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Moms for Liberty, Vanquished on Election Day, Continue Book Banning & Anti-LGBTQ Agenda [1]

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Date: 2023-11-09  

Despite numerous losses in school board elections across the country, Moms for Liberty, the rightwing, well-funded so-called parental rights group, will not be going away anytime soon.

On Wednesday November 8, The Daily Beast’s Dan Ladden-Hall reported that Moms for Liberty, “had a rough night in Tuesday’s elections for school board seats around the country. The organization, considered an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, endorsed scores of candidates in school districts in several states from Alaska to North Carolina. But the group’s record backing book bans, opposing racially inclusive lessons in classrooms, and pushing anti-LGBTQ messages seemingly failed to connect with voters in multiple ballots.”

According to Newsweek, “Every single candidate endorsed by Moms for Liberty in Minnesota, Kansas, North Carolina and Washington lost their race.”

The Advocate reported “In Pennsylvania, a focal battleground state, Moms for Liberty’s influence waned, endorsing only one candidate in Bucks County — a stark contrast to the previous year’s claim of securing 33 seats. The Central Bucks School District saw Democrats secure all five available board seats despite Moms for Liberty’s voter guide suggesting Republican candidates.”

Bleeding Heartland, “a community blog about Iowa politics,” reported that “Voters in Iowa’s large school districts overwhelmingly picked progressive candidates over conservatives on November 7. In many urban and suburban districts, candidates backed by local Democrats, the Iowa State Education Association (ISEA), and/or the LGBTQ advocacy group One Iowa Action ran the table, while candidates backed by activists on the religious right fell short.”

So who are these Moms for Liberty and, despite recent losses, how politically relevant will they continue to be?

Just before Election Day, The Daily Beast’s Senior Reporter Kate Briquette reported that two Moms for Liberty activists “called police on a pair of school librarians over a book in a bestselling young adult fantasy series.’I’ve got some evidence a crime was committed,’ said Jennifer Tapley, a member of the group’s Santa Rosa County chapter, in an Oct. 25 phone call to a local sheriff’s office. ‘Pornography given to a minor in a school. And I would like to make a report with somebody and turn over the evidence.’”

The novel in question was Storm and Furyby Jennifer L. Armentrout. She told Substavk Popular Information she was shocked that the country is “living in an era where, apparently, some adults find it appropriate to contact the police over a fictional book involving gargoyles.”

Writing for New York magazine, Sarah Jones explained that, “When Moms for Liberty assaults protections for LGBTQ+ children in public schools, and threatens to out trans children to families that may not be welcoming, they do so with specious arguments about ‘parental rights.’ Nobody wants to co-parent with the government, they argue, and parents have a right to know what their children are doing in school. Members have backed policies that would prevent teachers from covering LGBTQ+ topics in the classroom, ban trans girls from playing school sports, and notify parents if a child requests a name change at school. Those policies place LGBTQ+ students — and educators — at risk. Tuesday’s school-board races tested the nation’s priorities: Did voters want culture war or did they want candidates focused more on the work of education? The answer is a blow for Moms for Liberty and their larger platform.”

Newsweek reported that On Steve Bannon’s War Roompodcast, Tiffany Justice, a Moms for Liberty founder, said “Tuesday's wins are ‘nothing to sneeze at,’ noting that it brings the total number of the group's candidates who have won races in the past two years to 365.” Justice told Newsweek that, "Our chapter chairs work tirelessly to identify candidates that are truly focused on parental rights and bring them to the forefront of this fight. Parental rights is and will continue to be a top issue in every election until our children are safe."

The American Federation of Teachers said voters had delivered a clear message.

"These results underline what families have been telling us for the last two years. They don't want culture wars; they want safe and welcoming public schools where their kids can recover and thrive," Randi Weingarten, the president of the teacher's union, said in a statement.

"Where extremists peddled fear, voters wanted hope. Where extremists tried to smear and divide, voters demanded real solutions. Voters want government to support them, not ban books, censor history or limit their reproductive choices. They want good jobs, higher wages, lower costs and investments in transport and infrastructure. They reject division and want to seize the future together."

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/9/2204692/-Moms-for-Liberty-Vanquished-on-Election-Day-Continue-Book-Banning-Anti-LGBTQ-Agenda?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web

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