Are anxious NJ Dems turning from Platkin's parental rights fight? It looks like it | Stile

Trenton Democrats gushed with praise last year after Matthew Platkin finally won his long-sought confirmation as New Jersey attorney general.

"He brings the energy to that office that's necessary to do the things that we would like to see happen," state Senate President Nicholas Scutari said at the time.

Now, with just six weeks left in the fall campaign for the 2023 legislative elections, New Jersey Democrats are eager for Platkin to dial down the energy. And one of the things that they would now like to see happen? They'd like to see Platkin's Division on Civil Rights cool its heels and stay out of the courtroom.

Specifically, Democrats are less than thrilled with having the division, under Platkin's guidance, clashing with three Monmouth County school districts over their new policies requiring staff to notify parents when a child has expressed a change in gender preference.

In the eyes of vulnerable, swing-district Democrats — and their local party bosses, who hold considerable sway over the purse strings and strategy of reelection campaigns — Platkin's legal crusade helps convert the fringe parental rights issue into a full-blown Republican Party advantage. It has inflamed grassroots New Jersey Republicans and may attract votes from independents and some Democrats who support school notification.

"I think the lawsuits are a terrible way of trying to enforce a law that I voted for," said state Sen. Joe Lagana, D-Bergen, referring to the 2017 law requiring schools to protect the confidentiality of transgender students. The State Board of Education guidance that was established by that law — Policy No. 5756, which requires school officials to accept the student's gender identification without notifying their parents — is now at the center of the dispute.

"I don't think it's good policy for any state agency to be getting involved in school districts and what they're doing," said state Sen. Vin Gopal, D-Monmouth, the Jersey Shore Democrat who is facing a tough reelection challenge in the 11th Legislative District.

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Democrats turn away from progressive agenda

Normally, Democratic lawmakers can be counted on to rally behind an attorney general picked by a Democratic governor — and especially behind an attorney general who is waging a court fight on an issue of top-of-mind concern to the LGBTQ+ community, a core constituency of the Democratic Party.

But some Democrats' efforts to distance themselves from Platkin's legal battles — and, in turn, from Gov. Phil Murphy's progressive agenda — demonstrate the growing worry about the parental rights backlash.

That backlash, which began brewing at the school board level, is now expected to shadow the contests in a handful of pivotal legislative races this fall.

Spurred on by national right-wing groups, advocates began using their newfound political muscle on school boards by passing rules that reverse or defy Policy 5756.

Parental rights warriors wrapped their campaigns around a simple, emotionally charged message — that the policy robbed parents of their fundamental role in raising their children. But some also saw guidance in extreme, conspiratorial terms. This was part of a long-term strategy by the "radical" left to indoctrinate or "groom" their children in the LGBTQ+ lifestyle.

But Platkin's office filed the lawsuits after the districts issued their notification policies this spring, arguing that the new policies would routinely "out" transgender and non-binary students to their parents. The Attorney General's Office also said the policies were discriminatory — and, in some cases, potentially dangerous.

Some parents might react angrily or violently, further alienating emotionally fragile children who are transitioning or considering it, Platkin's office contended. Studies have shown that many transgender youths have attempted or considered suicide.

The state succeeded this summer in persuading a Superior Court judge to block the policies in the Middletown, Marlboro and Manalapan-Englishtown school districts until the case makes its way through the courts. It was an important victory that prevented routine notification just before the start of the new school year.

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Emboldened Republicans want to build on 2021

But the courtroom is far removed from the campaign trail, where Republicans have championed parental rights, believing that the issue has broad-based appeal that could attract independents and disillusioned Democrats in tight races.

"We must never allow the state to get in between parents and children — ever," Steve Dnistrian, the Republican who is challenging Gopal in the 11th District, said during a parental rights rally in Freehold in August. Like other Republicans, Dnistrian reduced the case to emotional, digestible sound-bite terms that gloss over the complexities of the guidance that restricted parental notification.

It is appeals like this — and the findings of a recent Monmouth University poll, which found that nearly 70% of voters support parental notification — that have put swing-district Democrats on the defensive, and at arm's length from the Platkin legal effort. Democrats also remains spooked by the 2021 election, when they were forced to navigate right-wing agitating over Murphy's pandemic-era policies on masking and schools.

Republicans flipped seven seats two years ago and, in so doing, fueled their tank with momentum and expectation for more in November. The parental rights push — combined with a steady public souring over Murphy's push for wind turbines off the Jersey Shore and his aggressive electric vehicle and clean energy mandates — has some Democrats fearing a sequel to 2021.

It has also led some Democrats to openly oppose Platkin's legal fight against the three school districts, even though the LGBTQ+ community is a loyal Democratic constituency. Gopal, for instance, believes the issue is overblown and exploited by Republicans for campaign purposes, yet takes issue with Platkin's rationale for opposing the school districts' attempts to roll back the 5756 restriction on notifying parents.

"I think the presumption that I find offensive is that it ... makes the assumption that parents ... don't know what's best for their kids, which is what is offensive to me, and I think any of my colleagues in the Senate would agree with me on both sides of the aisle," Gopal said in an interview.

Lagana said the restrictions on notifying parents is not what he had in mind when he voted for the 2017 law.

"The whole point of a law was to protect LGBTQ students, to protect their identities and do the best to, you know, look out for this traditionally marginalized and discriminated-against group," said Lagana, whose district includes parts of Bergen and Passaic counties. "But where we are right now is it's been taken to the next level, where, like, you can't help parents either, right? And I think that's where the issue is."

Platkin: 'The law is the law'

Platkin, through his spokeswoman, declined to comment, but in an appearance on WNYC last month, he stressed that he was under a legal obligation to defend the law and protect transgender students who could face reprisals at home once the school’s notification policies took effect.

He also denied that the state policy imposed a blanket prohibition on notifying parents of a child considering a gender transition. He said the rule effectively protected a limited number of children who might be put at risk if school alerted a parent.

"Now, as I've said for several years … parents absolutely can be notified," Platkin told WNYC's Brian Lehrer. “But the law requires that you take into account the individual circumstances of that child and not make a parental notification strictly on the basis of a protected characteristic, in this case, their identity as trans or any member of the LGBTQ community. So the law is the law.”

He added, “We want those students who do have genuine fears to feel like they can talk to somebody, and in some cases, a school counselor, a teacher, is that person … It is less likely that that student is going to come forward and talk to anybody if they feel they're going to be outed against their will.”

Platkin also asserted that he simply is seeking to return to the practice that occurred before the activists seized on the issue, before it became a contentious campaign issue.

Some officials say the fear of a parental rights backlash swamping Democrats is overblown and that the post-pandemic hostility that fueled Republican victories last time is simply not as intense or pervasive as in 2021.

"No one is trying to skirt notification of parents," said LeRoy Jones, the state Democratic Party chairman. "I think that's what the opposition party attempts to do is to create a firestorm, because they have no real issues, beyond, you know, just the manufactured issues."

But when asked if he felt it would have been more politically helpful to Democratic candidates if Platkin had waited until after the Nov. 7 election to file his lawsuits, Jones said he would not second-guess the attorney general's legal judgment.

"I respect Matt and the responsibilities that he has," Jones said. "We're going to move forward with, you know, with the hand that we're dealt."

Charlie Stile is a veteran New Jersey political columnist. For unlimited access to his unique insights into New Jersey’s political power structure and his powerful watchdog work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: stile@northjersey.com

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ parental rights: Matthew Platkin's fight stirs Democrats