For families in Virginia, it isn’t just diversity in the classroom parents are worried about — but the library too. Now that LGBT activists have stacked the deck in sex ed, they’re tackling another project: school shelves. And moms and dads in Loudoun County are taking a page out of other communities — and fighting back.

“I cannot stomach reading written porn, but my child can?” That was one angry parent’s question at a marathon school board meeting in Loudoun. Like a lot of American moms and dads, she was horrified that her school is turning into a recruiting station for the transgender and gay lifestyle. One after another, parents took a turn at the microphone during a six-hour listening session on the #BigGayBookDrive that helped bring hundreds of controversial titles to the district’s libraries. Why didn’t Loudoun notify families, locals wanted to know, that their kids might stumble on lesbian love stories like Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit? There are books that “romanticize statutory rape,” a parent complained.

Clearly, the assistant superintendent of instruction said, “we should have communicated earlier and with more specifics with principals, parents, and the school board.” But they didn’t, and now the community is demanding they do something about it. Carrying signs that read, “Your diversity is perversity!” groups like Parent and Child Loudoun have circulated petitions, packed out meetings, and met with officials to get the books removed. “I really have a problem with people teaching children that it’s possible to be born in the wrong body,” Natassia Grover argued. “It is 100 percent a political agenda.”

Other titles, like Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out, had dads like Byron Cross up in arms. “Children should never be confused about who God made them to be,” he told the school board. “There are now hundreds of adults who are devastated because they cannot return to their biological gender due to someone stealing their true identity as a child.”

Of course, the ACLU couldn’t help but weigh in, firing off a letter warning Loudoun officials against pulling the titles. “Purging certain books from school libraries because some parents do not like them is government action favoring the opinion of some parents over others.” But based on the flood of objections, the opinion was shared by most parents — not “some.” Even the Washington Post painted a surprisingly accurate picture of the uproar, noting that the protest was very widespread.

And based on a scene Michelle Friel read from The Season of You & Me, it’s no wonder. The part about intercourse between a teenage girl and her wheelchair-bound half-brother is available to ninth graders “who, in the formal curriculum at that age, she said, are taught abstinence and are encouraged to postpone sexual activity.” Others pointed to “steamy lines describing the unbuttoning of clothes, erections,” orgasms, threesomes, and masturbation. That’s not literature — it’s erotica. And it has no place in our public schools.

So far, none of the books have been removed. But that hasn’t deterred parents. They’re determined to fight until the county listens. Do you know what’s in your public school library? Take a cue from Loudoun and find out. An informed parent, Loudoun activists will tell you, is an empowered parent.

Originally published here.

Military Trans Surgery: It’s on the House!

Nothing says “Thanks for your service” like ignoring the needs of U.S. troops. But apparently, that’s the most our military can hope for under Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) majority. While the president tries to deal with conflicts around the globe, contain the threats from ISIS and rogue nations like North Korea, you’ll be relieved to know that the House is hard at work on its most important mission: ushering into the military people who are in conflict over their biological sex. And they’re willing to tie up the most important bill of the year to do it.

Although the impeachment sham is sucking up most of the air in Pelosi’s chamber, most people assumed the liberal leader would have the sense to shelve that circus long enough to wrap up the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). They assumed wrong. House liberals aren’t just refusing to do the country’s real business, they’re making our defense budget a bargaining chip in their game of gender extremism. According to Armed Services Chair Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Democrats are going to squeeze Republicans to open the floodgates to transgender service.

Smith, who made this priority number one on day one of his chairmanship, has had a beef with Donald Trump’s policy since it was announced. “The president is the president, the Senate is the Senate and they don’t agree” with the House, Smith argued. “They are wrong. This is incredibly important policy and the current policy in place is bigoted and discriminatory and unnecessary and ought to be changed.” Fellow radical Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) is more than happy to help him stonewall, sponsoring the measure that would undo all the progress this Pentagon has made.

Already, taxpayers have been forced to make a huge investment in the Left’s social petri dish, sinking $7,943,906.75 into the 1,500 troops who are currently serving and have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria in the ranks. For just those servicemembers, the Pentagon says the military has paid for 22,992 psychotherapy visits, 9,321 hormone prescriptions, and a whopping 161 surgeries (ranging from hysterectomies and breast augmentation to “male reproductive” construction) since 2016. Surgeries alone racked up an eye-popping $2 million — an average of $12,422 a person. Add that to the $5.8 million in therapy, and we’re talking about a significant cash drain.

And that’s just the cost for the men and women currently serving. Imagine how much we’d be paying if President Trump hadn’t reversed the Obama policy! According to FRC’s Peter Sprigg, the cost of the Democrats’ bill — which would throw open the door to anyone who identifies as transgender — would be as high as $3.7 billion over 10 years. And what happens when these men and women regret the surgery (as an overwhelming number of patients now do)? Will taxpayers be on the hook for reversals too?

As it is, only a fraction of the military supports the idea of letting people serve while they struggle with their gender. Good luck finding half that many who think paying for a completely elective operation is a better use of $8 million dollars than 205 bombs ($38,900 each), 98 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles ($81,200 each), 58 guided multiple launch rockets ($137,350 each), or 10,113 pieces of Generation III body armor ($791 each). If Congress wants to spend money on health care, how about our nation’s veterans’? They’re literally dying for medical attention while this House tries to give everyone free cosmetic surgery. How’s that for a contrast in the two parties’ priorities?

Meanwhile, the House is willing to hold the troops’ funding hostage because they think every president’s military standards — but Obama’s — are unfair. But contrary to what the Left wants you to believe, not a single person “has been kicked out of the military as a result of [Trump’s] policy,” Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell said. Even if they had, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) insists, the “military is under no obligation to accept individuals who do not meet the medical criteria for service.” Military service, she explained, “is a privilege. It’s not a right. It would be unwise for us to make exceptions to service for one specific entity who could not meet medical standards.”

After more than a decade of war, our troops have all kinds of needs. And how do Democrats express their appreciation for their sacrifice? By ignoring them. It’s a tragic legacy for a party whose only use for America’s military is fighting one war: the culture’s. Contact your representative and urge them to stop pushing an agenda and start funding our troops!

Originally published here.

This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.