The Biden-Harris administration has chosen to use taxpayer dollars to push a controversial agenda. Specifically, they have awarded an $850,000 grant to the Centerstone’s LGBTQI+ Family Support Program (Family+), a program which mandates parents to validate their minor’s self-identified gender preference. This controversial program is set to provide ‘affirming interventions’ for 230 minors and their families and train a staff of 100 in delivering these interventions. When what they really mean is indoctrination of children and force-feeding specific ideologies down their throats.
The grant’s recipient, the Family+ program, will operate out of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic in Fayetteville, North Carolina, which interestingly is home to the grandiose Fort Liberty Army Base and Pope Air Force Base. Family+ seems to take a particular interest in the children of active duty military members and veteran households. All of this just hints at another way the Biden-Harris administration seems to slant the scales in favor of disrupting traditional family values and imposing their radical ideology on unsuspecting communities.
This generous grant, notably, is provided through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a segment of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Instead of funding training for military families in areas one would assume would be more beneficial, like mental health services or support for substance abuse, SAMHSA is being utilized to push this contentious program.
Family+ encourages participants to ‘set goals’ to diminish what they call ‘minority stress.’ Such goals might include attending an LGBTQIA+ support group for five weeks or reading an ‘affirming’ book for 20 minutes daily for a week. But, is this really the best use of taxpayer money? And why is the administration imposing such controversial ‘mitigation strategies’ as opposed to focusing on actual pressing issues?
The goal of this program, according to SAMHSA, is to avert the development of serious mental health and substance use conditions and disorders in LGBTQI+ youth by increasing family acceptance and support. Yet, it feels more like a political maneuver to push a certain ideology than an actual governmental pursuit to improve the quality of lives of its citizens.
The Family+ program will implement an intervention called Affirm Caregiver, which, in theory, is designed to improve parents’ affirmative caregiving attitudes and behaviors towards their LGBTQ+ children. This gives rise to a question – should the government really be telling parents how they should behave towards their children? It seems the Biden-Harris administration is more interested in controlling the narrative and influencing attitudes, instead of letting individual freedom and personal values to guide such interactions.
Affirm Caregiver, according to the National Center for Youth with Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity & Expression, aims to foster confidence in caregivers’ abilities to engage in affirmative caregiving skills with LGBTQ+ youth. We are seeing here another extension of the federal government’s reach into issues that should be dictated by personal judgment and family values, not necessarily by an administration’s current political outlook.
The Affirm Caregiver intervention was initially piloted among foster care parents in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, which purportedly led parents to adopt ‘affirmative caregiving behaviors.’ This begs the question – is it the government’s role to define and modify parents’ opinions towards their child’s preferences?
The pilot program received part of a hefty 5-year, $10 million federal grant allotted in 2016. Once again, we see an exorbitant sum of taxpayer money being funneled towards a politically skewed agenda. It is a clear pattern: the Biden-Harris administration seems more interested in funding pet projects that resonate with their narrative rather than actually addressing the pressing needs of the nation.
Participants of the AFFIRM Caregiver program are challenged to recognize that being affirmative is not simply void of homophobia and trans-phobia but is about establishing clear, explicit, and consistent identity-affirming attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. While it is important not to spread hate, there is something profoundly disturbing about the government attempting to mould the belief systems of its citizens.
Throughout the program, participants are encouraged to explore and reflect on their implicit and explicit biases that stem from family, societal, and cultural messages they received since childhood. Yet, participants are not encouraged to value and hold onto the core tenets of their beliefs and traditions. It seems as though the Biden-Harris administration has set itself on a course to undermine the broader societal norms in favor of an ideologically driven narrative.
Caregivers are asked to rate their confidence in areas like establishing a safe space for LGBTQ identities or providing identity affirming support to youth prior to starting the program. Yet, this program seems more intent on creating a rigid ideological framework than truly providing a safe, loving environment for children. The Biden-Harris administration seems to be ignoring the fact that safety and love come from the heart, not an enforced ideology.