Gretchen Whitmer's Solution for Broken Child Welfare System: 'Sexual Orientation' and 'Gender Identity' Consulting

Months after a federal judge described the state of Michigan governor 
Gretchen Whitmer’s child foster care system as "devastating," the 
Democrat's administration is turning to an atypical antidote: a "sexual 
orientation" and "gender identity" consultant.

Whitmer's Children's Services Agency on September 12 issued a contract 
proposal for a "Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression 
(SOGIE) Consultant" to assist the agency's "Diversity Equity and Inclusion 
Unit," documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. Included in 
the proposal are directives to distribute surveys on "the needs and 
concerns of LGBTQIA+ … children," develop "training curriculum" on topics 
such as "implicit bias," and identify "community services for Native 
American Two Spirit youth."

The proposal comes as Whitmer faces a high-profile reelection bid against 
Republican challenger Tudor Dixon. It also comes as the Democrat's 
Children's Services Agency faces scrutiny from a federal judge over a 
"devastating" January report that detailed the foster system's 
shortcomings. The issues laid out in the report, however, seemingly have 
little to do with "sexual orientation" and "gender identity."

In one case, two foster children were found wandering around a hotel 
unsupervised after the children's caregiver asked an unnamed "male friend" 
to watch them. In another, a foster parent allowed a 12-year-old to 
supervise seven younger children—including a blind and autistic 10-year-
old and a 2-year-old—while the foster parent left home to run an errand. 
The two-year-old twice left the house "dirty and without pants," and 
police later described "deplorable conditions" at the foster home, such as 
"spoiled food and garbage strewn throughout, rabbit feces outside a rabbit 
cage, and child access to alcohol and pet food." In both cases, the report 
states, Whitmer's Children's Services Agency did not find evidence to 
substantiate claims of "improper supervision."

Still, the September contract proposal expresses optimism that a focus on 
"Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" will "encourage a culture shift," 
increase "resources within child welfare of people who are marginalized," 
and "create increased sensitivity on issues relating to the Lesbian, Gay, 
Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA+) population 
within Children's Services." Both Whitmer and Michigan's Department of 
Health and Human Services did not return requests for comment.

It's unclear what kinds of questions will be included in the "survey" laid 
out in the proposal, which is set to be distributed to "staff, 
stakeholders, youths, and families" within "the first and last 30-60 days" 
of the contract. But in one "confidential SOGIE questionnaire" posted by 
California's Foster Youth Education Task Force, children as young as 10 
were asked if they were "born a boy, girl, or something else"; if they 
"feel like a boy, girl, or something else"; if they "prefer to wear boy 
clothes or girl clothes"; if they "like and/or date girls, boys, both, or 
neither"; and if they were "gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, questioning, 
straight, or something else." That survey was set to be distributed to 
"ALL children and youth ages 10-21 years" within Alameda County's Social 
Services Agency, according to the questionnaire.

Similar surveys are already making their way into public schools in the 
United States. In Rhode Island, for example, the state's survey partner, 
Panorama Education, asks whether students are "transgender and/or Gender 
non-conforming" in its state demo survey. Dixon has criticized Whitmer on 
so-called woke education—in a Wednesday press release, the Republican 
touted a bill requiring "school districts to ensure that their schools do 
not provide classroom instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity 
in kindergarten through third grade," adding that Whitmer "won't agree to 
these common-sense measures."

"Gretchen Whitmer will not come out and say that she opposes sex and 
gender theory being taught to our kids," Dixon said in the release. "She 
won't even come out and say that it is wrong and obscene for her attorney 
general to advocate for putting a drag queen in every classroom," a 
reference to Michigan Democratic attorney general Dana Nessel's June 
remarks calling for "a drag queen for every school." "That is what would 
be fun for the kids and lift them up when they are having emotional 
issues," Nessel said.

Michigan's child welfare system has been under federal court oversight 
since 2008, when the state settled a lawsuit from the nonprofit Children's 
Rights that alleged it was failing to keep foster children safe. As a 
result of the settlement, Michigan's foster system is routinely subject to 
monitoring reports that evaluate the state on a number of performance 
benchmarks. In January's report, Michigan only met the required standards 
in 8 of 32 areas—the state, for example, failed both to keep an adequate 
percentage of siblings together who are placed in foster care at the same 
time and to "make immediate efforts" to reunite siblings who are 
separated. A quarter of the state's maltreatment investigations, 
meanwhile, were considered "deficient," according to the report.

Should Dixon defeat Whitmer, the Republican's health department would take 
control of the embattled agency. The pair will square off in November 
after Dixon won her August primary by 18 points. Whitmer ran unopposed in 
her own primary.

https://freebeacon.com/democrats/gretchen-whitmers-solution-for-broken-
child-welfare-system-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity-consulting/