Colorado GOP tells parents to pull their kids from public schools
The Colorado Republican Party has issued a call for all parents to pull their kids from public schools because Democrats use them to “turn more kids trans.” The email proclamation comes in response to a bill requiring schools to develop policies that prohibit discrimination around using students’ chosen names for unofficial documents such as rosters and name tags. Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law on April 29. “In reality, all Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education,” reads the email signed by Darcy Schoening, the director of special initiatives for the Colorado GOP. That call is similar to one made in 2022 by Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, who told parents to remove students from public schools and move them to church-run schools. While both Schoening and Ganahl push their culture war agenda and lament the dominance of Democrats in the state legislature, neither seems to understand that their radical attacks could be directly connected to their party’s repeated failures at the ballot box. The Republican Party email accuses the Colorado Legislature of “trying to break down the family unit” and warns against the threat of “trans males.” It also calls being trans "a fetish" and claims that LGBTQ+ people "don't know their own genders." It warns that teachers and other students may refer to a child by their preferred name and pronouns, “all without notifying you of your child's disturbing behavior, which should be treated rather then [sic] encouraged.” It also includes one example of the supposed threat from trans teachers in public schools. In Colorado Springs, at Grand Peak Academy, parents were told by the Principal & Board in March that their third grade girls would be continuously forced to use the restroom with a grown male teacher who calls himself "Ms. Sparks" and tells kids they can be 'any gender they want.'" Grand Peak Academy is a charter school. If there has ever been any controversy regarding this school and a trans teacher, it didn’t make the news. Or Google. No one on the staff has the last name of “Sparks,” regardless of gender. Schoening’s story about the teacher at Grand Peak seems no more real than the claims Ganahl made during her 2022 run for governor. As the Colorado Times Recorder reported in 2022, Ganahl conflated complaints about the recognition of trans students with false claims about “furries” in the schools. “Yeah, kids identifying as cats,“ Ganahl told the host of a local radio show. “It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s happening all over Colorado and schools are tolerating it. It’s insane.” The reason it sounds ridiculous is that it was ridiculous. It wasn’t happening in Colorado or anywhere. It was an urban myth that popped up in 2022 and was spread by the campaigns of at least 20 Republican candidates, including Rep. Lauren Boebert. Colorado politics were dominated by Republicans for decades. George W. Bush won the state twice and Republicans maintained control of the state legislature as recently as the early 2000s. Since then, Republican representation in state government has dropped to the lowest level since World War II, according to 9News. Today, there are no Republican senators from Colorado. Not only is Gov. Polis a Democrat, but every statewide office is held by a Democrat. Of the state’s seven U.S. representatives, only two are Republicans: Boebert and Doug Lamborn. Lamborn isn’t running for reelection and Boebert is in trouble after shifting to a new district. As the Colorado Republican Party shrinks, it seems to be getting reduced down to "GOP concentrate," contracting around the most radical core and putting forward a platform centered on lies and hate. Schoening, who sent the email directing parents to pull their kids from public schools, is a former local leader of the infamous activist group Moms for Liberty, which pushed homophobic book bans across the country. The leaders of the Colorado Republican Party don’t seem concerned that centering the party around villainizing the LGBTQ+ community and creating false stories to drive a culture war agenda is what brought them so low. And they don’t seem to care that every time they make more ridiculous claims, they bring their party closer to extinction. Like many Republicans, Donald Trump has tried to sidestep the issue of abortion and reproductive rights. But he stumbled during an interview with a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh this week, promising an “interesting” new policy that would let states restrict contraception.. Embedded Content Campaign Action
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The Colorado Republican Party has issued a call for all parents to pull their kids from public schools because Democrats use them to “turn more kids trans.”
The email proclamation comes in response to a bill requiring schools to develop policies that prohibit discrimination around using students’ chosen names for unofficial documents such as rosters and name tags. Gov. Jared Polis signed it into law on April 29.
“In reality, all Colorado parents should be aiming to remove their kids from public education,” reads the email signed by Darcy Schoening, the director of special initiatives for the Colorado GOP.
That call is similar to one made in 2022 by Republican gubernatorial candidate Heidi Ganahl, who told parents to remove students from public schools and move them to church-run schools.
While both Schoening and Ganahl push their culture war agenda and lament the dominance of Democrats in the state legislature, neither seems to understand that their radical attacks could be directly connected to their party’s repeated failures at the ballot box.
The Republican Party email accuses the Colorado Legislature of “trying to break down the family unit” and warns against the threat of “trans males.” It also calls being trans "a fetish" and claims that LGBTQ+ people "don't know their own genders." It warns that teachers and other students may refer to a child by their preferred name and pronouns, “all without notifying you of your child's disturbing behavior, which should be treated rather then [sic] encouraged.”
It also includes one example of the supposed threat from trans teachers in public schools.
In Colorado Springs, at Grand Peak Academy, parents were told by the Principal & Board in March that their third grade girls would be continuously forced to use the restroom with a grown male teacher who calls himself "Ms. Sparks" and tells kids they can be 'any gender they want.'"
Grand Peak Academy is a charter school. If there has ever been any controversy regarding this school and a trans teacher, it didn’t make the news. Or Google. No one on the staff has the last name of “Sparks,” regardless of gender.
Schoening’s story about the teacher at Grand Peak seems no more real than the claims Ganahl made during her 2022 run for governor.
As the Colorado Times Recorder reported in 2022, Ganahl conflated complaints about the recognition of trans students with false claims about “furries” in the schools.
“Yeah, kids identifying as cats,“ Ganahl told the host of a local radio show. “It sounds absolutely ridiculous, but it’s happening all over Colorado and schools are tolerating it. It’s insane.”
The reason it sounds ridiculous is that it was ridiculous. It wasn’t happening in Colorado or anywhere. It was an urban myth that popped up in 2022 and was spread by the campaigns of at least 20 Republican candidates, including Rep. Lauren Boebert.
Colorado politics were dominated by Republicans for decades. George W. Bush won the state twice and Republicans maintained control of the state legislature as recently as the early 2000s. Since then, Republican representation in state government has dropped to the lowest level since World War II, according to 9News.
Today, there are no Republican senators from Colorado. Not only is Gov. Polis a Democrat, but every statewide office is held by a Democrat.
Of the state’s seven U.S. representatives, only two are Republicans: Boebert and Doug Lamborn. Lamborn isn’t running for reelection and Boebert is in trouble after shifting to a new district.
As the Colorado Republican Party shrinks, it seems to be getting reduced down to "GOP concentrate," contracting around the most radical core and putting forward a platform centered on lies and hate. Schoening, who sent the email directing parents to pull their kids from public schools, is a former local leader of the infamous activist group Moms for Liberty, which pushed homophobic book bans across the country.
The leaders of the Colorado Republican Party don’t seem concerned that centering the party around villainizing the LGBTQ+ community and creating false stories to drive a culture war agenda is what brought them so low. And they don’t seem to care that every time they make more ridiculous claims, they bring their party closer to extinction.
Like many Republicans, Donald Trump has tried to sidestep the issue of abortion and reproductive rights. But he stumbled during an interview with a CBS affiliate in Pittsburgh this week, promising an “interesting” new policy that would let states restrict contraception..
