DV Journal

The Great Valley School District was slapped with a federal civil rights complaint over its policies that permit biological males to play in girls’ sports and use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms.

Former Great Valley School Board President Bruce Chambers filed the complaint with the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Chambers says he warned district officials and the school board they were no longer in compliance with federal law under Title IX. In his complaint, he cited an executive order by President Donald Trump protecting girls’ and women’s sports.

“I sent three emails to the Great Valley School Board, citing these issues and asked when they would change their policy,” Chambers said. “They responded once, and stated that ‘At this time, our legal counsel has advised that our current policies are consistent with established legal precedent. We will continue to monitor any developments related to this issue to ensure that we remain compliant with the law.’”

When the district declined to act, Chambers did.

“Since it is apparent that the School Board is not changing their policies to be compliant, I am, therefore, requesting a full investigation of the Great Valley School District’s Policy 103.3 and its implementation in the School District,” Chambers said.

“The Great Valley School District violates Title IX by enforcing Policy 103.3 that will ‘ensure the safety, comfort, and healthy development of transgender and gender expansive students,’” according to the complaint.

Policy 103.3 reads in part:

“Students will be allowed to use the restroom that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school. The District will provide a transgender or gender expansive student with access to the locker room that corresponds to the gender identity they consistently assert at school. Transgender and gender expansive students shall be permitted to participate in athletic programs and classes in a manner consistent with their asserted gender identity.

“Transgender and gender expansive students will be allowed to participate in accordance with the gender identity they consistently assert at school.”

According to the complaint, “Policy 103.3 ‘provides these students with the ability to feel safe and comfortable using sex-segregated intimate restroom and locker room facilities as well as participating in physical education, sports and other school activities consistent with their ‘gender identity.’

“However, this policy is in violation of Title IX as it denies students whose ‘gender identity’ is the same as their sex the ability to feel safe and comfortable in the use of the sex-segregated common restrooms, locker rooms, and in their participation in sports, physical education classes, and other school activities.”

“The policy attempts to provide alternatives for students to use private restrooms or locker rooms, but this only provides greater rights to students whose gender identity does not match their biological sex than for those whose identity is the same as their sex,” the complaint said.

District spokeswoman Sharee McGibboney did not respond to a request for comment.

Chambers said the district’s policy amounts to “systemic discrimination.”

Furthermore, the district does not disclose a student’s preferred gender to their parents because it might violate their right to privacy.

“Transgender and gender expansive students have the right to discuss and express their gender identity and expression openly and to decide when, with whom, and how much to share. When contacting the parent/guardian of a transgender or gender expansive student, school personnel should use the student’s legal name and the pronoun corresponding to the student’s gender assigned at birth unless the student has specified otherwise,” the district’s policy states.

DVJournal has previously reported on Great Valley’s policy of hiding students’ behavior regarding sex and gender from their parents.

When Republican state Sens. Judy Ward (R-Blair) and Dave Argall (R-Schuylkill) brought state legislators, medical professionals, and advocates to discuss the “Do No Harm” Act, it was to hear stories like the one told by Simon B. Amaya Price.

“The harms of so-called gender affirming care are real. I experienced emotional manipulation and malpractice from my doctors, one of whom asked my father, ‘Would you like a dead son or a living daughter?’ while I was in the room. I was 14 at the time,” Price told the Pennsylvania Senate Policy Committee on Tuesday.

“I believed what he said to be true. I was convinced that either I was going to transition or die.”

Amaya Price is a “desister,” someone who identified as transgender, but decided to live in accordance with his biological gender instead of undergoing medical interventions. He was in Pennsylvania to support the Do No Harm Act, which would ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for minors.

Supporters say the legislation is necessary to protect children from making irreversible decisions before they are mature enough to fully understand the consequences. “It’s difficult for me to understand how we could expect children to make informed decisions about these life-changing procedures,” Argall said during the hearing. He praised Ward for “leading the charge on this important issue and fighting to protect children in Pennsylvania.”

Ward noted her bill would also prevent taxpayer dollars from being used for sex-change procedures on children. She mentioned the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) is one of the leading hospitals offering hormone and surgical treatment to kids.

Dr. Kurt Miceli, a Delaware County psychiatrist and the medical director of the Do No Harm organization, also testified. His group counters the “dangerous trends in medicine, including youth-focused gender ideology.”

The group launched a database in 2024, finding from 2019 to 2023 there were more than 5,700 insurance claims for sex reassignment in the U.S. Of those, 316 took place in Pennsylvania.

Dan Bartkowiak, the chief strategy officer of the Pennsylvania Family Council, said Right-to-Know requests submitted to the Pennsylvania Department of Health show that from 2015 to 2023, nearly 5,000 people aged 18 or younger received taxpayer-funded services related to sex reassignment and transition-related services and drugs. During that time, more than $21.8 million was spent on these services. The annual cost to taxpayers has sharply increased, rising from $58,919 in 2015 to more than $5 million in 2023.

