On getting with the program

A Florida teacher wishes to be in compliance with the new law restricting what can be taught -- or mentioned -- in the classroom.

 

This was floating around on Twitter. It seemed worth sharing.

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But let's get serious here for a minute. Republicans are bound and determined to inflame a sex panic so as to run on it in the midterms. 

In the charged debate over what and how children should learn about sexual orientation and gender identity, some mainstream Republicans are tagging those who defend such lessons as “groomers,” claiming that proponents of such teaching want children primed for sexual abuse. The argument draws on previous tactics adopted by the right to oppose the erosion of traditional gender roles at moments of societal transition, experts say. They point out that, while groomer rhetoric seems designed to appeal to fringe partisans, it is part of a conservative effort to foster a moral panic that will help limit how and what educators teach — by restricting history lessons, banning books, and curbing discussions of systemic racism and LGBTQ issues. Hannah Natanson and Moriah Balingit

We've been here before.When uppity (or hungry) women insisted on going to work outside the home in the 1980s and 90s, leaving their kids in day care, the usual suspects ginned up a day care sex panic, charging a few unfortunate operators with Satanic ritual abuse. Ambitious DAs descended on schools and ginned up prosecutions. But there was nothing there but manipulated parental hyper-anxiety. It was all nonsense -- nearly all the accused were eventually set free when temperatures cooled.

This time, the targets of fear are LGBTQ people. And anyone who might teach truthful history about race. The antidote to irrational fears is 1) education and 2) to get over it.