Every state has a public perception outsiders reference when speaking about it, which could be one of its illustrious sports teams, a regional delicacy or possibly a unique dialect.
So what’s the public perception of New Jersey?
I’ve had the privilege of traveling outside the country multiple times, and whenever I tell people where I’m from, without hesitation they enthusiastically say either “Jersey Shore” or “Snooki,” which is like a dagger through my heart.
While unfortunately our image to those outside the Garden State is the home of an infamous reality show, there’s a lesser-known reality show that’s been filming since the pandemic started, in which we’ve all been cast as extras, called “The Real Peasants of New Jersey,” starring our Lord and Master Phil Murphy.
In Season 3, Episode 8, the peasants continue acting unruly as they vocalize their frustration with the lord’s legal ministry’s attempt to block certain school districts in court next week from setting policies to notify parents if their child is changing gender identity, identifying with an alternative name or pronouns and using different bathrooms.
The state’s guidelines say, “There is no affirmative duty for any school district personnel to notify a student’s parent or guardian of the student’s gender identity or expression.”
State Attorney General Matthew Platkin, this episode’s featured antagonist, filed a lawsuit against three school districts, K-12 Middletown and K-8 Manalapan-Englishtown and Marlboro, arguing that disclosing this information to parents would be “outing” such students.
“‘Outing’ these students against their will poses serious mental health risks; threatens physical harm to students, including risking increased suicides; decreases the likelihood students will seek support; and shirks the District’s obligation to create a safe and supportive learning environment for all,” Platkin asserted in his lawsuit.
And in reality-show fashion, Lord Murphy used CBS’s “Face the Nation” as his confessional booth to stare into the camera and lament the commoners’ concerns.
“Obviously, parents are the existential reality in the upbringing of any child without question,” he said. “But let’s not violate the constitutional and civil rights of precious young folks in many cases who are coming to grips with life as they grow up and grow older, let’s be respectful of that.”
Although I may be nothing more than another opinionated New Jersey peasant, I can’t help but take the state’s measures personally as a parent who had to deal with a failing public school that coincidentally failed to notify me when leftist consultants came to ask my son and other children questions about their identity and sexuality.
Murphy has created an environment of acceptable governmental secrecy masquerading as concern for children others are responsible for.
The governor and other elitist New Jersey Democrats have fostered the narrative that the people who raise, nurture and would die for their offspring are actually the ones prepared to harm them if they’re aware their child is confused about his or her identity.
The government is presuming that my reaction if my son were to one day identify as a girl would be to chastise him and levy oppressive measures upon him rather than show appropriate concern and loving support.
Attorney General Platkin wants us to believe there is certain information parents couldn’t possibly handle and aren’t obligated to know — but thinks strangers who work for the government can.
Platkin wasn’t there when my son was born, he didn’t hear my son’s first words, and he couldn’t care less about my son’s life outcome, but he has the audacity to say parents like me should remain without the “affirmative duty” to know if something pivotal is happening to their children within the walls of a government school.
If we accept that the government can hide our children’s gender transformation from us, what couldn’t it hide from us?
Democratic politicians like Murphy want to drive home the idea that any objection to their rulings is motivated by the opposition party rather than being a disgusted reaction to the infringement of rights.
Lord Murphy would love it if everyone bought that these rebellious parents are all political operatives and wanting to know what’s happening to your child while in the custody of a government institution is a right-wing concern rather than an everyone concern.
Goldman Sachs Murphy knows he would find it unacceptable if any institution hid crucial details about his four children from him, but he has no problem using the children of the lesser class as political fodder to distract the masses from directing their anger toward an indifferent ruler like him.
There is no such thing as “outing” a child to a parent because parents are uniquely responsible for everything their child is experiencing.
This isn’t a culture war, this is a class war — and the producers of this reality show are using our kids for ratings.
This series needs to be canceled.
Adam B. Coleman is the author of “Black Victim to Black Victor” and founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. Follow him on Substack: adambcoleman.substack.com.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
