to be referred to by a different name or pronoun, as well as ask for parents’ consent before providing the child with any counseling service or other non-emergency health care….