During a discussion of the Supreme Court case over parental objections to certain books in public schools in Maryland and the parents requesting to opt out on Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) stated that he thinks there should be reasonable accommodations for parents who have objections on both religious and non-religious grounds on certain materials and Republicans are the ones “predominantly” making “LGBT or trans youth” “the fulcrum of culture warfare.”
Schiff stated, “I want school to be a safe and nurturing place for everyone. And so, my number one priority is to make sure we’re not adding to the difficulty that LGBT or trans youth face right now, because they’re being used as the fulcrum of culture warfare.”
Host Bill Maher then cut in to ask, “By both sides or just one?”
Schiff answered, “I think by predominantly the Republican side, it’s the Republicans who are airing all the ads. I just watched the announcement of a Senate candidate, and they chose to profile in their Senate ad, an attack on trans people. So, it’s predominantly, I think, being used by Republicans. That doesn’t mean Democrats have been smart on the issue.”
Schiff added that it’s “looking down on people that puts people off, where they won’t consider you, they won’t vote for you, if people think that you condescend to them, then you’re toast. And I would say, on this issue of what books should be in school, first of all, I would want those — I would want [the] ‘Bobby’s Wedding’ book in my kids’ school, my kids went to public school. But if parents — other parents felt differently about their kid being taught from that book, I think that we should show some space and some grace with respect to those other parents. And I think we should make reasonable efforts to accommodate their interests, whether it’s religious or non-religious, in how their kids are taught.”
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