Opponents say the potential harm comes from denying gender-affirming care to anyone who believes they need it.

“Transgender people of all ages are entitled to the care and opportunities that others take for granted to live lives recognized as their full selves,” Sultan Shakir, former president and executive officer of the Mazzoni Center, told The Inquirer earlier this year.

January Littlejohn, a senior fellow with Do No Harm, told a very different story Tuesday.

She testified about her 13-year-old daughter who was experiencing stress over being a girl. It came after three of her middle school friends claimed they were transgender, said Littlejohn. Instead of pursuing a new gender, the parents sought help for their child from a mental health professional.

“It was clear from conversations that our daughter was uncomfortable with her developing body and had an intense fear of being sexualized,” said Litttlejohn. “She was filled with deep self-loathing and was in true emotional pain and had been encouraged by peers and influencers to believe that gender was the source of her pain. What she really needed was for us to help her make sense of her confusion and remind her that hormones and surgeries could never change her sex or resolve her underlying mental health issues.

“I shudder to think what could have happened if we had affirmed her false identity and consented to medical interventions, as opposed to what we did, which was to lovingly affirm her in the reality of her sex, as she is, beautifully unique and irreplaceable, and undeniably female.”

Polls show Americans overwhelmingly support banning sex-change surgery for minors. In Europe, which is ahead of the curve on transgender issues, more countries are reversing their transgender-advocacy policies and placing restrictions on treatment for children.

America should do the same, Price said.

“We know that the vast majority of trans-identified children desist by adulthood if left unmedicalized. While I believe this aptly-named act to be a necessary first step in ending this barbaric and unscientific practice, it is only the first step. There are many detransitioners who only started medical transition in adulthood.”

Parents and students around the Delaware Valley and across the country could get whiplash from school boards that have flipped from Republican to Democrat, promptly rescinding their predecessors’ policies.

The latest example is the Perkiomen Valley School Board, which voted Monday to retire policy 720, a policy that required students to use restrooms and locker rooms of their biological sex.

Last September, about 400 students walked out of Perkiomen High School to protest a September 2023 board’s vote allowing boys to use girls’ bathrooms if they identify as female.

A father had discovered that district officials had a policy of allowing self-declared transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice after his daughter told him there was a boy in the girls’ restroom. He was surprised and posted about it on Facebook. Several school board members were also shocked.

By October, the board reversed itself and voted for Policy 720 to require students to use restrooms based on their biological sex. Any student could use single-use restrooms.

In November, Democrats won five PV seats, switching control of the board. Monday, pleas from students and community members fell on deaf ears as the board voted to allow transgender students to use the restrooms of their choice. Several parents of transgender students spoke in favor of the change.

Allison Kotsay  Skippack said, “You’re all here because you say you care about children in this district. Prove it. You’ve heard over and over again from many of us on the lack of common sense and logic you display here with the bathroom policy.  Here is a reminder of a few important facts: less than 0.6 percent of the population actually has gender dysmorphia. Do you know what that means? It means you’re willing to turn the majority of children’s lives upside down for less than 0.6 of the population for a TikTok trend.”

Flanked by her daughter and some other teenage girls, Shelly Burke of Perkiomen said, “I’m here tonight to show my daughter and her friends that you stand up and fight for what’s right. You don’t comply.  You don’t sit back for the minority to just run you over. These girls are terrified to speak. They’ve got nervous giddy laughs…I just want you to know this policy does affect biological males and females.   It’s not saying we don’t have compassion for the LGBTQ   community. We absolutely do… I do this for my daughter. They don’t feel comfortable with this…At the last meeting, I was screamed at and yelled at and called a bigot because I want to protect my daughter’s rights. This is the truth. These girls are affected by this policy…These are genuine biological girls here that don’t feel comfortable with this.”

Board Member Jason Saylor, the former president, sparred with current board President Laura White, with White saying the issue is students’ behavior and Saylor saying it was discrimination.

Saylor noted that the new policy would discriminate against students, including Muslim girls, who cannot use a restroom with a male in it for religous reasons. He noted that students are already leaving PV for private schools.

“If some of our students would go out of their way to be nefarious or to create harm or unsafe environments for other students, that needs to be addressed,” said White. “Wholeheartedly. Full stop. Zero tolerance…If we need to get down to the core root of something and the core root of it is behavioral, regardless of who, what, where, whatever the infraction is, gay, straight, trans, that’s irrelevant. If there are actors, if there are students in our building, who are unwilling or unable to follow the protocol and the expectations put in place by our school district, then that needs to be addressed.”

