Resolution on Preserving Childhood Innocence

-Commissioner Rhodea defines the + (plus)

In recent months, Ottawa County commissioners have listened to concerns from residents over the Ottawa County Health Department’s participation in Grand Valley Sex Education Week, the Grand Haven Drag Show, and the Holland Pride Festival. Residents are concerned that taxpayer funds are being used to support overtly sexualized events that in some cases expose children to adult sexual themes.

On June 27, 2023, the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners voted to pass a resolution to protect the innocence of children by not allocating county resources to activities which support, normalize, or encourage the sexualization of children and youth. Commissioners Rhodea, Cosby, Ebel, Moss, Belknap, Curran, Bonnema, Terpstra, and Miedema voted in favor of the resolution. Commissioners Zylstra and Bergman were opposed.

During the June 20, 2023, Health and Human Services meeting, speaking on the topic of the Grand Haven Drag Show, Interim Health Director Adeline Hambley stated, “We had a booth there to provide health services; targeting the most at-risk. We provided M-Pox vaccination, as well as Covid, and then we provided STI prevention education at the pride festival. We have to kind of meet people where they are.”

During the June 27 meeting, two residents questioned this reasoning. “Adeline Hambley said they go to pride parades to bring vaccines, STD testing, and sexual education to the at-risk population, because they, the LGBTQ, don’t want the stigma of coming to a mysterious brown building on James Street in Holland. I would argue, stigma probably isn’t a concern as this population of people feels comfortable parading their sexuality in the streets. I would further argue, that since they don’t set up tables inside strip clubs, it’s not about meeting people where they are. Their participation at the pride festival signals an endorsement of sexually confused men, flamboyantly dressed up as women, for sexually stimulating reasons in a public space, where children are watching, and encouraged to participate.”

Another resident questioned how the health department determines what events to support. “We talk about the health department wanted to be at the drag show because they want to meet people where they are at. I’ve been to a lot of different events, I’ve been to baseball games, concerts, Worship on the Waterfront in Grand Haven, and I’ve never seen the Ottawa County Health Department there.”

During the June 27, 2023, Ottawa County board of commissioners meeting, the commissioners discussed the resolution.

(3:03:25) Sylvia Rhodea gave the following statement regarding the resolution.

“Both the Grand Haven Pride Festival and Holland Pride recently celebrated LGBTQIA+ with children handing money to drag queens at a drag event in Grand Haven. The Ottawa County Health Department and several aligned organizations were in attendance as vendors. It’s time to define the +.

Over 50 different flags are flown under the LGBTQIA+ flag. Which groups fall under the +? Examples include furries, those who dress as furry animals and may use liter boxes, polyamory, also known as polygamy, beastiality, and pedophiles, or as they are now called, MAPs (minor attracted persons). Perhaps that name is more palatable?

Are there any boundaries to the +? Are we promoting and supporting all activities under the +? Will we continue to support a + with no limits?

Within the LGB community, there are many who do not support all that the flag has come to represent. Especially when it comes to protecting children. There has been a slow march to sexualize children. With a recent push from MDE (Michigan Department of Education) and Michigan’s ISD’s (Intermediate School Districts), to teach little ones about the concept of consent at school. The sexualization of children is not new. It started with Kinsey of the Kinsey Institute, who used pedophile-based studies of babies and children as supposed evidence that little ones are sexual from birth, and therefore should not be deprived of the expression, or the exploration of sexuality from birth, with or without another individual.

Libs of Tik ToK exposed our own Ottawa County Health Department nationally, in 2022, for their parent guide on infant and childhood sexuality that included similar messaging which the health department had used at least since 2019. Our health department has advised school districts on implementing radical Comprehensive Sexuality Education, and has used results from the intrusive, over-the-top sexualized YAS (Youth Assessment Survey) as a justification for doing so. A student told me this last year. His class either refused to take the survey all together or purposefully answered the over-the-top questions falsely.

In the past, the Ottawa Youth Sexual Health Coalition (OYSHC), administered by our health department, recruited teens through their Facebook pages, to work with MOASH (Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health), which promotes Comprehensive Sexuality Education which is over-the-top radical sex education, and abortion without parental consent.

Returning back to the resolution. The future of Ottawa County relies on the health and well-being of its children and young people. Children are our greatest treasure, and our most valuable population. We must always weigh the risk of harm to children in public policy decisions. Taxpayer funded government bureaucracy should not be utilized for the promotion of a sexuality agenda to children. Instead, we need to protect children from use of local government to support and push this agenda. The resolution to protect childhood innocence commits to doing so.”

(3:13:50) Some commissioners were confused regarding this resolution. Commissioner Bergman stated, “This resolution is wrong on so many fronts, and for any of you to vote yes on this, is a slap in the face of parents who do not conform with your beliefs. Many of you campaigned on parental rights, yet in this resolution you are advocating for taking them away.”

(3:15:00) Commissioner Moss responded to Commissioner Bergman’s concern, “If parents would like to make determinations for their kids, I think that’s great. As a board, and as a county, we make determinations not for parents, but for county resources. That’s our job, and that’s what we are elected to do.”

The full resolution was provided on page 11 of the board packet.