Congress Won’t Pass This Bill Now; In January, It Had Better Do So

Here’s a press release which popped out this morning about a piece of legislation 33 Republican House members have just filed to address something we’ve been harping on at RVIVR, and for good reason…

House Republicans Introduce Legislation to Ensure Taxpayer Dollars Cannot Fund Sexually Explicit Material for Children

WASHINGTON, October 18, 2022 — 33 Republican Members of Congress led by House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson (LA-04) today introduced legislation to prohibit federal, state, local governments, and private organizations from using federal tax dollars to expose children under 10 to sexually explicit material.

“The Democrat Party and their cultural allies are on a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology,” Johnson said. “This commonsense bill is straightforward. No federal tax dollars should go to any federal, state, or local government agencies, or private organizations that intentionally expose children under 10 years of age to sexually explicit material.”

Background on the legislation:

• The Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022 prohibits the use of federal funds to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually-oriented program, event, or literature for children under the age of 10. The bill prohibits federal funds from being used to host or promote events where adults dance salaciously or strip for children.

• “Sexually-oriented” is defined as any depiction, description, or simulation of sexual activity, any lewd or lascivious depiction or description of human genitals, or any topic involving sexual orientation, gender identity, gender dysphoria, or related subjects.

• Planned Parenthood, for example, is encouraging legislatures and school boards around the country to implement sexual education curricula that teaches radical gender theory to children under 10. Children should be learning about reading, writing, and mathematics, not radical gender theory.

• Federal grants from the Department of Health and Human Services were recently used to fund an event in Alaska where a drag queen performed for children. The Department of Defense is funding drag shows for families on military bases and incorporating radical gender ideology into curricula at DOD schools. HHS and DOD funding should be used to keep our country healthy and safe, not to stage burlesque shows for children.

• The legislation allows parents to file a lawsuit against any public or private entity that uses federal dollars to expose their young children to sexually explicit materials or programs. Any organization that violates the law more than once in a five-year period, would lose access to federal funds for three years.

Representatives Bob Good (VA), Brian Babin (TX), Jeff Duncan (SC), Vicky Hartzler (MO), Doug Lamborn (CO), Markwayne Mullin (OK), Lauren Boebert (CO), Gregory Steube (FL), Debbie Lesko (AZ), Daniel Webster (FL), Ralph Norman (SC), Randy Weber (TX), Van Taylor (TX), Mary Miller (IL), Lance Gooden (TX), Louie Gohmert (TX), Glenn Grothman (WI), William Timmons (SC), Clay Higgins (LA), Steve Womack (AR), Tracey Mann (KS), John Joyce (PA), Scott Franklin (FL), Burgess Owens (UT), Matt Rosendale (MT), Russ Fulcher (ID), Tom Tiffany (WI), Nicole Malliotakis (NY), Doug LaMalfa (CA), Andrew Clyde (GA), Michael Guest (MS), and Dan Bishop (NC) joined Representative Johnson in cosponsoring the legislation.

Congressman Johnson is the Vice Chairman of the House Republican Conference, a member of the House Judiciary and Armed Services Committees, and a former constitutional law litigator.

Melissa Miller noted yesterday that the Left, which generally consists of a lot of childless people, won’t stop attempting to impose its exotic views on sex and society on other people’s young and impressionable kids. Well, this is a piece of legislation that would make that highly disadvantageous to do.

And we really, really like the cause of action piece to it. It’s far past time that Republicans got smart and realized the opportunity to weaponize the trial bar against leftist nonprofits which are driving all of these cultural aggressions. Most trial lawyers are Democrats for business reasons; your typical ham-and-egg plaintiff lawyer has Democrats for clients and sues for car wrecks and so forth, and it’s always Republican politicians working for business groups who oppose them and try to pass tort reform legislation, etc.

But car wrecks are penny ante compared to what’s out there now. Between Big Tech and Big Sex and the rest of the garbage elite driving this country down a hole, there are lots of victims out there who’ve been harmed not by accidents but by real, live villains doing and funding things which do real damage, and those villains very often have very deep pockets. So siccing the trial bar on them is quite literally the way to go.

It’s smart.

This legislation won’t see the light of day while Nancy Pelosi is House Speaker. It ought to be one of the first five or 10 bills to move when the new Congress is seated in January, assuming the red wave crashes ashore as anticipated.

And finally, there’s this – say the new GOP majority House passes the bill, and say there are enough Democrats up for re-election in 2024 (Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema being two good examples) who won’t filibuster it, and a bill preventing the sexualization of children goes to Joe Biden’s desk.

Can you imagine the optics if he vetoes it?