Expect more school fights, book banning, roll-back of LGBT rights as radical right pushes their religious ideology
RIFI is networked with a host of anti-LGBTQ extremist
groups, and on their site, they claim Robert Chiaradio as a board
member. Chiaradio last year conducted a tour of Rhode Island school committees
and school boards to testify against the life-saving Transgender, Gender
Diverse, and Transitioning Student Policies mandated by the Rhode
Island Department of Education and federal law.
Toward the end of Chiaradio’s year-long tour, he tapped into
national Trump agenda trends. He targeted Title IX policies that
allow transgender students to play sports on teams that reflected their gender
identity. The Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives
is currently targeting Title IX.
With Trump due to ascend once more to the Presidency, local
Christian Nationalist extremist groups are poised to push the Rhode Island
General Assembly to pass laws that target the rights of LGBTQ+ people (but
especially trans children) and women.
EDITOR'S NOTE: We're already seeing the culture war disrupt local school systems. Steve recently documented the struggle for power between the radical right and those with more mainstream views over LGBT rights in Westerly and over the composition of the Chariho School Committee. In summer 2023, it was a move to install MAGA Republican Clay Johnson to fill a Richmond vacancy over Jessica Purcell who had properly won the seat under the terms of Richmond's town charter.
Charlestown's erstwhile Narragansett Indian foe attorney Joe Larisa represented the radical right faction arguing that Clay Johnson was properly appointed since the Chariho Act trumps Richmond's town charter. He had his ass handed to him when the court ruled that Larisa's argument that the Chariho Act supercedes the Town Charter when the Act clearly yields to the laws of the member towns.
Now there's a dispute whether the Chariho Act mandates the naming of a chair at the first school committee meeting after an election. The far right wanted to delay that action until their newest member can take that chair. This time, Larisa argues in the Westerly Sun that the Chariho Act is "directory" meaning advisory. That's the opposite of the position he took in the Clay Johnson case where Larisa argued the Chariho Act was supreme and mandatory.
Charlestown still retains Larisa in case war breaks out with the Narragansetts. I think Charlestown should drop Larisa if for no other reason than he is a crap lawyer who changes his so-called "legal" views to fit his peculiar hard-right views. - Will Collette
In a newsletter to his followers, Pastor Aucoin outlined his agenda. [Note: Pastor Aucoin uses terms such as “gender confused” when describing queer, transgender, and gender-diverse children. Pastor Aucoin’s use of such terms is consistent with his bigotry.]
“As we move forward to the new year, we are optimistic that
with a new administration in Washington D.C., there will be opportunities to
pass legislation that will honor God nationally and in Rhode Island.
“Here are some plans that the Rhode Island Family Institute
has to fulfill our mission and make Rhode Island a state where God is honored,
religious freedom flourishes, families thrive, and life is cherished.
“In January, I will be meeting with the Senate and House
minority leaders to help them with support for passing pro-family legislation
for 2025 in the following areas:
- Banning
Gender surgery on minors;
- Removing
counseling restrictions for gender-confused minors;
- Enforcing
obscenity laws in schools and libraries;
- Promoting
School Choice Options to help Private Schools and Home-Schoolers;
- Protecting
minors from adult porn websites; and,
- Raising
awareness of the dangers associated with recreational marijuana and the
need to restrict ‘Pot Shops’ that are multiplying in RI neighborhoods.”
Some notes on the list:
- 97%
of gender-affirming surgery on minors is
breast reduction surgery, and it is performed on cisgender males. These
are boys who identify as boys and who don’t want to have breasts.
- In
2017, the General Assembly passed a ban on conversion therapy - a
range of dangerous practices that seek to change a person’s sexual
orientation or gender identity. RIFI seeks to reverse that ban when they
call for "removing counseling restrictions."
- "Enforcing
obscenity laws in schools and libraries" is a call for book banning.
Rhode Island has been the target of proposed book bans against books such
as Genderqueer. Robert Chiaradio pushed for such a ban in his
hometown of Westerly. Bills are being introduced in the General Assembly
this year to protect librarians and libraries from these attacks. These
bills have failed in prior years.
- School
Choice is a nice-sounding name for policies that divert money from public
education to private schools, homeschoolers, and religious schools. See here.
- No one
wants children accessing inappropriate or misleading information about
sex. But we have to be careful how we go about "protecting
minors" when we take on complex First Amendment-impacting
legislation.
- Currently,
cannabis is legally available in Rhode Island. Public health notices about
the potential dangers of cannabis use may be appropriate, but restricting
so-called “pot shops” has to be done in a way that does not further the
racist policies of the failed war on drugs.
Pastor Aucoin said he will meet with Senate Minority
Leader Jessica de la Cruz and House Minority Leader Michael
Chippendale to discuss RIFI’s priorities. One might hope these Republican
legislators will be wise enough to reject most of RIFI’s ideas. Still, in the
likely event that they are not so wise, I hope that the General Assembly will
not only reject RIFI’s Christian Nationalist agenda but take action to protect
Rhode Islanders from it.
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