Religious Right Extremist Candidate Explains Plan To Use Texas Heartbeat Law To Attack LGBT Kids
Janet Porter is a candidate for U.S. House, running in Tuesday’s Ohio primary. She’s also a far-right religious extremist who opposes the basic human rights of pregnant people and the LGBTQ community. In fact, she’s bringing those two passions together now, with a promise that she and her party will clone the anti-abortion tactic used in Texas to attack the safety of LGBTQ kids across the country.
According to Right Wing Watch, Porter appeared on Dave Daubenmire’s podcast, as SCOTUS debated how to handle new anti-abortion policies. There, she boasted of the success of the Texas abortion law, which, instead of focusing on government-imposed legal consequences, allows other citizens to file lawsuits, making providing or seeking abortions potentially financial hardship.
She isn’t stopping there, though. She went on to describe how the same method will be used by the far-right across the country to make schools less safe for LGBTQ kids, by allowing lawsuits anytime someone alleges that a teacher has taught ‘inappropriate’ material.
Janet Porter, the "mastermind" behind the "heartbeat bill" 6-week abortion bans, plans to use the strategy behind Texas' law to target schools and allow parents to sue teachers, librarians, and anyone else who teaches students about LGBTQ issues. https://t.co/JYXMv5KFOs pic.twitter.com/UcnLziJls0
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 3, 2022
“Any citizen can sue for a violation of the Texas Heartbeat law…and they stopped killing kids…I’ve drafted a bill we’re gonna present this June to legislators in all 50 states, and the bill says we’re going to remove the protections…we’re gonna say parents have the right to sue when Johnny comes home with something that violates the state obscenity law…we’re gonna sue the teachers…and you know what? I think they’re gonna think twice about pushing this garbage on our children…”
As always, it’s necessary to highlight that the Trevor Project has research demonstrating (pdf) that a significant factor in reducing suicide among LGBTQ kids is an accepting adult in their lives.
LGBTQ youth who report having at least one accepting adult were 40% less likely to report a suicide attempt in the past year.
Any legislation that potentially deprives kids of that accepting adult, such as by making teachers, doctors, and counselors unsafe to speak to about gender and sexuality, risks more lost lives.
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