Saylor said, “I can tell you, and I’ve said it before in public. In my two years as board president, I multiple times asked the administration how they would handle this situation and multiple times, I was lied to. I was told they did X when they found out they did Y.  That’s why I put forth policy 720.”

He noted that the district faced many more Title IX complaints than the two that were previously reported.

Board Member Rowan Keenan said, “When I voted for the first time to protect women’s spaces, in the last two years, it was the only time that I was thanked for my service by anybody, or contacted or reached out…two young girls came to my office after I voted to keep men out of their bathrooms, and they thanked me.  And they thanked me for looking out for them.”

“What transpired at the Perkiomen Valley School District last night showed that common sense has left the building,” said Vicki Flannery, chair of the Montgomery County Chapter of Moms for Liberty. “We must try to regain normalcy not just in PVSD but all of Montgomery County. Parents throughout the county need to continue to be a voice for protecting the future of all children, not just some.”

The group thanked Saylor, Keenan and Board Member Don Fountain “for their unwavering commitment to the children, families, and the future of Perkiomen Valley School District.”

The district includes Lower Frederick, Skippack, Perkiomen, Collegeville, Trappe and Schwenksville.

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About 400 students marched out of Perkiomen High School on Friday to protest a school board vote allowing boys to use girls’ restrooms if they identify as female.

The board voted 5-4 on Sept. 11 against a policy requiring boys and girls to use the bathrooms of their biological sex.

One Republican school board member, Don Fountain, voted with the Democrats against the measure, which first arose after a father posted on social media that his daughter believed a boy was in the girls’ bathroom, and she was afraid to use it.

The father, Tim Jagger, told DVJournal, “So after a couple of days, I asked her if she noticed anything else, and she said that she just wasn’t using the bathrooms there anymore, so she doesn’t know.”

Jagger then contacted district officials who indicated they permitted students to use bathrooms that matched their gender identity and said his 14-year-old freshman daughter could use a single-person restroom if she wanted.

Jagger was surprised by that and posted about it on Facebook. Others saw his post and were also surprised. He then went to a meeting and asked the school board about it. Several members said they had no idea it was happening.

The administrators said it was due to a nondiscrimination policy that the board passed in 2018, said Jagger. But the one remaining board member who had been on the board in 2018 said he did not know the bathroom matter would be part of that policy when gender identity was added as a nondiscrimination category.

Senior Brandon Corner, 17, was among the students who walked out to protest the policy.

Corner said that while he does not oppose rights for transgender students, he believes other students also have rights. He does not feel comfortable with a person of the opposite sex who identifies as a male using a bathroom with him. He said there were already private one-person restrooms in the school that they could use.

During the walkout, he approached Superintendent Barbara Russell Ed.D. for answers but did not believe he got any.

“She didn’t answer any questions. For example, when I asked her to define what a transgender person is,” he said. And also, “What’s in place to protect the non-transgender people?”

“What if a person with the wrong intention decides they want to use the bathroom for the wrong intention?” he said, alluding to a 2021 incident in Loudon County, Va., where a teenage boy sexually assaulted girls in two different schools in girls’ restrooms and the district allegedly covered up the first incident.

Asked if he believes the students accomplished what they wanted with their walkout, he said, “We wanted to get the media involved.”

His mother, Melanie Corner, said, “Nothing’s been accomplished yet. We have our (policy committee) meeting tomorrow night.”

Brandon Corner said he intended to speak to the school board policy committee.

“The LGBTQ rights should not infringe on our privacy rights,” he said.

Melanie Corner said they are not against LGBTQ students.

“Their rights should be addressed but not at the expense of taking away the rights of the non-LGBTQ students,” she said. “They shouldn’t be asked to give up their right to privacy to accommodate 12 students, especially when the school has three designated bathrooms for these students to use.”

The policy committee is scheduled to meet on Sept. 19 at 6:00 p.m. in the Perkiomen Valley High School Media Center/Library.

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Chris Elston, a Vancouver father known as “Billboard Chris,” and a dozen local supporters protested outside the Rainbow Room in Doylestown Wednesday.

The Rainbow Room, which receives taxpayer funding as well as support from Planned Parenthood, is a controversial organization claiming to serve LGBTQ+ youth ages 14 to 21. State Sen. Steve Santarsiero (D-Bucks) secured $630,000 in state funding for the Rainbow Room, which held a queer prom where gift bags with condoms, dental dams, and lubrication were handed out.

About 150 counterprotesters with colorful rainbow flags, attire, and signs, blared loud music to drown out Elston’s message.

Elston, who has two daughters, told DVJournal he quit his job to try to save his children from the transgender ideology that has taken hold in North America. He travels to protest and inform people that hormone blockers and surgery on minor children should not be permitted.

Elston tried to talk to the counterprotesters, telling them medical authorities in England and the Scandinavian countries have backed off allowing transgender surgery and hormone therapy on children “after finding there was no evidence to support transitioning children.”

