If the Federal Government Must Be This Big, at Least It Should Act Less Like a Thug

The Washington Free Beacon reports that, under Biden Administration rules, your six year-old must get his indoctrination in sex and gender studies or do without food until dinner.

I wish I were making this up. But you can’t make this stuff up.

The Biden administration is requiring schools to comply with its LGBT policies or lose billions in federal funding for school lunches.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service announced in May it will prevent low-income students from participating in its National School Lunch Program if their public school does not adopt the administration's interpretation of Title IX, which holds that the federal civil rights law's provision against discrimination based on sex includes designations of sexual orientation and gender identity.

I confess to being sufficiently old-fashioned that I thought providing food for your kid was the parents’ job. I seem to have missed that boat by decades. But if, in the modern world, it’s the schools’ job to feed your children, why does the federal government have a role in it? Is there any part of life left to parents and families and local communities?

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem (R.) told the Free Beacon her state will take legal action. "Joe Biden has threatened to take away children’s school lunch money to pursue his radical agenda," Noem said. "He’s targeting states like ours that make it clear biological men do NOT belong in girls’ bathrooms and sports. If you act on this, Joe, we’ll see you in court and we will win."

Let’s assume for purposes of a very exotic argument (1) that the feds have a proper role in the meal plan of your local school, and (2) that the threat to withhold federal money is a legitimate means of enforcing core educational goals.

Now one could think that teaching English, history and math would be considered among such goals. Wrongo! What needs to be drilled into your kid’s head by this extortion is that the difference between boys and girls is a matter of psychology rather than chromosomes, and that depending on his psychology, your son gets to use the girls’ locker room and showers.

Gosh, I’m so slow. Why didn’t I think of this when I was in eighth grade?

Critics of the administration's decision said it could unnecessarily harm disadvantaged students. Christian K-12 schools that participate in the NSLP can apply for a religious exemption, but public and nonreligious private schools must follow the new rules or lose their funding.

"All people should be treated with dignity and respect, but it's wrong for the federal government to take away free meals from economically disadvantaged students if their schools do not embrace radical gender ideology," Greg Baylor, a senior counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, told the Washington Free Beacon.

Remember when we were told that providing food aid for poor children wasn’t a matter of politics, it was a matter of basic decency and compassion? “If a nation can put a man on the moon, it can provide at least minimum sustenance for…….blah, blah, blah.”

And you fell for it!

The announcement builds on President Joe Biden's Day One Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, which permits transgender students to use male or female bathrooms and play sports with either sex….

The Biden administration will also force schools that receive funds from FNS to investigate accusations of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. Students at colleges and universities who reject the Biden administration's definition of sex could also lose their Federal Student Aid.

"Any discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in FNS programs will be handled as sex discrimination," a USDA spokeswoman told the Free Beacon.

Let me put that more succinctly: Get with the sex program or your kid stays hungry.

When we tolerate a federal government this massively overgrown and this reckless, this is what we’re going to get. And when we tolerate one this committed to the latest Woke agenda, don’t think it’s going to stop there, either.