In the midst of a battle between Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration and three school boards in Monmouth County over their newly adopted policies on transgender students, a State Senate candidate in a highly competitive district is wading in on the side of the school boards.
Steve Dnistrian, the Republican nominee against State Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Long Branch) in the 11th legislative district, said today that the boards of education in Marlboro, Middletown, and Manalapan were right to adopt policies this week that would require teachers to notify parents if their child asks to go by a different name or gendered pronoun.
“When Governor Murphy and Attorney General Matt Platkin try to interfere in the relationship between parents and children, families, parents and kids suffer,” Dnistrian said. “We should encourage schools to communicate with parents when children are struggling, not sue to stop them, and not insist that the state knows better when it comes to parent-child relationships.”
Last night, Platkin filed lawsuits against all three school boards, alleging that the policies constitute unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity or expression. The fight is similar to one Platkin previously waged against Hanover Township, a Morris County town that adopted a policy in May to out LGBTQ students.
“Without question, the discriminatory policies passed by these Boards of Education, if allowed to go into effect, will harm our kids and pose severe risk to their safety,” Platkin said this morning in a statement. “Simply put, these policies violate our laws, and we will not relent in protecting our LGBTQ+ community – especially our children – from discrimination.”
Dnistrian, however, said that Platkin and Murphy were stepping into matters where they didn’t belong.
“When it comes to facing these tough issues, it is better for local school boards, teachers and parents to come together to find a solution that fits their community, but ALWAYS with parents as part of that discussion,” he said. “Democrats, however, are insisting that parents NOT be part of the discussion if kids express questions about being LGBTQ. These heavy-handed, one-sided mandates from Trenton are just wrong.”
None of Marlboro, Manalapan, or Middletown are in the 11th district that Dnistrian is running to represent, but debates over transgender students have come up in the district before. In February, the 11th district town of Colts Neck considered a policy that would have required parental notification and restricted transgender students to using the bathroom of the sex assigned to them at birth; while that proposed policy ultimately failed on a 7-2 vote, a softer parental notification policy is currently in the works.
This story was updated at 12:23 p.m. on June 23 with more recent details on LGBT policies in Colts Neck.