He was told to “step off our private property” of Salem Church, which hosts the Rainbow Club. “Why do you think it’s okay to sterilize kids?” he countered.

“I’ve been traveling since September 2020, having conversations on the street,” said Elston. “I’ve probably spent 2,500 hours outside having conversations tens of thousands of times about what I consider to be the greatest child abuse scandal in history.”

He said that “300,000 kids in the United States have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria,” he said. “And they don’t even have real gender dysphoria. They’re just struggling. A lot of the kids have autism. About half of them are on the autism spectrum.” A survey of 1,000 kids in England with gender dysphoria showed 35 percent had autism. “But it’s kids who’ve suffered abuse or trauma. Sexual abuse is very common; kids in foster care are way overrepresented.”

“It’s all these kids who are struggling and self-loathing,” he said. “And now they’re being told, ‘It’s because you were born in the wrong body, which is an extraordinarily beastly thing to tell a child, that they were ‘born wrong’ and need to be the opposite sex. It’s insane. And they’re being given this chemical regimen of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. And what are we doing, stopping the development of children?

“Historically, kids with gender dysphoria were a handful of the population. More than 80 percent just grew out of it. Puberty itself was the cure,” he said. “Now we’ve blocked the cure. And the majority of these kids, when it affected a handful, just grew up to be gay.” So, the transgender movement “is the most homophobic in the history of the world, in addition to all the other wrongs it’s doing,” he said.

Elston, asked why he was doing this, said, “I’m a dad. I have two girls. I started learning about this in 2019. I saw this term’ puberty blockers’ and said, ‘What the heck are those?’”

“As a dad of two girls, 8 and 10 at that time, I wanted to learn about this. I see it as a cult that’s permeated all of society, being pushed at the highest levels. It’s being pushed by governments, NGOs, TQ nonprofits, the World Health Organization, the U.N. And it’s all based on a lie…And I know we’re harming kids.”

“I’m not going to send my girls into a world that doesn’t know what a woman is,” he said. “A world that is trying to sex change children. We’ve got to put a stop to this.”

“I wasn’t going to say, ‘I knew all about this child abuse and wasn’t going to do anything about it,’” said Elston. “Freedom of speech is a large part of this. Everyone was so afraid to talk about this. Everyone has been cowed into silence. People have been fired from their jobs. People try to cancel them.”

Elston said he has been beaten, suffered a broken arm, and been arrested while protesting with his billboard in various places.

Plumsteadville resident Jona Franklin came to support Elston.

“It’s my community,” Franklin said. “I would like (children’s) innocence protected, and I don’t know that anything that is hyper-sexualizing children is healthy or safe. I don’t believe that children should ever make lifelong impacting decisions. And their parents’ rights should be protected.”

A Lower Merion mother who did not want her name used was carrying a sign saying, “Gender ideology does not belong in schools.” She took her own kids out of the Lower Merion School District.

“I feel strongly the kids are being taken advantage of, pushed really early, introducing it in first grade…Kids are disciplined and corrected as young as first grade if they ‘misgender’ their first-grade classmates.”

Philadelphian Yaakov Strasberg also came to the protest.

“I don’t think kids should have genital mutilation or hormone blockers that mess up their bodies,” he said. He noted that someone cannot drive until they are 16, buy alcohol until they are 21, or vote until they are 18. Taking hormones or having surgery is “something that affects your whole life.” However, it would be fine if they want to do that when they are adults, but “kids are easily influenced.”

“Morally and religiously, I’m against it,” said Strasberg.

Adam Gilbert-Cole, a member of Salem Church, said he volunteers to provide security for the Rainbow Room.

“We are here to support the teens of the Rainbow Room,” said Gilbert-Cole. Asked about children changing their gender, he said, “I’m in favor of teens having a conversation with their parents and their doctors because that is their right.”

When asked about school districts keeping a child’s wish to become the opposite sex a secret from their parents, he said he did not believe that happens. When DVJournal told him there is evidence that some districts do that, and it has been reported, Gilbert-Cole declined to speak further.

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A panel of activists on Saturday warned against the growing trend of transgender-style medical procedures being performed on minors in the U.S.—a forum that was so controversial that event planners originally did not reveal its location to attendees until just 48 hours before it occurred.

At the event, sponsored by the conservative group No Left Turn in Education, speaker Chloe Cole, 18, told of starting the medical “transition” from a girl to a boy at 13 and of having her breasts removed at 15, only to realize at 16 that she had made a mistake.

Cole, who in recent months has appeared at multiple events and protests around the country sharing her story, told attendees that she started “transitioning” in public around age 12, wearing boys’ clothing and cutting her hair short.

