Week in Review: ‘Gender Transition’ Hidden from Mom—Goldwater Sues

What would you do if your 13-year-old daughter’s public school deliberately hid your child’s “gender transition”? That’s exactly what happened to Maine mom Amber Lavigne, and she is standing up for her parental rights and taking the school to court—with the Goldwater Institute’s help.

In a case that’s garnered numerous national headlines from the likes of the Associated Press and National Review, Goldwater filed a federal lawsuit this week on Amber’s behalf against the Great Salt Bay Community School Board for violating her constitutionally protected right to direct her child’s upbringing. “I deserve to know what’s happening to my child—the secrecy needs to stop,” Amber says.

Amber was alarmed to discover her daughter’s school counselor had secretly given the child a chest binder. She was shocked to learn that school personnel had been referring to her daughter with a different name and different pronouns. She was furious when officials refused to engage in open dialogue—except to defend the counselor’s actions.

Unfortunately, activist educators all across the country are keeping secrets from parents about everything from curriculum content to matters of health. That’s why the Goldwater Institute is defending parents like Amber—and empowering moms and dads nationwide to make informed decisions about what’s best for their children.

Read about the case at In Defense of Liberty. 

Warpath Against Wokeness

The largest elementary school district in Arizona is discriminating against teachers on the basis of religion, in violation of both the U.S. and Arizona constitutions. But Goldwater is defending religious freedom and challenging the left’s scheme to disqualify teacher candidates who don’t subscribe to progressive politics. As the Arizona Capitol Times’ Yellow Sheet Report put it this week: “The [Goldwater] Institute has been on a warpath against the ‘woke’ infiltration of schools.”

Warpath, indeed. And we will never apologize for standing up for what’s right.

The Phoenix-area Washington Elementary School District’s governing board voted in February to sever an 11-year teacher-training relationship with Arizona Christian University based solely on the university’s Christian identity and beliefs. Now ACU is suing the district in federal court for religious discrimination, and Goldwater filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the university.

After all, private organizations should be free to espouse their beliefs without fear of retaliation from the government. Moreover, public schools should never reject qualified teachers for not being sufficiently leftist. In Arizona and across the country, the Goldwater Institute will always fight to protect Americans’ individual liberties, and to hold government officials accountable when they trample on constitutional freedoms.

Read about our brief at In Defense of Liberty. 

DEI Detox

College students are being indoctrinated with radical ideas under the cloak of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Now, Goldwater has a plan to safeguard the academic freedom of both students and faculty against DEI-related interference.

Goldwater’s landmark Freedom from Indoctrination Act—developed in partnership with Speech First—will:

• Ensure that no student is forced to take university- or college-level courses promoting ideologies such as CRT or DEI as a condition of obtaining a degree from a public university or college, while protecting the academic freedom of faculty from teaching mandatory DEI content.
• Ensure that each public university or college bachelor’s degree program provides student instruction in the founding principles of our constitutional republic.
• Ensure that university-sponsored student orientation programs at public universities and community colleges affirm the principles of free speech and do not pressure students to engage in exercises pertaining to DEI, CRT, or identity politics.

State-operated colleges and universities have no business forcing students or faculty to subsidize leftwing ideologies with their time or talent. The Freedom from Indoctrination Act makes certain they focus on the central pillars of rigorous academic inquiry instead.

Read more about the Freedom from Indoctrination Act at In Defense of Liberty.