The Ohio Supreme Court recently dipped its gavel into the controversial waters of the gender identity debate. According to a recent report, the court helped to coordinate a conference last year that featured training for judges on LGBTQ issues.
As is typical for these stories, the trainings were ostensibly designed to promote inclusivity. However, it appears that this is more about pushing a political agenda than serving justice.
The state’s Supreme Court partnered with an LGBTQ advocacy group named Equality Ohio to facilitate the sessions, according to an exclusive report from the Daily Caller.
The Ohio Supreme Court coordinated a conference where an activist group held a training for judges that claimed children have a “stable sense” of their gender identity by the age of four.
The presentation, titled “The Judicial System & LGBTQ+ Families: A Cultural Humility Approach,” was given by a local activist group, Equality Ohio, during the Ohio Association of Magistrates (OAM) Fall 2023 conference. The presentation featured the “gender unicorn” — a graphic portraying gender identity and expression as spectrums — and encouraged “affirming” youth transgender identities by “respecting their pronouns and allowing them to change legal documents,” according to the slideshow obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation via a public records request.
“Research suggests that children who assert a gender-diverse identity know their gender as clearly and consistently as their developmentally matched peers,” one slide states after explaining most children have a “stable sense” of their gender identity by age four.
The court confirmed its involvement in the initiative through a representative who told the Daily Caller that “While the Judicial College office of the Supreme Court of Ohio assists in the coordination of the events related to these presentations, the associations themselves bear the costs associated with hosting the events and providing the materials.”
Another official explained that the Judicial College staff works “with the association’s leaders to identify the educational topics they wish to present at the conference.”
However, the move is clearly another way to push progressive gender ideology in as many institutions as possible. As I’ve pointed out on several occasions, the left has not been successful at persuading millions of Americans to accept the silly notion that men can become women and vice versa. While they have had a measure of success at shaming some folks into going along with their gender charade, most people understand basic biology.
For this reason, progressives have become more aggressive in forcing their warped gender ideology on the rest of us by using government force. They have already passed laws intended to promote far-leftist ideas on gender and sexuality in education and other areas in states like California and New York.
It seems obvious that immersing judges in progressive dogma on gender is part of the overall effort to use the power of the state as a weapon to coerce people into accepting transgender ideology. Suppose they can convince a substantial number of judges to adhere to this belief system. In that case, it will be easier for them to advance this agenda in Ohio and possibly other states.
This is not an issue that libertarians and conservatives can afford to neglect. This is a battle being fought on many fronts. State judiciaries are but one battlefield in this culture war. Ohioans will need to stand up in overwhelming numbers if they wish to prevent this destructive movement from gaining dominance over the government.
