Colorado can’t withhold universal preschool funding from Christian schools that don’t enforce bathroom usage by gender preference or insist on woke pronoun usage between teachers and four-year-old students, a federal court has ruled.
Darren Patterson Christian Academy in Chaffee County brought the lawsuit against the state because it feared funding for the “universal” education program that is supposed to be inclusive of every religion, including Christians, would be pulled for its refusal to follow state gender rules and regulations.
Most Christians, it turns out, are not okay with grown men sharing the same bathroom as a four-year-old girl.
Also, many, many, many parents are also not cool with mixing bathroom usage among their little ones, some of whom are still learning to aim.
Or confusing early English usage with made up pronouns.
Or lecturing those who can’t even count or tell time yet on gender development and equity.
As it turns out, these are some of the reasons why so many parents choose Christian over public schools.
But we digress.
The judge agreed with the school, even though Colorado Assistant Attorney General Janna K. Fischer assured the court the state “has no reason to investigate and believe they’re not in compliance.”
Nor did U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Domenico buy the state’s argument that Colorado’s preschool program was designed to be “equitable” and “universal” for children, Colorado Politics reports.
“Indeed, exclusion of a preschool is inherently anti-universal, and denying participation based on one’s protected beliefs or speech is not equitable,” he concluded. “The government cannot force religious schools to abandon their beliefs and exercise to participate in a public benefit program that everyone else can access,” he said in a statement.
And this:
“Perhaps even more telling is the fact that, hours after the hearing,” Domenico wrote, “the governor’s office issued a comment directly in response to this case.”
The statement from Polis’ office said that voters clearly enacted a preschool program “that doesn’t discriminate against everyone,” and the state “will vigorously defend this landmark program.”
In other words, the state planned to come after the Christian school for refusing to follow Colorado’s gender rules and regulations in preschool.