Hundreds of mostly white women attended the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors National Summit at a swanky downtown hotel in Washington, D.C. The summit featured prominent conservative speakers who railed against transgender rights under the guise of protecting children. Moms for Liberty started as a response to pandemic school closures and now focuses on getting conservative parents elected to school boards. The organization opposes racial justice and LGBTQ+ rights and pushes schools to remove books that do not meet their conservative values. Speakers at the 2024 summit spread fearmongering about trans kids and criticized school employees who support them, with some claiming that gender-affirming care is “child abuse.”
Tiffany Justice, a co-founder of Moms for Liberty, denied the existence of transgender children, a common view among conservatives who have been attacking trans rights across the country. The summit featured speakers such as Seth Dillon from the Babylon Bee and actor Rob Schneider, who claimed children were getting “mutilated.” The event included focus on Texas state Rep. Shawn Thierry, who left the Democratic Party in part due to their views on transgender youth, and Maud Maron, a former New York City education council member who made anti-trans statements. Justice defended the focus on trans issues at the summit by claiming that the federal government is promoting child abuse by allowing gender-affirming surgeries on minors.
The summit included a panel on writing laws to protect parental rights, with a focus on transgender children. Speakers discussed how legislation could stop “secret social transitions” where schools affirm a child’s gender without parental consent. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group, claimed they were receiving calls from parents about these supposed secret transitions happening at schools. Attendees were advised to push for legislation that would make it illegal for schools to affirm a child’s transition without parental consent and allow parents to sue schools and government employees if their rights were violated. Two mothers shared stories of learning about their children’s gender transitions without notification from the school.
One mother, Tammy Fournier from Wisconsin, sued the school for not notifying her about her daughter’s potential transition. The school was ruled to require parental consent for a child’s preferred name and pronouns. January Littlejohn, a Florida mother, also shared a similar experience where her daughter wanted to transition, and the school held a meeting without informing her about the details. Littlejohn urged parents to actively educate and protect their children against what she referred to as “gender ideology” being pushed on social media. She warned parents about schools using inclusivity and safe space language, claiming that it is a sign that gender ideology is being promoted in those institutions. Overall, the summit focused on spreading fearmongering about transgender children and promoting legislation to uphold parental rights in schools.
