COLUMBUS — State Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) on Monday signed her support to The Promise to America’s Children, a collaborative effort between the Family Policy Alliance, The Heritage Foundation, and Alliance Defending Freedom that outlines 10 guiding principles to protect children in America.
The goal of the initiative is to rally support for legislation that promotes pro-family and pro-religious freedom policy.
“In today’s age, our children are constantly exposed to explicit, adult content through social media, entertainment, cultural forces, and oftentimes, our own government,” said Powell. “We have a collective responsibility to protect the health, privacy, safety, and relationships of children in America.”
Below are the 10 guiding principles for The Promise to America’s Children:
1. Every child deserves to be protected from being used in or exposed to pornography, graphic sexual content or activities as well as from being exposed to it in media and on the Internet.
2. Every child deserves an education that is suited for their specific needs and development as guided by their parents, including free from graphic sexual curriculum or content, the promotion of abortion, and politicized ideas about sexual orientation and gender identity. To protect this right, all public school sexual education programs should be opt-in, voluntarily chosen by parents. A general opt-out should be provided for other sensitive topics that families do not believe is appropriate for their children. Parents should have the right to review all curriculum, reading materials, teacher’s guides, and computer programs or apps.
3. Every child deserves the right to free speech, to either speak or not speak and to affirm or not affirm messages or ideas that violate their beliefs or conscience.
4. Every child deserves the opportunity to be guided and supported in making the healthiest decisions for their current and future physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual health, including obtaining counseling that the parents determine is safe, appropriate, and in the child’s best interest, without government interference that excludes parents or exhibits a bias based on beliefs about sexuality, sexual orientation, or gender identity.
5. Every child deserves safety and privacy in sex-specific spaces such as locker rooms, showers, and restrooms at schools and other federally-funded public facilities.
6. Every child deserves the opportunity to participate in fair and safe athletic competitions. Female athletes should not be forced to compete against biological males who identify as female in sports competitions intended for females.
7. Every child deserves the opportunity to be affirmed and in their genetically-determined sex, and to be supported as they mature through puberty and other normal adolescent changes that shape their maturity and reproductive capacity. Gender reassignment medical treatments (including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sterilizing surgeries) are neither natural nor healthy, and should not be permitted on minors.
8. Every child deserves a “forever family.” Authorities should not limit or reduce the pool of foster or adoptive parents by forcing either child welfare agencies or prospective adoptive or foster care parents to violate their moral or religious beliefs, including the belief that every child deserves a mother and a father.
9. Every child deserves a relationship with their mother and father. No child should be taken from their parents over disagreements between their parents and the state about sexual orientation/gender identity counseling, therapy, or medical procedures.
10. Every child deserves to have their parents informed of and involved in important life decisions. Authority figures (including teachers, counselors, or medical professionals) should not withhold information about a child’s sexual activity, development, or identity from parents or take any action that undermines the parents’ role in guiding the child in these areas. Nor should authority figures encourage or coerce a child to withhold information about important life decisions from the parent
