Every other year, thousands of delegates gather at the Republican Party of Texas Convention to determine the party’s new legislative priorities for the upcoming legislative session.
As first reported by Texas Scorecard, the Republican Party of Texas officially announced its eight legislative priorities for 2023 on Wednesday, June 22.
Among these priorities is stopping the overt sexualization of children throughout the state. The Republican Party of Texas wants the state Legislature to enact new laws to protect young children from hazardous sexual curricula in schools.
Texas Scorecard has chronicled recent events involving school districts promoting hazardous LGBT sexual behaviors to children, providing pornographic materials in school libraries, and teaching kids “trans” ideology (the idea you can turn into whatever biological sex you feel like).
Austin ISD and other school districts even hosted a “pride” week earlier in June, where teachers (without parental consent) hosted school-wide pride parades. An Austin ISD elementary school teacher claimed that “20 out of 32 fourth-graders identified as LGBT,” and teachers even held classroom discussions about deviant forms of sexual expression and instructed children not to inform their parents about the conversations.
In Dallas, a gay bar recently hosted a “child-friendly” drag queen show, with video footage showing young children accompanied by parents while they watched a scantily clad drag queen dance in front of a large neon sign that read, “It’s not going to lick itself!”
Outside of the classrooms, the LGBT ideology has already begun to wreak havoc on children across the state—such as in the internationally known child abuse case of Dallas boy James Younger, whose mother told him he was a girl and wanted to force him (against his father’s wishes) to take sterilizing puberty blocker and cross-sex hormone drugs and eventually be castrated.
The Texas GOP specifically wants laws to protect children from such operations and to close the legal loopholes that allow such materials and teachings in schools.
The “Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids” priority addresses numerous issues many activists have been battling throughout the state. The description of the legislative priority reads:
Repeal Texas Penal Code “Obscenity Exemption” 43.24(c), which allows children access to harmful, explicit, or pornographic materials and 43.25(f)(2 3), which allows sexual performance by a child. In addition, prohibit teaching, exposure, and/or discussion of sexual matters (mechanics, feelings, orientation, or “gender identity” issues), and prohibit use or provision of related books and other materials using criminal, civil or other enforcement measures.
As “Stop Sexualizing Texas Kids” is now a legislative priority, the party will officially endorse legislation that fulfills or advances the priority. This will encourage lawmakers to propose priority legislation and work to get it passed.
Fulfilling these priorities in 2023 will be a major focus of the Republican Party of Texas, especially since many conservatives are saying this is the most conservative GOP platform yet.
However, liberal and mainstream publications like The New York Times are calling the democratically crafted platform “far-right.”
Some Republican lawmakers have already begun spearheading the campaign. In the wake of the “Drag the Kids to Pride” event, Texas State Rep. Bryan Slaton (R–Royce City) announced he would be introducing legislation to ban children from drag shows.
Texas State Rep. Steve Toth (R–The Woodlands) also promised to take action.
“Whether it’s a drag show for kids at a transgender bar or fiction books in schools describing oral sex, parents are reporting things that are absolutely inappropriate for kids,” Toth explained in a statement earlier this month. He also promised to “tighten the obscenity exemption found in Texas’ Penal Code, Section 43.24” during the upcoming 88th Legislative Session.
The American Library Association, which has defended the practice of exposing children to pornography in school libraries, has a list of the “Top 10 Most Challenged Books in 2021.” The ALA itself described most of these books as “sexually explicit,” and many of them include “LGBTQIA+ content.”
Now that activists and rank-and-file Republicans are turning their attention to the issue of child sexualization, the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature will face greater scrutiny in the next election cycle if these priorities are not addressed.
