The New American:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Republican Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders is continuing to take a stand against the radical Left’s woke agenda in her state, as she is set to sign legislation that will restrict where drag shows can be held, proposing to classify them in the same manner as strip clubs and adult theaters. This is after last month’s issuing of an executive order that would prohibit critical race theory (CRT) in Arkansas schools, and another order banning the term “Latinx” in official documents.
The drag-show legislation is another step at pushing back at the Left’s dystopian agenda. “I think we have to do everything — I’ve been very clear and talked about this pretty extensively — to protect children. I think that’s what this bill does,” Sanders said last month when the bill was introduced.
However, opponents of the bill say that it discriminates against specific groups of people. Said Democratic state Sen. Stephanie Flowers, “It appears to me you’re trying to put a target on people’s backs that are not, according to you, normal.”
The Washington Post shared, “State legislators and Sanders, who was elected in November with 63 percent of the vote, feel ’empowered’ and that voters have given them a ‘mandate’ to take a side in culture wars, said Heather Yates, a political science professor at the University of Central Arkansas.”
In addition to the restrictions on drag shows, this week the Arkansas House also approved legislation “preventing transgender people at public schools from using bathrooms that match their gender identity.”
Arkansas is not alone in pushing back at the Left’s woke agenda. “Over the past three academic years, legislators in 45 states proposed 283 laws that either sought to restrict what teachers can say about race, racism and American history; to change how instructors can teach about gender identity, sexuality and LGBTQ issues; to boost parents’ rights over their children’s education; to limit students’ access to school libraries and books; to circumscribe the rights of transgender students; and/or to promote what legislators defined as a ‘patriotic’ education,” reported the Post.
Another push-back at the progressive agenda was Sanders’ executive order banning from state documents the use of the gender-neutral term “Latinx,” calling the term “ethnically insensitive” and “pejorative.” The terms “Hispanic,” “Hispanics,” “Latino,” “Latinos,” “Latina,” and “Latinas” are to be used in state materials.
“The term was first popularized in the mid-2000s as a more inclusive alternative by substituting the ‘o’ in ‘Latino’ (which in Spanish is masculine) with the letter ‘x.’ Outside of the LGBTQ communities or liberal academic settings, the term has found little support among Latinos in the United States,” reported the Post.
Sanders “is not the first politician to put forward such a ban. Last month, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), who oversaw the Congressional Hispanic Caucus’s campaign fundraising arm last cycle, said his office is not allowed to use ‘Latinx,’ because the term Latinos and Hispanic were already inclusive.”
In January’s executive order prohibiting indoctrination and critical race theory in schools, Sanders hit at the heart of racism and the false narrative of CRT, defining it as being “antithetical to the traditional American values of neutrality, equality, and fairness. It emphasizes skin color as a person’s primary characteristic, thereby resurrecting segregationist values, which America has fought so hard to reject.”
The Washington Post reported:
Texas and Missouri are also considering legislation that establishes new limits or prohibits teaching critical race theory in public schools. Texas has proposed to take away state funds from universities that teach critical race theory.
Mike Gonzalez, a fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argued that the array of legislative efforts are not a partisan issue, but instead a reflection of society fighting against the “efforts to transform the culture of America.”
“This is about people saying, ‘Wait a second, you are saying we should transform everything systematically, that we must overhaul the American system in an absolutist categorical way,’ and society is saying, ‘No, we don’t agree with this,’” Gonzalez said, referring to bans on critical race theory and bills about transgender rights.
Since being sworn into office in January, Sanders has taken her role to protect the citizens of Arkansas seriously, and her actions speak volumes. With her outspokenness, we can expect more in her fight against the leftist agenda.
She is slated to deliver the Republicans’ response to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech next week, and we look forward to her candid remarks.
