dog whistle

[adrian_turtle]

Could somebody please translate the latest dog whistle for me?

I don't know if "parental rights" is code for stuff like:
*We support anti-vaxxers! If you want your kid to go to school without being vaccinated, the school should respect that.
*We support anti-maskers! If you want your kid to go to school without a mask, the school should respect that.
*We support gender essentialists! If your kid is queer or trans and you don't like it, schools or libraries should not help the kid find information or support you'd disapprove of.
*Where the government is run by liberals, some parents want the right to restrict their kids' access to medical care and information (especially about sex, gender, and religion).

Or if it's code for:
*When queer or trans kids have the support of their families, we don't want laws or school policies to block that.
*If your family practices a minority religion, we don't want your kid to get pressured away from religious or cultural practices. (Like being made to cut their hair to do sports.)
*Where the government is run by reactionaries, some parents want the right to expand their kids' access to medical care and information

Comments

[ethelmay]

The former is my understanding. See, e.g., https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/what-do-parents-rights-mean-legally-for-schools-anyway/2022/10 "Jeffrey Shulman, a visiting professor at Georgetown University Law Center and the author of several law journal articles on parental rights, said he agrees the term “is thrown about loosely” and could refer to rights under the U.S. Constitution, under federal statutes, under state constitutions or state statutes, or even school board regulations.

“Generally speaking, when parents use the term in the heat of battle, they are pretty much calling upon some amorphous, free-floating right,” Shulman said.

The arguments advanced by some conservative parents today reflect a longstanding and deep-seated fear, he said, “that our system of public education indoctrinates children in a left-wing ideological agenda; that public schools alienate children from their families and cultures, thereby undermining parental authority; [and] that, basically, the goal of public education is to enlist children on the wrong side of our current culture wars.”"

[anne]

I have never seen "parental rights" invoked in the service of actually protecting children from harm. It's always used by people who don't think children have rights at all.

[adrian_turtle]

At least 2 candidates for Boston City Council list it among their favorite issues, alongside housing and traffic. (I'd rather see focus on public transit, but traffic is legitimately a disaster and I approve of the City Council trying to make it less bad.)

[anne]

Let me guess, one of them is Erin Murphy! Who's the other? I know I'm voting for Louijeune again, but I'm waffling about the rest...

[adrian_turtle]

Let me guess, one of them is Erin Murphy!

Um...that's why I said, "at least 2 candidates." Sigh.
I was thinking of Shawn Nelson and Catherine Vitale. I hadn't realized Murphy was like that.

[anne]

Yeah, apparently her sister is one of the goons screaming outside Wu's house.

edit: is or was? I don't know if they're still doign it, but I'm pretty sure she was one of them.

[adrian_turtle]

I cannot blame people for their relatives. (I am too afraid of being blamed for my own.) Catherine Vitale was (may perhaps still be) yelling in front of the mayor's house before sunrise in protest of masking and vaccination reauirements.

[anne]

No, but if I see a person with racist relatives consistently voting on the conservative side, I'm allowed to go hmmm.

[pameladean]

It's definitely the former list. Saner parents rightfully resentful that the people screaming about their own parental rights don't actually want parents they don't agree with to have any rights at all are trying some pushback, but so far it hasn't gotten anywhere.

P.

[adrian_turtle]

I heard some of the pushback in Missouri, from parents of trans kids (and other allies) lobbying the legislature. I wasn't sure how far they got, other than failing to stop the bigots from passing that particular bill.

[naomikritzer]

100% it's the horrifying conservatives.

[mrissa]

Chiming in with everybody else, parental rights in this context are set up in opposition to the idea that the children themselves have any.

[adrian_turtle]

Thanks. I'm seeing it most recently in the context of city council elections, and more generally where the question is "who should have more power over a child, the parents or the government?" Because it's a coded political dog whistle, you don't get to say, "Well...it depends on the parents. Some parents shouldn't be allowed to raise more than a goldfish without supervision under normal circumstances, but Florida these days is hardly normal circumstances.

[mrissa]

Yeah, you can't take a coded political dogwhistle as a sincere political discussion question even though they would really like you to. Just like you can't look at a group that calls itself Moms For Liberty and think, well, I like liberty, and I'm not prejudiced against moms.

[hobbitbabe]

Around here (Alberta, Canada, and not just the rural parts) it is a code/hashtag/kneejerk for stuff like the former.

"We don't want schools helping our kids learn that trans and non-binary identities exist and are normal, and that supports exist. We don't want schools helping our kids learn that queer identities exist and are normal, and that supports exist. And to tell you the truth, we really don't want them helping YOUR kids learn those things either, which is why we are standing on this fucking street corner yelling at people. If your kids also grow up uninformed, we have a hope of propagating our views to another generation - otherwise, our kids will be influenced by your kids."

Unfortunately it is not used as code for any of the things in the second list.

[silveradept]

In the current climate, in my space, it's much more the former list, with the additional, and perhaps more important, addition that it is not about a parent getting to control what their child does or does not learn at the public school or library, but instead about ensuring that the most reactionary, bigoted adult (regardless of whether they have children) has unbreakable control and the ability to dictate what all children do or do not learn at the public school or the library. Regardless of the learned, considered opinions of the professionals working in those spaces. "Parent's Rights" people are almost always "Don't Say Gay" book banners and burners angling for the power to enforce their views on everyone.

[evalerie]

I think of it as one of those incredibly vague terms that everybody agrees with, at least on its surface, like the year when all the candidates were trumpeting that they were for "family values."