At 13, doctors put her on puberty blockers and testosterone. At 15, she said she had the mastectomy procedure. A year later she realized she was a in fact a girl and wanted to “de-transition.”

Cole recently sued the doctors and hospitals that treated her. She still has problems from the treatment, including skin grafts on her chest that haven’t healed properly, she said. Her growth has also been stunted.

Forensic nurse Tammy Hartlaub also spoke to the group about the dangers of transgender surgery and medications given to children to attempt to switch them from one sex to another.

She noted the brain’s frontal lobe, which controls judgment, is the last part to mature when people are in their 20s. And the drugs used to block puberty “have significant side effects in adults.”

As to their long-term effects on children and teenagers: “We don’t know,” Hartlaub said. “There is no research.”

Elana Fishbein, Ph.D. founder of No Left Turn in Education

About 100 people came to the event.

The forum itself almost did not happen. Its location was kept a secret until just two days before it was scheduled. During a radio interview on the Dom Giordano Show on Friday, it was revealed it would be held at the Sheraton Great Valley in Frazer. The hotel reportedly began getting threatening phone calls. By 5 p.m. the event was canceled.

The radio station employee who accidentally gave the location on the air called the Rev. William Devlin of Widows and Orphans to see if he might know another meeting venue. Devlin contacted Pastor William Covelens of New Life Community Church in the village of Huntingdon Valley, who said was willing to host the panel discussion.

Stressing the growing spread of transgender ideology throughout the country, No Left Turn founder Elana Fishbein noted there are now at least 100 clinics nationwide that perform transgender surgery.

“In the last five years, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of minors who report some distress about their sex and the perception of their gender,” said Fishbein. “For minors between ages 6 and 17 between 2017 and 2020, there was an annual increase of 20 percent. Between 2020 and 2021, there was an 80 percent increase.”

“This is a substantial increase,” she said. “This is not just minor.”

At the event on Saturday, speaker Sara Higdon warned against transgender activists who seek to target children for ideological exploitation.

“They simply believe there is no such thing as absolute truth,” said Higdon, a spokesperson for the group Trans Against Groomers. Higdon was born a male but now identifies as a woman.

Higdon indicated that there are considerable social justice incentives for men to begin identifying as women. “What way can an oppressor maybe become part of an oppressed class? They can transition,” said Higdon.

“And there are (upper-middle-class White) parents who think if they have a trans child they can say, ‘Look what a good parent I am.’

“And there’s a lot of eugenics at play,” Higdon added. “You are sterilizing an entire group of people. …They want to make your kids wards of the state. You can’t usher in Marxism without kids being wards of the state.”

Multiple school districts in Pennsylvania, including many in the Delaware Valley, are teaching the educational doctrine known as “Queer Theory,” deploying curriculum on gender for students as young as kindergarten.

Some districts, including the Great Valley School District, also tell teachers to hide from parents any information related to their children’s claims about transgender identities.

Though Higdon claims to have discovered an internal transgender identity at a young age, the speaker nevertheless criticized and dismissed major popular assertions about gender ideology at it applies to children.

“No child is born in the wrong body,” Higdon said, “It’s not the body that’s wrong. It’s the mind that’s wrong. My gender dysphoria went all the way to adulthood. At the age of 28, I had to tell somebody.”

Cole said that doctors “failed to address the fact that I might have had underlying issues” connected to identifying as a woman.

Cole said she “wasn’t forced into transition by my parents,” as critics often accuse some parents of doing. They took her to a therapist, she said, who allegedly told her parents that she would commit suicide if she wasn’t allowed to begin identifying as a boy. “[It] wasn’t true,” she said.

Cole said social media also played a large role in transmitting transgender ideology to her at a young age, particularly after she got her first mobile phone that allowed her unrestricted access to the Internet.

“I felt I would be better off as a boy,” she said.

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Looking back at 2022, the most significant stories the Delaware Valley Journal covered involved the midterm election.

The primary campaign for governor and lieutenant governor on the Republican side brought out many candidates. In contrast, on the Democratic side, only Josh Shapiro ran for governor while a few Democrats contested for the lieutenant governor’s nomination. Many Republicans supported Shapiro, who ran as a moderate.

The race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey (R) drew several candidates in both parties. Democrats fielded Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, who suffered a stroke during the campaign, Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh, Philadelphia state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, Philadelphia physician Kevin Baumlin, and western Pennsylvania Congressman Conor Lamb.

Among area Senate candidates, conservative author and commentator Kathy Barnette, Montgomery County businessman Jeff Bartos, Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto, and Montgomery County lawyer Sean Gale all took part in a debate sponsored by the DVJournal that was broadcast on Pennsylvania Cable Network.

Celebrity Dr. Mehmet Oz and hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick duked it out, spending massive amounts on television ads. With former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Oz prevailed by a slim margin, only to lose in the general election to Fetterman. Fetterman’s poor showing in a late October debate failed to move the needle since many voters had already cast their ballots via mail-in voting before seeing it.

