Ohio 4-H adopts 'California LGBT policies'

Last year, an Iowa 4-H director was fired for planning to implement LGBTQ policies, and now a similar plan has been exposed in Ohio's program.

Last summer WND's exclusive reports exposed the Iowa plan, which included transgender bathrooms and mandated pronoun usage for youths in the rural program.

Shortly later, USA Today reported John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas, the Iowa 4-H director of youth development, was terminated.

Now, Liberty Counsel charges Ohio State University, which runs the state's 4-H program through its Office of Cooperative Extension, is stealthily promoting "LGBT ideology."

"OSU should be held accountable for undermining parental rights, replacing children's innocence with the values of LGBT activists, and misdirecting resources intended for the 4-H program. OSU cannot require parents, children, employees, or volunteers to give up personal privacy and their First Amendment rights as a condition for participation in a state program. If Ohio State continues, it risks gutting the Ohio 4-H program. Parents will seek out better opportunities for their children," said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel's founder and chairman.

His organization said Ohio 4-H adults, volunteers and parents have objected, to no avail.

"Nearly a year after OSU offered 'confidential and financial' assistance to minors to attend the first 'Ohio 4-H LGBTQ+ Summit,' and refused to confirm whether written parental permission was actually given, California LGBT policies are becoming firm policies in all of Ohio's 88 counties," Liberty Counsel said.

"OSU is intent on silencing or driving away parents, employees or volunteers who believe that there are only two sexes, male and female, and that homosexuality and 'transgenderism' are inappropriate subjects for impressionable children and have nothing to do with 4-H. Indeed, interim director of Ohio 4-H, Kirk Bloir has clearly said: 'If parents or volunteers don’t like that, then we are not the program for them,'" the report said.

Liberty Counsel pointed out: "Ohio 4-H once reflected the values of the populations it serves. However, OSU is now using the program as a vehicle to enforce radical LGBT ideology and terminology, including the idea that pronouns are subjective, and do not correspond to objective biology of male or female. OSU is promoting mandatory use of other fake gender pronouns inconsistent with biological sex, including 'Zie,' 'Zir' and 'Zirs.'"

The requirement imposed by OSU, Liberty Counsel said, is for "all Ohio children attending 4-H camps and other events to embrace LGBT 'inclusion,' including sharing showers and sleeping facilities with opposite sex individuals who 'identify' as another sex. OSU will house gender-confused boys with girls in overnight camp accommodations, with no knowledge or consent from the girls or their parents, and vice-versa for boys."

OSU also mandates teaching about a "Genderbread Person," a gingerbread man repurposed to include a highlighted genital area upon which is superimposed a transgender symbol, the report said.

4-H program manager Kayla Oberstadt created a PowerPoint last year explaining Ohio was adopting California guidelines, "which includes that objecting parents and legislative oversight are seen as 'challenges' to overcome," Liberty Counsel said.

Last year's summit included instruction for adults on "coming-out conversations" and how to argue with parents who object.

The Iowa LGBT plan drew rebukes from conservatives, and hundreds of comments were sent to the state program.

The document that prompted a series of stories on the issue was called "4-H Guidance for Inclusion of Individuals of All Gender Identities, Gender Expressions, Sexual Orientations, and Sexes." It originally was posted on the official site of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, under which 4-H has existed for more than a century. However, each state's 4-H organizations are generally run by the state's university extension services, and in Iowa that's Iowa State.

Liberty Counsel at that time sent a demand letter to Iowa State, asking officials to abandon their plans on legal grounds.

WND reports at the time revealed the largely unpublicized, multi-pronged, state-by-state movement to impose highly contentious transgender policies on the 4-H youth organizations.