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July 8, 2025

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Op-Ed Point of View Opinion

Rob is OK, Roberta is Not and Romeo and Juliet couldn’t have Sex by Tom Timberman

August 19, 2023 by Tom Timberman

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I recently read an article about a state’s fresh approach to public schools and parental rights and started laughing.  My wife told me I should be outraged, not amused and said it just confirms my advanced age.  And she’s doubtless right. My much younger relatives remind me repeatedly that I don’t get it.  To which I silently think: “Thank God”. 

The year is 2023 and in this American state, elected legislators and their governor have passed and signed laws threatening districts with a $10,000 fine if they do not enforce the following legal requirement: visitors, students, teachers, staff and trans must use school restrooms corresponding  to their birth sex OR use a special one-stall facility. And there’s more.

Gender: 

  • State law defines a person’s sex/gender by “…the external genitalia present at birth”.
  • Parents must fill out a form that provides their child’s nickname or new name that doesn’t correspond to legal name, e.g. Rob is OK, but Roberta is not. However, in some counties, parents can give permission for their child to use Roberta instead of Rob.
  • Teachers are not permitted to ask students what their preferred pronouns are. If one does,s/he can lose their teaching certificate.
  • A new teacher in a county public school was told recently  how to address a trans colleague: instead of using Mr. Ms or Mrs, use “teacher” 

Sex Ed: 

  • Before these restrictive state laws were passed, county school districts had some discretion over how and what was taught. 
  • The state has now asserted superior authority over county districts sex ed and wants to review all curricula and materials.
  • The state wants the sex ed message to be: “abstinence” 
  • The state’s guidance on sex ed is that students must be taught that “…the male and female reproductive roles are binary, stable and unchangeable”.

Books:

  • Any member of the public can challenge any book in a school library. The bulk of those books are about LGBTQ experiences or structural racism. “Romeo and Juliet” was challenged and briefly removed, because Shakespeare’s implication was the two had sex
  • State certified media specialists review books in classroom libraries for appropriateness. .
  • One county requires parents to fill out a “Media Access Form”.  The options for their children are: (1) Unrestricted, (2) Prevent access to (list) and (3) Access to Books: except those that have been challenged and reviewed (regardless of decision) 

After laughing at what seemed to me the absurdity of an intrusive government layering on bizarre rules about bathrooms, gender and sex, I began to think about their impact on students. It became clear that essentially, these law/regs excluded opportunities for students to be challenged, even shocked and ask questions, discuss issues with peers, parents and teachers and learn.  That’s what my friends and teammates did every day usually generating clashing conclusions and intense arguments that taught more lessons.  

Tom Timberman is an Army vet, lawyer, former senior Foreign Service officer, adjunct professor at GWU, and economic development team leader or foreign government advisor in war zones. He is the author of four books, lectures locally and at US and European universities. He and his wife are 24 year residents of Kent County.

The Spy Newspapers may periodically employ the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the clarity and accuracy of our content.

Filed Under: Op-Ed, Opinion

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Letters to Editor

  1. John Fischer says

    August 19, 2023 at 4:15 PM

    You cannot be as uninformed as you pretend, Mr. Timberman.

  2. Eva M. Smorzaniuk MD says

    August 19, 2023 at 4:29 PM

    I have a great idea! Why don’t we identify LGTBQ folks with the appropriate letter on their clothing or perhaps with an armband? This way our darling children can avoid them and any unpleasant questions that might arise from potential interactions. Let’s bring this up for discussion at the next book burning!

    • Reed Fawell 3 says

      August 19, 2023 at 6:12 PM

      The state, and its bureaucrats, need to leave our children, all of them, alone, before they destroy our children altogether as now it’s obviously doing. Look at the statistics. Our state has gone mad.

  3. Ross Jones says

    August 19, 2023 at 5:03 PM

    Tom’s piece is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Maryland’s pubic schools. I was unaware of all the nasty details that students and teachers have to consider each day they enter the schoolhouse. It is challenging enough for youngsters to deal with academic subjects and extracurricular activities without having to navigate the new, socially driven obstacles mandated by the state. Is common sense a relic of the past?

  4. Jan Greer says

    August 20, 2023 at 6:54 AM

    Without a sense of humor in the current era, you don’t have a prayer.

  5. Willard T Engelskirchen says

    August 20, 2023 at 11:34 AM

    Funny, but I searched for these topics using google and came up with ZERO support for the author’s arguments. How can this be. If the spy wants to let this kind of stuff onto its outlet, it should insist on some kind of documentation. This may be satire. Then, it may not be satire. I can’t tell. I am not the best informed person in the world but then I am not the worst.
    Pieces like this may be the reason some actually support book bans in school libraries.
    I am not amused.

    • Reed Fawell 3 says

      August 21, 2023 at 10:27 AM

      The problem is the threat is real thanks to our irresponsible ruling class.

      For example, our US President and Vice President assembled a meeting of several cabinet members and staff in the Blue Room of the White House in late February of 2014, wherein both the President and VP lectured the assemblage on the threat posed the by the ongoing “rampant rape epidemic on college campuses” wherein they alleged that one in five college women where raped at least once before they graduated from college. This was a complete hoax. It was launched by our US President and his VP to increase their political support by young single women whose overwhelming support in the 2008 election had waned in the 2012 election. “I have your back” the President and VP declared that day in the Blue Room as they threatened college Presidents, before their administration launched a massive investigation and suits against hundreds of colleges and universities alleging their failure to protect coeds against sexual harassment and rape.

      This triggered mass hysteria among coeds and swarms of false allegations on campus from which we have yet to recover. This was only the beginning. Now our public square is awash with false allegations, claims, and emergencies ginned up by America’s ruling class for their own political advantage and power as they tear America apart, including America’s public K-12 education.

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