This post originally appeared at https://wifamilycouncil.org/radio/when-silence-is-complicity/

2023 | Week of October 30 | Radio Transcript #1538

Two weeks ago, Governor Evers issued a Proclamation declaring Tuesday, October 17, as “Rise Up for LGBTQ Youth Day” in Wisconsin.  This was timed to coincide with the Senate’s vote on Assembly Bill 465, the “Help Not Harm Bill.” This bill prohibits medical professionals from performing surgeries on or prescribing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers for minors struggling with gender confusion. The Assembly had passed the bill the week before, along with the Protect Women’s Sports bills for K-12 schools and UW campuses and state tech schools.

In part the Governor’s proclamation said the following, quote: “there has also been a troubling increase in anti-LGBTQ legislation introduced in Wisconsin and in state legislatures across the country, including efforts to restrict life-saving healthcare for transgender and gender non-conforming kids and prohibit transgender students from participating in athletic teams that correspond with their gender-legislation and rhetoric that only harms kids’ mental health, emboldens hate and violence, and threatens the safety and dignity of LGBTQ people…and…on this occasion, the state of Wisconsin joins LGBTQ kids, families, and advocates in committing to combatting hateful rhetoric and policies that target LGBTQ kids and families and to continue working to ensure that all LGBTQ youth are treated with fairness, respect, and dignity in school and elsewhere….” End quote.

The LGBTQ movement is coming for our children, and they certainly haven’t been shy about telling us.

Trends such as boys competing in girls’ sports, the encouragement of gender dysphoria, the grooming of our children, including transgender reading time with kindergartners and so on, start as a grassroots movement at a very local level—school board, city, county—in states like California. But they do not stay in California! In the blink of an eye, these become national trends, and now our own Governor is proudly promoting their agenda.

In response to the Governor’s misleading, and in fact, dangerous proclamation, our sister organization, Wisconsin Family Action, last week released a proclamation entitled “Rise Up for All Wisconsin Youth.”

This proclamation is intended to speak truth into this issue that is harming our children. In part, the response proclamation says, quote: “…all Wisconsin youth deserve real compassion and honest help if they struggle with gender confusion; and…Wisconsin’s ‘Help Not Harm Act’ helps youth struggling to embrace their biological sex by protecting them from harmful drugs and surgery; and…so-called “gender transition” for children and youth violates the first duty of medicine: do no harm; and…medical procedures and life-long dependency on drugs such as cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers used in ‘gender transitioning’ have long-term, irreversible harm thereby dramatically impacting the emotional, mental, and physical well-being of Wisconsin’s youth in both the short and long term; and…surgery and drugs will not heal a hurting heart;…and…the best studies indicate 80-95% of children with gender dysphoria will come to identify with and embrace their biological sex; and…Wisconsin’s children represent the future of our state and deserve to have every opportunity to grow up healthy in all respects;” End quote.

The Rise Up for All Wisconsin Youth Proclamation sends a strong message to elected officials at all levels of government, to faith leaders, and to our fellow citizens that what is in the best interest of our Wisconsin youth is to require an even playing field for sports and to not mutilate healthy young bodies.  It encourages citizens to share the Proclamation with local officials, strongly encouraging them to officially adopt this Proclamation, declaring their commitment to the well-being of Wisconsin’s next generation, ensuring our state’s youth are truly protected, not indoctrinated, and helped, not harmed.

Wisconsin Family Action is circulating the online Rise Up for ALL Wisconsin Youth proclamation, asking people to sign it as a way to respond to the Governor’s proclamation that is filled with distortions, false assertions, and advances a destructive agenda for Wisconsin’s youth.

Being silent in the face of evil is to actually be complicit in advancing evil. Ignoring the governor’s proclamation helps no one and harms many, especially the children of this state, who are truly Wisconsin’s future.

This is Julaine Appling for Wisconsin Family Council reminding you that God, through the prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Learn more at WIFamilyCouncil.org