The DVJournal also sponsored an online debate for Republican lieutenant governor candidates.

The wide field of men and one woman running for the Republican nomination for governor also debated several times. State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin) came out on top in the primary despite a last-minute play by party leaders to back former Congressman Lou Barletta. Locally, Delaware County businessman Dave White made a strong showing and Chester County attorney Bill McSwain enjoyed the deep-pocket financial support of Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs.

Shapiro, who spent millions on television commercials to paint Mastriano as an extremist, went on to handily win the governor’s race. Many believe redistricting in the Delaware Valley collar counties gave the Democrats a new advantage. Democrats defeated several incumbent Republicans, notably Todd Stephens in Montgomery County, Chris Quinn in Delaware County, and Todd Polinchock in Bucks County.

Other 2022 stories in the region included the saga of private utility companies buying up municipal sewer and water authorities. The DVJ has highlighted Pennsylvanians’ likely higher energy bills with Gov. Tom Wolf’s decision to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), despite opposition from the state legislature.  And the state’s crucial Marcellus Shale natural gas industry remains under assault from the Biden administration’s embrace of the Green New Deal.

This year, many other DVJournal articles focused on parents who are at war with “woke” school boards and school administrators who impose critical race theory (CRT) and gender-fluid ideology on their students and critical race theory (CRT) and gender-fluid ideology on their students as well as stocking school libraries with obscene books.

The Delaware Valley Journal also brought readers the saga of the state House versus progressive Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner that culminated in the House voting to impeach Krasner for mishandling of his official duties, which they allege is a significant factor in the skyrocketing crime rate in the city. An impeachment trial for Krasner is set in the Senate for Jan. 18.

While crime has been a big issue for DVJournal’s 2022 reporting, inflation was also a hot topic with skyrocketing prices for gas, food, and other goods biting into Delaware Valley residents’ budgets.

Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision weighed on the election, causing a rise in Democratic voter registration and driving some women, particularly women in the Delaware Valley suburbs, to the polls. Conversely, the increase in arrests of pro-life activists by the Biden Department of Justice has stirred up passion on the other side of the abortion issue.

And the local reaction to the war in Ukraine is also a concern, with many Ukrainian immigrants living in the area. DVJournal also brought our readers letters from a Ukrainian mother about what it was like to live in that war-torn country.

Amid all the other news vying for attention, the DVJournal has kept its eye on the sad case of the death of Fanta Bility, the 8-year-old girl hit by a bullet fired by police officers. Three Sharon Hill officers pleaded guilty in that case, and a federal lawsuit brought by Bility’s family is pending.

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Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano is hoping a groundswell of angry parents will sweep him over the finish line.

Mastriano has seized on the issue of the sexualization of public school children and centered a new digital ad “Hard to Watch” on it, using events in schools in Montgomery and Chester Counties to illustrate the problem. He said it is a disturbing trend that his Democratic opponent Josh Shapiro supports.

The Mastriano video includes a Delaware Valley Journal article about obscene books in school libraries. And it mentions a lawsuit filed in court by Malvern mother Fenicia Redman to get those books removed from the Great Valley High School library. Her son is a student at that school.

Asked to comment about the ad, Redman told Delaware Valley Journal, “Sen. Mastriano and Pennsylvania parents see the extremist government actors who’ve held our children hostage and robbed them of their innocence. We’re coming to free our children!”

The ad also mentions a Montgomery County kindergarten class where children were required to read books about transsexuals because one student identified as their non-biological gender. That incident came from an anonymous tip to the senator’s office.

Republican political consultant Charlie O’Neill said, “The issues Mastriano is talking about in this ad are definitely issues he can win. But this ad is way too long to have an impact. Across the nation, parental rights have had a major impact on elections. If Mastriano is able to harness that energy in places like the Philadelphia suburbs it could be the boost he needs. However, the election is rapidly approaching, so his campaign better hope it’s not too late.”

For example, the parental rights issue was a big reason Republican Glenn Youngkin defeated Terry McAuliffe for governor of Virginia after the Democrat famously said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

The Shapiro campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

However, in a television interview Shapiro said that when Mastriano calls for restricting classroom content it contradicts his campaign pitch of freedom. “Walk as free people,” is one of Mastriano’s slogans.

“It’s not freedom when they tell our children what books they can read,” Shapiro said.

As Pennsylvania’s attorney general, Shapiro filed an amicus brief opposing Virginia’s moves to ban biological boys from using girls’ restrooms in schools.

Another parent who is a Mastriano supporter, Jamie Cohen Walker, said she supports him because he will keep the schools open. Children have been harmed by mandatory school closures, losing out on learning and becoming lonely and isolated.

