CNN’s “Race Deconstructed” newsletter touted the appointment of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, noting the historical nature of her ascendancy to the highest court in the land. But in so doing, they used the proceedings of her confirmation hearings to set the stage for a GOP assault on gay marriage and other aspects of LGBTQ rights. The author wrote:

Take a striking point of contention during Jackson’s confirmation hearings last month. Many Republican senators spent part of their questioning time complaining about marriage equality. “The Constitution doesn’t mention the word ‘abortion,'” said Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, “just like it doesn’t mention the word ‘marriage.'”

While acknowledging that it is unlikely that Republicans will overturn Obergefell v. Hodges, which established the right to gay marriage, he pointed out that “[t]he crusade against Roe seemed hopeless for decades until, suddenly, it didn’t.”

The newsletter also contended that conservatives are trying to roll back LGBTQ rights by pushing for religious freedom. The author brought up the case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the city could not refuse to contract with Catholic Social Services, an adoption agency that does not work with same-sex couples due to their religious beliefs. The court ruled that the city’s decision was a violation of freedom of religion as outlined in the First Amendment.

Of course, let’s not forget how much Republicans supposedly hate transgenders – especially athletes. The author lamented the fact that GOP state leaders enacted laws to protect female athletes by prohibiting biological males from competing in women’s sports.

But CNN isn’t the only activist media outlet playing this tune. In March, Amanda Marcotte wrote a piece for Salon in which she predicted that Florida’s education transparency bill would lead to more restrictions on LGBTQ rights. She wrote:

Obergefell was a 5-4 decision in favor of gay rights. Since then, two of the justices who supported it have been replaced by Federalist Society-linked justices, who were picked in no small part to issue anti-LGBTQ decisions. For those who are counting, that means that if Republicans can find some way to relitigate the question, they likely have a 5-4 majority to overturn the legalization of same-sex marriage, or at least gut it significantly.

Marcotte also took issue with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and attorney general Ken Paxton pushing back against schools injecting far-leftist ideas regarding sexuality into the classrooms. Paxton sent a letter to Austin Independent School District after it held a Pride Week in which he pointed out that the district was “cynically pushing a week-long indoctrination of your students” and that they were violating the law by employing an “instructional effort in human sexuality without parental consent.”

According to people like Marcotte, insisting that parents be aware of what teachers are teaching their children is somehow an assault on the LGBTQ community. It is the reason they oppose Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law; they believe parents should have little, if any, right to decide how their children are educated.

This is the crux of the matter. These debates can be summed up by noting that this is a battle between those who believe children belong to their parents and those who believe children belong to the state. The left’s contention that parents and conservatives are trying to threaten LGBTQ rights is nothing more than a red herring designed to distract from what progressives are trying to do: indoctrinate the nation’s children into their worldview. It is why they are pushing for schools to influence young minds while cutting parents out of the equation. If they were honest actors, they would not try to prevent parents from knowing what is going on in these classrooms. But, as we have seen, it is quite difficult to indoctrinate/groom children when their parents are involved, isn’t it?