NH: Conservative Columnist Downplays Child Abuse, Wants More Rights for Parents

While examining NH Journal (a conservative leaning news and opinion website) today, we found two news stories and an op-ed, all in recent days, on the topic of whether parents ought to be informed by the school if their child asks to try out a nickname and/or different pronouns.

The first story covers some statements on the issue by GOP congressional candidate Karoline Leavitt. Leavitt is against policies that direct schools to use new names and pronouns for trans students without informing parents. The second covers statements by the Chairman of the NH Democratic Party, defending these policies as having been designed to keep children safe who otherwise might face abuse if their gender identity was known to their family.

The op-ed, by conservative columnist Rick Lehmann, expounds on conservative ideas about parental rights, and the importance of allowing parents choice in how their children are educated. Lehmann acknoledges that the policies exist to limit the risk of child abuse, but dismisses that risk as concerning “outlier cases. However, he does agree that any policy directing schools to inform parents should have exceptions for cases where abuse is considered a likely outcome.

According to research conducted by the Trevor Project, 4.1% of LGBTQ youth report having been in foster care, a rate that is significantly higher than that found in the general population. Among queer youth, foster care placement is even more common for transgender and nonbinary youth. LGBTQ adults also report significantly elevated levels of adverse childhood experiences such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. More than half report 3 or more of these adverse experiences, compared to only 26 percent of straight adults.

Although Lehmann doesn’t directly call for parents to pull gender nonconforming children out of school, the op-ed mentions the choice of homeschooling or private school as an alternative to public school in the context of parents needing information about their child’s gender identity from the school in order to make choices about their children’s education. Research on the connections between homeschooling and abuse is hotly contested, with homeschooling advocates pointing to data that finds poverty, but not homeschooling, significantly increases the risk of child mistreatment. (A starting point for a deeper dive into the topic can be found here.) However, one consistent finding has been that a subset of parents will pull their kids from school and begin homeschooling soon after reports of parental abuse are made, and that these particular children are at a much higher risk of abuse by parents.

Parental rights is a growing obsession on the right. Pundits like Lehmann believe that parents have an absolute right to bar their children from wearing clothing more typical of another gender, to use masculine or feminine nicknames, or try out different pronouns. When these pundits downplay the risks of abuse, however, they do a grave disservice to trans and other LGBTQ youth. The drumbeat of parental rights risks increasing the abuse of vulnerable children.