Local conspiracy theorist Bernadette Gruber of Tucson claims that Planned Parenthood will put abortion clinics in schools and that public schools teach children to consent to sex and how to masturbate.
She will address a GOP-backed “Southern AZ Values in Education Summer Conference” in the Foothills of Tucson on August 5 — even though she does not live in the Catalina Foothills School District. The forum is at the Catalina Foothills Church, 2150 E. Orange Grove Rd., Tucson, AZ 85718, Room 304. This is a free public event, but registration is required due to limited seating.
The conference is strategically located five miles from the Catalina Foothills School District. The GOP and its Christian Nationalist allies disrupted a school board meeting in April with anti-trans vitriol.
The conference is a GOP attention-getting ploy to target Legislative District 18 in the Foothills, the heart of Democratic Tucson, where 90% of Democratic voters turned out for elections.
Anti-trans messenger
Gruber, a registered Republican, claims that sex education in public schools “Is designed to change the sexual and gender norms of society by raising the rising generation in radical gender ideologies.” See the video of her claims at https://youtu.be/P-QQ9CCOUA8.
“We have seen transgender ideology hidden in lessons on hygiene,” Gruber claims.
- She has been a member Protect Arizona’s Children Coalition, an anti-transgender hate group, for three years. She is an admin of its Facebook page.
- The TUSD School Board appointed her to a volunteer committee to update the curriculum in 2019. Gruber was the only member to oppose the curriculum because it discussed gender identity.
- She worked for 4Tucson for 8 years, most recently as “education domain director.” 4Tucson aims to find Biblical solutions to school and government problems.
Right-wing conspiracy theorists enjoy attacking defenseless trans children, a harmless minority of kids. Only 1.4 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds and 1.3 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds are transgender, according to research by the UCLA School of Law.
More than 100 people sat shoulder to shoulder in solidarity with the LGBTQ community and transgender students at an April Catalina Foothills High School meeting. Many female students testified that they loved their trans schoolmates and said the school was a safe place for trans kids. Female students testified they were not at all concerned about trans females using the girls’ restroom.
“Say ‘yes’ to sex
In her conspiracy theory, Gruber says “comprehensive sexuality education” (CSC) “sexualizes children rather than encouraging them to delay sexual activity until adulthood or marriage.” The CSC theory “normalizes high-risk behavior, and CSC programs teach children to consent to sex. It’s really only about how to say ‘yes’ to sex,” she claims.
She asserts that sex education sexualizes children. “Comprehensive sex education also teaches them how pleasurable it is to use these types of things, condoms and lubrication. And it also means that we need a role play, different ways that you can talk to your partner and convince them to use condoms and lubrication.”
“And we’re also taught that when we see teenagers, just assume that they’re already doing it, which would include vaginal, anal, and oral sex.”
Teaching masturbation
Gruber’s most bizarre claim is that sex ed in high schools teaches boys how to masturbate. There isn’t a boy in the world who needs instructions on how to masturbate. Teenage boys can figure it out all by themselves. No sex ed class is required. Just ask your male friends.
Every conspiracy theory needs a boogeyman, and it’s Planned Parenthood — a favorite target of right-wing extremists — “to use sex ed for social change.” Gruber claims without facts that Planned Parenthood is “training and paying youth to become activists for abortion.”
In truth, Planned Parenthood provides medical services to prevent pregnancy and offer birth control options. Planned Parenthood offers doula services, vasectomies, cancer screenings, HIV testing, IUD birth control, morning-after pills, and abortions.
But Gruber’s conspiracy theory doesn’t hold up.
Republican extremists dominate as conference speakers
Rounding out the performers at the August 5 forum is Lacey Nagao of Tucson from Turning Point Action. She is a Kari Lake supporter and election denier. Turning Point is a right-wing youth organization endorsed by Republican extremists in Congress: Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Matt Gaetz and GOP presidential candidate Ron Desantis, both of Florida.
And, of course, Dave Smith, the failed Pima County GOP Chairman, is one of the main speakers. Because the Pima GOP is so irrelevant, he has sunken to headline-catching disruptions at public events, like school board meetings and Pima County Supervisor meetings.
Smith wrote in a Pima GOP newsletter, “School boards, who have become the domain of lunacy and open bathrooms, are suddenly seeing a room full of citizens who express their opinions in rational calm and logical manners that the Democrat Party must lie about by calling them extremists and Fascists!”
How do they live with their lies? Madness.
They (GQP conspiracy whack jobs) are just mad no one taught them how to masturbate and their kids just told them they’ve been doing it wrong.