“We knew that keeping kids out of school would harm them, so we fought, and we fought extremely hard because the Democratic politicians and their allies, the teachers union, made us their enemy,” Walker said.

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Just in time for the 5oth anniversary of Title IX in June, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act passed the state Senate Education Committee in a 7-4 vote Tuesday, with Republicans praising it and Democrats panning it.

The bill, which passed the House in April, was introduced last year by five women legislators–state Reps. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland), Martina White (R-Philadelphia), Valerie Gaydos (R-Allegheny), Dawn Keefer (R-Cumberland/York), and Stephanie Borowicz (R-Clinton/Center)—all of whom were student-athletes themselves and benefited from Title IX. That law requires equal treatment for girls and women in school and college athletics, in particular by protecting them from being forced to compete with biologically male athletes.

“Women are harmed when we fail to defend women’s sports,” said Gliem, testifying before the Senate committee. “I ask everyone here who opposed the bill, to tell the truth in the characterization of this bill. You know it does not ‘ban people from playing sports,’ which we’ve heard in the media. You know the truth that all males, no matter what gender identities they adopt are today welcome and will continue to be welcome to play against biological male bodies in male divisions. Sports are not about what we look like. Or the stereotypes or identities we adopt.”

The bill will “ultimately promote gender equality by giving both biological males and females the best environment in which to succeed,” Gliem said. Girls have “already lost opportunities and have been left to grapple with uncomfortable, painful and difficult situations because nobody in authority is willing to defend them.”

The issue became a cultural flashpoint in the wake of the high-profile story of biologically-male swimmer Lia Thomas, who had been a mediocre NCAA athlete when competing as a male but began breaking records competing as a woman.

White said, “Science and common sense tell us that biological males are generally bigger, faster, and stronger than females. They have larger hearts, lungs, denser bones, stronger muscles, and generate more force in athletics. These are all advantages that cannot be undone.

“Imagine how a young woman feels about missing a spot on a roster for her high school soccer team for a biological male. She loses more than just an opportunity,” said White. “She loses potential friendships and life lessons about being part of a team. She could lose out on athletic scholarship opportunities and miss out on athletic achievements that otherwise would have been hers, had she been given an equal opportunity to have fair play.”

“No one should be forcing biological females to compete against biological males,” White concluded. “It is patently wrong and unfair. Every young woman in Pennsylvania needs to know there are women here in Harrisburg standing up for them and their rights under Title IX. We will not permit anyone to chip away at women’s rights, including the right to have equal opportunity to play.”

Chester County state Sen. Carolyn Committa joined her fellow Democrats in opposing the bill. However, she said she agreed with “the intention of making sure the playing field is level and fair.”

Minority Chair Sen. Lindsey Williams (D-Allegheny) also opposed the bill, citing a letter from a list of organizations against it, including the American School Counselors Association and the National Association of School Psychologists, that said the bill “bans trans women from participating in sports.”

Sen. Carolyn Comitta (D-Chester) also voted against the bill but agrees with “the intention of making sure the playing field is level and fair.”

Comitta added, “The University of Pennsylvania, that was a mess. That should have never happened. I agree with you. That was a failure on several levels…If there is empirical data that shows harm besides the University of Pennsylvania, be so kind to share that.”

But, Comitta insisted, “standing up for transgender females is not at the expense of other female athletes.”

Parents of female athletes forced to compete with biological males don’t agree.

“We are not anti-trans, we are certainly not anti-Lia,” a mother of a student who swam against Thomas this past season at Harvard told the New York Post. “We are for our girls having the right to compete under fair conditions. It is not fair for them to go up against a biological male, it just isn’t. We’ve been shamed into silence. We feel so helpless. Nobody hears us.”

Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Franklin), who is running for governor, quoted President John Adams saying, “Facts are stubborn things.”

“Such a basic thing. What is a female? What is a male? I was lectured this past year in my questions by this administration about COVID to follow the science. Let’s do just that. And it’s not subjective at all. I stand in strong support of this legislation…There’s a lot of hate and animosity for anyone who stands for truth these days, sadly,” he said.

Sen. Tim Kearney (D-Chester/Delaware) voted against the bill.

“At its core, House Bill 972 is discriminatory and does nothing more than further marginalize trans individuals. This rhetoric that suggests transgender girls have an athletic advantage is scientifically unfounded and only adds to the stigma and attacks these individuals already face, simply for wanting to be their authentic selves. I stand with my Democratic colleagues in opposition to this bill and any other legislation that seeks to discriminate against trans people,” said Kearney.

If fact, multiple studies show biological males have an athletic advantage over their female counterparts and that advantage lasts for at least a year, if not longer, as an athlete transitions from male to female.

Attorney General and Democratic candidate for governor Josh Shapiro opposes the legislation and believes the PIAA should determine the rules, not the legislature.

