Democrat Tom Malinowski Cancels Education Forum After Calling Parents’ Rights Movement ‘Made-Up Cultural Bullsh*t’

Rep. Tom Malinowski speaks as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the
Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) (Photo by Ken Cedeno-Pool/Getty Images)
Breccan F. Thies and Jacob Bliss

Following an exclusive video released by Breitbart News showing Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ) calling the parents’ rights movement “made-up cultural bullshit,” the New Jersey Democrat has since doubled and tripled down on his blunders, resulting in his cancellation of an education forum with parents and students.

Malinowski was scheduled to have an “Education Forum for Students and Parents” on April 19. That plan was canceled, then rescheduled to May 21, then canceled again.

New Jersey, like Virginia, is at the center of the nation’s education debate, nearly succumbing to the same Republican electoral successes as the Old Dominion did in 2021.

After Malinowski’s anti-parent tirade in which he called parents taking issue with what their children are learning in school “made-up cultural bullshit” stemming from a “fringe movement,” Fox News reported the Garden State’s public schools were set to teach children gender identity theory.

Requiring second-graders to be exposed to adult sexual content, the New Jersey lesson plan said, “you might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts.”

Furthermore, “by the end of second grade,” students are supposed to be able to define “gender, gender identity and gender role stereotypes.”

“Gender identity is that feeling of knowing your gender. You might feel like you are a boy, you might feel like you are a girl. You might feel like you’re a boy even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘girl’ parts.” the lesson plan says. “You might feel like you’re a girl even if you have body parts that some people might tell you are ‘boy’ parts. And you might not feel like you’re a boy or a girl, but you’re a little bit of both. No matter how you feel, you’re perfectly normal!”

One of Malinowski’s Republican challengers, state Sen. Tom Kean, Jr. (R), criticized his state’s new curriculum standards, saying, “Having curricula that includes gender identity and sexual education and exposure to pornography on issues as young as second grade in any school district is wrong.”

The New Jersey Democrat subsequently took to Twitter in late April to voice his concerns about the education debate as well as Kean’s criticisms.

“We all want to protect our children and their education. That works best when parents and teachers work together and listen to each other,” the congressman, who appears to support having pornographic and pedophilic books available to children in schools, said. “It doesn’t work when politicians use kids as political pawns to divide us from one another. That has to stop now.”

But while “some sample lesson plans on gender identity were distributed in Westfield that were not age appropriate,” he admitted, Kean taking issue with pornography in schools was “an outrageous and untrue slur.”

Malinowski then posted that Kean “chose again to stir up anger, mistrust, and fear” while appearing to flippantly dismiss the concerns of parents across the country with a political cartoon suggesting the issue is “invented.”

Despite canceling his education forum with parents and students, Malinowski said he holds “public town halls and go to schools to hear the broad range of issues parents, teachers, and students are actually concerned about.”

Malinowski then suggested that many parents’ concerns were a result of “QAnon” that drove the education standards in Florida and Texas.

“As long as I’m representing the 7th district, I will stay accessible, to be guided by my constituents not by cable news, and to try to find a responsible common ground on these issues,” he insisted finally. “Let’s be done with politicians who cynically stoke fear and rage for power and fame.”

By May 11, Malinowski’s dismissiveness toward concerned parents continued. In response to a question from NJ Spotlight News about Breitbart News’s release of the anti-parent tirade video, Malinowski said he did not regret his comments.

“The only ones who should be ashamed are the politicians who have blatantly lied about the issue,” he insisted. “This is national strategy. The Republicans are coming at us with chaos and culture wars.”

His May 21 education forum was also canceled and has yet to be rescheduled.

Malinowski’s position on education issues can be seen in light of the fact that the lawmaker has received $29,002 from teachers’ unions since becoming a member of Congress, as Breitbart News previously reported.

Teachers’ unions have been at the forefront of pushing critical race theory and gender theory in schools, as well as keeping them closed down for “virtual learning” — leading to reports of skyrocketing rates of youth depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.

Malinowski also represents a vulnerable district in the 2022 midterms. House Republican-aligned groups, such as the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), have gone after the congressman in the past and have even been named one of the top targets in the midterm elections.

After striving to win back the House in 2020, the Republicans left the Democrats with the slimmest majority in modern history and gave themselves the upper hand in the midterms.

To win the majority requires a net gain of only five Republican seats in November, and a lot is on the line in both the House and the Senate.

Losing either one could mean the Democrats and President Joe Biden will have a more challenging time passing their partisan agenda items before the next presidential election — essentially making the president a lame duck in his first term.

Breccan F. Thies is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @BreccanFThies.

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.

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