Left to right: Aaron Baer of Center for Arizona Policy, Michael King and Andrew Beckwith of Massachusetts Family Institute and Eric Teetsel of Family Policy Alliance of Kansas
This week, I had the privilege of gathering with pro-family leaders from around the country at the Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs. It was here that I received the wonderful news that Governor Sam Brownback of Kansas has been named U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom. This is encouraging to all of us who care about the issue of religious liberty and Christian persecution around the globe. Hopefully, this will help our State Department turn back to leading on this issue instead of the promotion of abortion and homosexuality, which characterized much of our foreign policy over the past eight years. I had the good fortune of spending time this week with Brownback’s son-in-law, Eric Teetsel, who is my counterpart in Kansas, part of Family Policy Alliance’s network of over 40 state family policy councils.
Early Tuesday morning, our Commander in Chief tweeted out his decision to end to the Obama administration’s social experimentation with transgenderism in our armed forces. A year ago, Obama directed America’s military leadership to accommodate gender-confused service members with hormonal treatments and sex change operations. This came despite the fact that the military still has bars to service for things as seemingly innocuous as peanut allergies or a tattoo. Trump promised to repeal that policy, and I’m thankful that he did. (I encourage you to read Ryan Anderson’s excellent article on this over at the Daily Signal. Also, to understand the impact of the transgender movement on vulnerable children, watch this excellent Tucker Carlson segment with Dr. Michelle Cretella.) However, given the left’s over-the-top reaction to this change, it will be interesting to watch how the President’s decision to prioritize readiness over political correctness in our nation’s military will be translated from Twitter to official Department of Defense policy.
At MFI, we are fighting this same battle against the obliteration of biological sex at the state level, as we continue to educate and mobilize for the vote to repeal MA’s Bathroom Bill in next November’s elections. We were called on to be the voice for our shared values here in the Bay State on this national issue. I spoke on AM 1420 WBSM and was quoted in the Boston Globe. Fortunately, despite being in Colorado, I was able to call on MFI’s President Emeritus and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel, Kris Mineau to go on NECN to debate Trump’s policy change. You can watch that below:
Finally, yesterday, we learned that the Department of Justice clarified that the word “sex” in Title VII of federal law does NOT include “gender identity.” This is another important victory in the effort to undo some of the gender confusion inserted into our national government over the last several years.
Despite the steep challenges we often face here in the Commonwealth, it is encouraging to know we are working together as part of a national movement to promote and defend our shared values in places as culturally distinct as California, Texas, Kansas and Massachusetts. You can see the full list of state allies here.
For our families,
