A roundup of news and commentary from around the interwebs.
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Some good news for a change:
A Loudoun County, Virginia, elementary school teacher who was placed on administrative leave in May for refusing to affirm transgender identity in children was reinstated by a judge Tuesday.
Byron “Tanner” Cross, who teaches physical education at Leesburg Elementary School, secured a temporary injunction from Judge James Plowman in his lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS), according to an announcement from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which defended him.
“BREAKING: Tanner Cross, a Virginia elementary school teacher and ADF client who was suspended for raising concerns to the board about a proposed gender policy, has won a temporary injunction and the judge has ordered his reinstatement,” ADF tweeted. “A massive victory for freedom of speech.”
Local WTOP reporter Neal Augenstein reported that Plowman found the “school system’s suspension was unconstitutional” and its handling of the situation was “vindictive.” The school argued that it suspended Cross not for his beliefs but because of the “disruption” he allegedly caused, but Plowman said there was “simply an absence of evidence” that any disruption to school operations took place.
Cross retained the legal counsel of ADF after he made national news for his speech to the school board regarding its proposed policies governing the gender identity of students. Citing his Christian faith, Cross asserted that he would not be conforming to any school district policy that demands LCPS staff use preferred pronouns and “allow gender-expansive and transgender students to participate in such activities in a manner consistent with the student’s gender identity.”
“I love all of my students but I will never lie to them regardless of the consequences. I’m a teacher but I serve God first and I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it’s against my religion, it’s lying to a child, it’s abuse to a child, and it’s sinning against our God,” Cross said in part.
While a wave of pro-life laws pass across the country, California is moving to once again make abortion easier and cheaper to procure: “State lawmakers are debating a bill to eliminate out-of-pocket expenses like copays and payments toward deductibles for abortions and related services, such as counseling. The measure, approved by the Senate and headed to the Assembly, would apply to most private health plans regulated by the state.”
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Peter Hitchens has a beautifully written review of Helen Andrews’ Boomers: The Men and Women Who Promised Freedom and Delivered Disaster, a book I’ve been intending to read for some time.
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The French novelist Michel Houellebecq wrote an essay for Unherd titled “The narcissistic fall of France” on the letter from a number of French generals predicting collapse or civil war. It is sobering stuff.
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The extents the media will go to in order to demonize conservatives is disgusting. Exhibit A is a recent article in Esquire called “Inside the Conservative Movement’s Long Con to Capture the Courts, with the sinister subtitle: “How Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell quietly installed hundreds of federal judges, waging an insidious war on the judicial branch bound to shape American life for decades to come—and not for the better.” By “quietly installed,” of course, they mean “publicly confirmed,” and by “long con” they mean that the GOP won elections and then appointed judges. But because the media disagrees with the ideology of many of these judges, this has become a nefarious thing. Incidentally, I wrote a column for The American Conservative on Mitch McConnell’s battle for the courts late last year, which you can read here.
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According to The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the number of euthanasia deaths in Canada continues to go up: “7595 reported euthanasia deaths in 2020 is almost a 35% increase from 5631 in 2019.”
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The German Catholic Church is choosing between revolution and revelation, and they’re going with revolution. Breaking with the Vatican, they’ve began offering blessings to same-sex unions.
