4.23.25 – Lumen News
“Trump Education Dept. -- ‘Children Do Not Belong to the Government’”
By Dr. Susan Berry, Ph.D.
[COMMENTS BY DONNA GARNER: The Trump administration, thank goodness, has made its position very clear – “Children do not belong to the government. They belong to their parents.”
However, the Colorado House of Reps has defied that position and has decided children can be removed from their parents for not allowing their children to choose their sex and their name.
The bill is before the Colorado Senate now; and if parents want to keep their parents’ rights, they better make their voices heard right now.
The parents who live in other Blue States need to be making their voices heard also, or the same thing attempting to be done in Colorado will take place in other states.
Children belong to their parents and not to the government.]
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4.23.25 -- “Trump Education Dept. -- ‘Children Do Not Belong to the Government’” -- By Dr. Susan Berry, Ph.D. – Lumen News -- https://lumennews14.substack.com/p/trump-education-department-children?utm_campaign=email-half-post&r=3uxvo&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Excerpts from this article:
Julie Hartman (Senior Advisor in the U. S. Dept. of Education’s Office of Communications and Outreach -- Julie Hartman) … asserts the federal government will not tolerate either the “abuse” of “parents’ rights” or of children’s safety from “predatory behavior.”
She commented to The Daily Signal (https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/04/22/children-do-not-belong-government-education-dept-warns-colorado-transgender-bill/) about a bill being considered by the Colorado legislature (HB 25-1312).
COLO. HOUSE – CHILDREN GET TO DECIDE
This bill (HB 25-1312) would allow children to be removed from their parents’ custody, specifically, due to parental “misgendering” of a child who claims to identify as transgender, and “deadnaming” (calling that child by his or her birth name).
Unbelievably, the Colorado House of Representatives passed the legislation April 6; but the bill has yet to advance in the Colorado Senate.
Section 2 of the bill “provides that, when making child custody decisions and determining the best interests of a child for purposes of parenting time, a court shall consider deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual's gender-affirming health-care services as types of coercive control.”
Additionally, Sections 8 and 9 “define deadnaming and misgendering as discriminatory acts in the ‘Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act’ and prohibit these discriminatory acts in places of public accommodation.”
[Countering such ridiculous statements, Julie Hartman told the Daily Signal], “Children do not belong to the government. They belong to parents.”
Hartman added, “The department will not tolerate abuse of parents’ rights — or of students who are victims of predatory behavior by adults who are supposed to protect them.”
WHAT THE U. S. DEPT. OF EDUCATION STATES
In a March 28 “Dear Colleague” letter to chief state school officers and superintendents of educational institutions that receive federal funding, U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon wrote, “By natural right and moral authority, parents are the primary protectors of their children.”
The Secretary added:
Yet many states and school districts have enacted policies that presume children need protection from their parents.
Often, such policies evade or misapply the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), turning the concept of privacy on its head to facilitate ideological indoctrination in a school environment without parental interference or even involvement.
Going forward, the Department of Education will insist that schools apply FERPA correctly to uphold, not thwart, parents’ rights.
…
As Fox News reported Tuesday, the bill has caused a firestorm among parental rights groups...
Colorado Rep. Lorena Garcia (D-Denver) sponsored HB 25-1312 which passed out of the House on April 6 and is now in the Colorado Senate.
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Excerpts from:
4.3.25 -- “Colorado Democrats Seek To Penalize 'Misgendering' and 'Deadnaming'” – by Marissa Ventrelli – Denver Gazette -- https://denvergazette.com/news/colorado-transgender-protections/article_27a6887b-6a1b-4cc5-9b09-f5a8b5607f1a.html
…Several formerly transgender individuals described what they said was the irreversible effects of gender transition surgeries had on their bodies.
They urged parents not to allow their children to make the life-changing decisions at such a young age.
Evan de la Cruz went through countless surgeries to transition from female to male but came to regret the decision, de la Cruz said, adding the damage is for life.
"It didn't repair any of the undiscovered trauma that I was actually suffering from, and it made it worse," de la Cruz said. "Now, I'm sterilized and mutilated. My body was a battlefield for gender medicine. I'll suffer with the long-term damage from testosterone and surgeries with a body riddled with scars."
De la Cruz urged parents to carefully consider their child's future before seeking gender transition services.
"Please, please think of who these kids will be in the next 10 or 15 years," De la Cruz said. "Please let my testimony serve as an example that this overcorrection of care is leading to people suffering like I did and still do."
Erin Lee, a Larimer County mother who said her daughter was "secretly transitioned" by her school, criticized the bill for using the "very real pain" of gender dysphoria to push an agenda.
"In what universe is a behavioral therapist qualified to determine what physical mutilation of healthy bodies is medically necessary?" she asked…
MORE INFORMATION
11.11.22 – “Justice for Chloe – Teen Who Went Through Gender Transition” – by Harmeet Dhillon -- LibertyCenter.org -- https://donnagarner.org/11-11-22-justice-for-chloe-teen-who-went-through-gender-transition/