(FiveNation.com)- The House of Representatives discussed HR 5, the Parents Bill of Rights, on Thursday afternoon.
Democrats in the house spoke out against a Republican-proposed bill to expand parental rights. The legislation was criticized for being, you guessed it, fascist. The Democrats said it was censorship. They accused their Republican colleagues of trying to prohibit books and prevent children from learning about the Holocaust and homosexual and transgender problems issues.
The bill, introduced by Louisiana Republican Representative Julia Letlow, would make it illegal for schools to sell students’ personal information “for commercial or financial advantage.” It would also require parental disclosure before conducting student surveys, compel parental approval for student involvement in surveys, and force all public school districts to disclose their curricular materials to parents. The measure, once known as HR 5 after the age at which most children attend kindergarten, is now one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) priorities.
New York Democrat and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that extreme MAGA Republicans do not want the young of America to learn about the Holocaust. He said an author recounts his transgender daughter’s coming-of-age in personal detail, and the Republicans want to make it unlawful for anybody to read about her in the book “Melissa.”
He asked, “what is it about Melissa that causes such a strong negative reaction?” He said that what it’s like to be LGBTQ+ in America is something the far-right MAGA Republicans don’t want your child to learn.
Similarly, New York Democrat and feisty leftist Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez blasted Republicans, saying people wanted to “keep cultural fights out of schools.”
AOC remarked on progressive values, defining them as the triumph of “freedom over fascism,” as if the left is not forcing their values into the curriculum.
Many amendments will be put to the vote in the House of Representatives beginning Thursday night.