“Instead of wasting time and taxpayer dollars on veto-bound attempts to bully children, our Republican-led legislature should be focused on improving the economy and helping Pennsylvania families. Josh Shapiro’s top priorities are lowering costs and cutting taxes, improving our schools, and making our communities safer – and that’s exactly what he’ll do as governor,” said spokesperson Will Simons.

State Senate candidate Rep. Tracy Pennycuick (R-Harleysville) supports the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. “I believe we need to protect athletic opportunities for biological women across this Commonwealth. The discipline, teamwork, scholarships, championship titles, and other opportunities for women to grow, mature, and compete in their chosen sport are worthy of our protection. Women fought long and hard to earn their rights under Title IX and this bill will ensure they continue to have equal access to play competitive sports on a level playing field, while biological men can continue to compete on the men’s teams.”

However, even if the full Senate approves the bill, Gov. Tom Wolf has vowed to veto it.

“The governor has been clear – hate has no place in Pennsylvania, and that includes discrimination,” said Elizabeth Rementer, Wolf’s spokeswoman. “Any legislation designed to deny opportunities is both disturbing and dangerous. Transgender individuals should know that they belong, that they are valued, and that their participation in activities is welcomed.”

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In the face of parent complaints, the West Chester Area School District continues to keep controversial books on its middle and high school shelves, including extreme adult language and graphic images of sex.

At the April school board meeting, parents read some of the more explicit content of the books. Superintendent Bob Sokolowski responded by reiterating his support for keeping the controversial content in schools. “I’m standing, students. I’m standing with you and some of the things I heard tonight, we’re talking about freedom of speech. We’re talking about choice. We’re talking about choice and we’re talking about listening to the voice of our students and students, my pledge to you: We’re going to turn that volume up and you’re going to hear the student’s voice.”

Anita Edgarian, a mom, told Delaware Valley Journal that the “superintendent of WCASD pledges to ‘turn it up’ to LGBTQ students after many parents read from sexually explicit materials in our library. The rest of the students don’t matter.”

Mike Winterode told the board that when concerned parents, grandparents, and residents spoke about the books at a previous meeting, they were accused of being intolerant and transphobic. But many of the books they are complaining about include explicit scenes of heterosexual sex as well.

“Those speakers are missing the point. They’re only focused on the transgender characters in the books and not the content of the book itself,” said Winterode. “The fact is, along with [the book] “Gender Queer,” there are a large amount of school district library books containing graphic and obscene content, with heterosexual characters, as well as homosexual and transgender characters. Our concern is with the content, not the characters.”

Image from “Gender Queer”

Winterode noted that the books don’t just “sit innocently on library shelves.” In January, one of his neighbors told the board about his 6th-grade daughter being given a book about gender transition by her teacher.

Winterode noted schools are protected from charges of giving pornography to minors because of a law that exempts education institutions. He called on the state legislators to change that law.

Parent after parent spoke about the library books, some reading shockingly graphic scenes of sexual acts.

“There are many books in our libraries that are not appropriate for even high school-age children,” said Leanne Smith. “Some books include both physical and sexual abuse and even some child grooming.” There are “books listed 18-plus like, ‘The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Tantric Sex.’ Do high schoolers need to read that? You need to take a fine-tooth comb to the libraries in the district.”

Lisa Mansueto said she is concerned about “lack of communication with parents” and “lack of common sense.” She read excerpts from “Tricks” that she called “straight-up pornography with a hefty dose of heroin and cocaine and prostitution and rape, all available to high schoolers.”

Alexis Cooper said, “School librarians seem to feel that minors should have access to all sorts of content even if it’s not age-appropriate.” She cited “Milk and Honey” and the book about tantric sex.

“If this happened in any other setting, adults would be facing charges,” she said. “Yet schools have zero accountability.”

“Leave controversial matters to the parents,” Cooper urged the board.

Several parents, a student, and an author also spoke, telling the board they are in support of keeping the books in the school libraries.

Julie Moyer leads a support group for parents of transgender children. She said most of the books that other parents are objecting to involve LGTBQ-plus information. Transgender youth are four times as likely to commit suicide, she said.

“I am grateful to the school board for voting to keep books like “Gender Queer” on the shelves…We shouldn’t make these books unavailable to the people that need them.”

Edgarian later said those parents who spoke against the pornographic books “respect and love” the LGBTQ students but do not believe these books are age-appropriate.

“I look at the total individual, not only their sexual or gender part, their interests, talents, personality, desires, goals. We need to stop categorizing people,” she said.

Parents in several other Delaware Valley school districts, including Central Bucks, Radnor, and Great Valley have also complained about books with graphic content in their schools. The issue was highlighted in the Republican governor race when former Congressman Lou Barletta recently held a press conference on the topic.

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