The mainstream media would love for you to believe that this wave of opposition to the transgender agenda is a one-party operation. But the truth is, there’s a big disconnect between what D.C. Democrats and the rest of their party think about this controversial issue. Protecting children from this radical agenda is a lot more bipartisan than Americans realize. And the effort of at least one state Democrat is proving it.

South Carolina State Rep. Cezar McKnight (D) has represented his district for six years. It’s heavily Democratic, and two-thirds African American — two demographics that people don’t typically associate with social conservative causes. But the threat of transgenderism to our kids isn’t just a conservative concern, McKnight insists. “Black Democrats tend to be more conservative than white progressives,” McKnight told an AP reporter. They’re very much on board with the idea that children should not be pressed to permanently mutilate their bodies over gender confusion that is almost always temporary.

That’s why McKnight felt comfortable introducing a bill that would ban minors from pursuing transgender treatments or transitioning until they’re old enough to vote. “I would not have ever put this bill forward if I didn’t think the people in my district wouldn’t be receptive, and they are. Pastors, young parents, older parents, they all tell me the same thing: if you want to do this, wait until you’re 18.” A member of the Legislative Black Caucus, he says he’s received “an outpouring of support from his constituents, "who have told him that, while they don’t necessarily oppose this type of procedure on its face, they think that it’s one that should only be made when a person has reached adulthood.”

Several of his colleagues across the aisle agree. Two dozen Republicans have signed on to McKnight’s effort – which has managed to draw some fire from some of the state’s extreme Democrats. Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina GOP, says he can’t believe that there are liberals radical enough to oppose this. Finally, he cheers, a Democrat has decided to “hop off their cultural crazy train.” “Sane South Carolinians understand the absurdity of sex changes and recognize [that] especially children shouldn’t be allowed to undergo that procedure.”

To his detractors, McKnight is clear. “This bill isn’t anti-trans. HB 4047 does not discriminate against anyone. It requires a person to be at least 18 years old before being able to undergo transgender procedures. You have to be 18 to get a tattoo. Surely you need to be an adult to change your gender?”

FRC has been encouraging states across the country to get involved in the fight and start backing model bills like Arkansas’s SAFE Act. In the meantime, we applaud members from both parties for seeing this ideology as the threat it is and organizing coalitions across community lines to stop it.

Originally published here.

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Border Wars: Biden Takes Flak from Both Sides

Joe Biden doesn’t mind calling the climate a crisis — but when it comes to thousands of trafficked kids, separated from their parents in a border mess of epic proportions, it’s a “challenge.” Or is it? Even White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki couldn’t help slipping up Thursday and labeling the situation what it truly is. “… You said, ‘crisis on the border,’” one reporter pointed out. Annoyed, Psaki corrected herself. “Challenges on the border,” she insisted. “So that doesn’t reflect any change in the administration’s view of things?” the reporter asked. “Nope,” Psaki fired back.

The White House may not have changed its messaging on the border dilemma, but members of the media certainly have. Frustrated by the information blackout, they’re starting to ask the hard questions. Even Biden’s own party isn’t giving the president a pass on his cover-up. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a far-Left Democrat, told MSNBC that the administration’s handling of the situation is “morally unacceptable.” “I just read a report that some of the children don’t have food, they aren’t being able to shower, they’re being held for more than 72 hours without going to Office of Refugee Resettlement, they aren’t being given access to lawyers. These are human rights violations.”

Incredibly, the president is so determined to hide what’s happening from the American people that he won’t even let nonprofit lawyers into the detention buildings to talk to the children — even though, Byron York points out, the administration is required to do so. And yet Psaki claims, “We support transparency…” The only thing that’s transparent here is just how little Joe Biden actually cares about his own country. Remember, Congressman Chuck Fleishmann (R-Tenn.) pointed out on “Washington Watch” Thursday, this isn’t just about immigration. It’s about national security, too. “Last week, they caught three or four Yemenis coming across. They’ve caught Chinese.” Our enemies are exploiting Biden’s weakness.

Then, of course, there are the coyotes, the cartels, and drug runners, he points out, who are taking advantage of this president. “And he’s clueless about it,” Fleishmann fumed. “This is a crisis of monumental proportions — a crisis that could and should have been avoided. An unnecessary crisis of humanitarian cost and national security proportions.” On the House floor, members made one angry speech after another demanding action. “Young women as young as 13 years old are being lured to Texas with the promise of a job in the service industry — and instead are being sexually abused and trafficked,” Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ala.) argued.

And it’s not just a border problem, several argued, it’s a public health catastrophe. A virus super-spreader. It’s incredible. The same party that’s kept churches and businesses on lockdown over “COVID concerns” is cramming illegals together like sardines. And the ones who aren’t being held elbow-to-elbow in government facilities are released into the public without even being tested, as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas admitted this week. “So what the Biden administration is doing is, on the one hand, trying to solve the pandemic in the United States – but on the other hand import more of the pandemic into our country. That is reprehensible,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) insisted.

