RUBIN-STANKIEWICZ: Attacks on transgender youth reinforce need for youth rights

Education has recently become a partisan battleground.

School board meetings have become increasingly contentious. Different states seemingly pile on top of each other as they introduce bills to restrict the teaching of curriculum centered around race and racial history, LGBTQ+ representation and sex education.

There is a reason why education, even at the local level, is increasingly becoming a central arena for national politics. Schools are one of the few spheres of a child's life that are not directly controlled by their parents and guardians.

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a bill dubbed the "Parents Bill of Rights," with five Republicans and every Democrat voting against it. The Democratically-controlled Senate will likely not move this bill forward, but it represents a broader national trend, where 60 parental rights bills have been introduced in 23 different states in the past year alone.

The central framing of parental rights has been focused on preserving the rights of parents against teachers, local school boards and higher levels of government. Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), the sponsor of the federal Parental Bill of Rights, remarked in her speech before Congress that "at the end of the day, these are our children, not the government's." 

But a critical voice is missing from this framework: the voice of students. They are directly impacted by all the educational policies being decided upon and have the most insight into what it actually means to be in the classroom. 

While the framework of parental rights is being used to fan the political flames, the U.S. has a history of inaction when it comes to asserting and protecting the rights of children.

The U.S. is the only country in the world that has not ratified the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. 

Multiple arguments have been used to justify this decision, but one particularly prevalent argument is that the Convention conflicts with the private lives of families and the parental rights to discipline and educate their children as they wish.

This inaction, though, has consequences that children bear. Most U.S. state laws fail to meet international child rights protections, especially those surrounding child marriage, unsafe child labor, prison sentencing and violence, according to a 2022 Human Rights Watch report.

Human Rights Watch ranked each state's child rights laws in that report, with 20 states receiving an F, 26 receiving a D, and only four, including New Jersey, receiving a C. No states received an A, which was the highest possible rating.

According to the National Youth Rights Association (NYRA), an organization that advocates for greater rights and liberties for those younger than 18 through the law, youth often do not have the full set of rights that are supposedly granted to all Americans. 

Specifically, the NYRA claims that youth experience restrictions regarding bodily integrity, including the ability to consent to or refuse medical procedures, the right to make many decisions concerning their own education, total freedom of speech at school and off campus, protections against cruel and unusual punishments, including corporal punishment, the right to vote and be represented in politics by someone their age and more. 

The other issue presented by the parental rights movement is that it is based on the inherent implication that parents represent the well-being and best interests of their children. What happens when this is not true?

This particularly comes into play when examining the overlap between the "parental rights" movement and the increasing tally of states placing restrictions on the autonomy and liberties of transgender youth. 

Key provisions within the federal Parents Bill of Rights would require schools to receive parental consent before allowing their children to use a name and pronouns matching their gender identity, as well as giving parents the right to know if transgender girls play on the sports team or use bathrooms or changing rooms at school that correspond with their gender identity. 

Upholding the rights of the youth is particularly critical when it comes to transgender youth because the need for medical autonomy is especially pronounced in this population. Transgender youth are also among the most vulnerable to abuse and homelessness, often precisely due to their parents. 

More than 1 in 10 transgender people in the U.S. have been evicted from their homes due to their gender identity, and LGBTQ+ youth make up an estimated 20 to 40 percent of homeless youth in this country.

This highlights a central question that our country has to face: Are children autonomous human beings who deserve rights and liberties even if that goes against their parent's wishes, or do parental rights to make decisions on behalf of their child supersede their child's agency to make decisions about their own life? 

Sometimes, these decisions can be life-or-death. 

March 31 is International Transgender Day of Visibility, and in the U.S., the organization Queer Youth Assemble is celebrating by organizing a March for Queer and Transgender Youth Autonomy. This march is not only powerful in the context of attacks on transgender rights across the country but also because it fundamentally asserts that the youth have a right to autonomy under the law that should not be conditional on their parents' or lawmakers' approval.

Transgender youth should have the right to privacy, healthcare and an education that reflects their identities. They should inherently be able to play sports, use the bathroom they identify with and live without being painted as a threat and consequently segregated from others due to their gender. 

A youth rights movement is long overdue in our country, and the push for parental rights at the expense of transgender lives just might be what starts one. 

Raisa Rubin-Stankiewicz is a junior in the School of Arts and Sciences majoring in political science and minoring in psychology. Her column, "Rutgers Realities," runs on alternate Tuesdays.

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