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

[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.