In places like Midland, local officials have been completely blindsided by the administration’s plan. Without any warning, busloads of minors have been driving up from the border with staff from the Federal Protective Services, DHS, and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. They started work on a detention center without even bothering to email, call, or inform local and state officials that this was happening. “Our governor’s office wasn’t even given a heads-up of this taking place,” a frustrated Mayor Patrick Payton explained on “Washington Watch.”

“Nearly every meeting we had with the different [administration] officers involved in this, it’s just greeted with, ‘Well, we really understand your concerns… We’ll try to get back with you with an answer.’ And it’s just the most bizarre, frustrating, but also maddening and dangerous and precedent-setting. Because they tell us they’re only going to be here for a moment, [but] I just got a picture sent from the facility today. They’ve already put up poles, and they’re getting ready to put up an eight to 10-foot security fence with a blackout shade around it…” How is this “temporary,” Payton wondered. “I’m not sure you put up a full-blown privacy fence for a 90-day contract,” he shook his head. “Everything is just surreal and monumentally out of control.”

And it will continue to be out of control until President Biden and his cronies realize that a country without borders is no country at all.

Originally published here.

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Hart Failure Doesn’t Stop Dems from House Dispute

So it’s a “tragedy,” “mockery,” or “coup” if Republicans challenge an election result, but completely acceptable — four months later — if you’re a Democrat? That’s the incredible double standard on display this week in the U.S. House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is throwing optics to the wind to pad her Democratic totals. In one of the grandest displays of hypocrisy this country has ever seen, the Left is actually trying to boot a sitting member of Congress, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) after her election was certified — without any evidence of fraud. And the GOP is the party of subversion?

It was the closest House election of the 2020 cycle, but Rep. Miller-Meeks not only won once — she won four times. After the general election and three recounts, her margin of victory had dwindled from 282 votes to just six, but it was still enough, Iowa’s election officials decided, to declare her the winner. Now, months later, her opponent, Rita Hart, is refusing to go through the normal legal channels to challenge the result and is instead asking House Democrats to reverse the results. And House Democrats, to everyone’s surprise, is considering it.

Literally weeks after accusing Republicans of trampling democracy and flouting the Constitution, Democrats on the House Administration Committee have launched an official inquiry — brushing off comparisons to their conservative counterparts in the process. “We can’t be concerned about [appearances],” North Carolina Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D) said, who sits on the House panel considering the challenge. “We’ve got to review the evidence and see where it leads us.” But the evidence, as even the Des Moines Register points out, should have been considered in court — not a partisan body where Democrats have an interest in adding to their majority.

Even CNN, who joined the Left’s 24-hour smear campaign during the long weeks of the 2020 election challenge, is questioning just how wise it is for Democrats to try to overrule “the will of voters just months after lambasting former President Donald Trump for trying to reverse his electoral defeat.” Are they even aware of how it looks, reporters wondered, trying to oust “a member of Congress from the opposing party who was declared the winner by bipartisan state election officials?” Some moderates like Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) are warning the party to back off. During a session of the House Judiciary Committee, he asked, “What motivates Congress to look at something that should be a state issue? I want to see what compelling reasons there are for the feds to get involved in this. I think these are issues that right now are probably best left at the state level,” the Democrat said.

When Republicans, fueled by legitimate complaints and abnormalities, raised concerns, the response from the Left was ferocious. Liberals like Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) blasted conservatives, arguing “Republicans in the House and Senate will make a mockery of our democracy in their attempts to undo the will of the people… Each member who moves forward with this ploy will be remembered for their willingness to subvert democracy,” she warned. “This pathetic, opportunistic stunt is an attack on our democracy. It’s un-American and unconscionable,” Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) piled on. A “publicity stunt,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) called it. “‘I did sedition because I was up for re-election’ is a helluva thing to explain to your grandkids,” tweeted Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii).“

Now, put the shoe on the other foot — except with no proof of fraud or foul play — and suddenly it’s Pelosi’s duty to see "where this takes us.” It’s criminally disingenuous, even for Democrats. “Right now, as we speak,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) argued on the floor Thursday, “ Speaker Pelosi and Washington Democrats are literally trying to overturn a state-certified election here in Congress… The outcome was certified. That’s the magic word, ‘certified,’ that we heard over and over again in November and December…” McConnell jabbed. “The process played out in a way that every liberal in America spent November, December, and January insisting was beyond question.” Now, fast-forward a few weeks, he said, and “Democratic leadership is trying to use brute political power to kick [Miller-Meeks] out and replace this congresswoman with a Democrat whom she defeated. You don’t often see hypocrisy this blatant and this shameless so quickly.”

So what now? Will corporate America turn on Pelosi’s party the way it divested itself of Republicans? Will these woke CEOs refuse to give to the liberals who are questioning this election? Or will they sit back on their moral high horse and pretend — once again — that there is no double standard?

At the end of the day, one thing is consistent: Democrats are willing to violate any law to get the results they need. It was true in the 2020 election, when they bypassed the states’ authority and constitutional processes. And it’s true now, when they’re willing to go against the people of Iowa — and the law in Iowa — to get whatever political advantage they can. But the country is watching — and they’ll be just as loathe to see liberals steal this election as any other.

Originally published here.

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