SUPPORT HB 1503: Regulating sexually oriented businesses

Summary

House Bill 1503 would prevent sexually oriented businesses from being established within 1,000 feet of facilities for minors. Sexually oriented businesses are defined to include an array of adult entertainment venues or stores that sell or feature sexually explicit content. Facilities for minors include a variety of places that are primarily meant for children, such as schools, public parks and pools, and other entertainment spaces like arcades or amusement parks. The bill does not apply to businesses which are already in operation. The Attorney General, local officials, and county residents are given the ability to bring alleged violations of the bill before a court. The bill lists several damaging effects of sexually oriented businesses in order to establish that the state has a substantial government interest in this matter.

Analysis

As the bill itself lays out, sexually oriented businesses have many harmful effects, both directly for those that frequent them, and secondarily for those who happen to live, work, or visit other properties located near them. Many of these effects are connected directly to the sexually explicit nature of these businesses, effects such as human trafficking, prostitution, sexual assault, and public indecency. Other issues are not directly of a sexual nature, but often go hand in hand with these businesses nonetheless. These include property crime, the spread of disease, and drug use. It is well within the government’s duty to keep these unwholesome establishments away from children in any way possible.

This bill takes the common sense step to forbid sexually explicit businesses from opening up by any schools, parks, or other places for minors. It does not go after the rights of adults to access these spaces and their contents if they so choose. It simply seeks to protect children from reaping the consequences of being near such businesses. Governments are no stranger to imposing zoning restrictions or putting in place other such restrictions on how and where businesses can operate, and keeping strip clubs or adult stores from opening up next to schools and parks seems to be one of the most sensible restrictions one could suggest.

Conclusion

Children are very impressionable and look to adults for protection. They should be able to go about their day free from the threats of businesses that profit from sex. HB 1503 is an important step in safeguarding children from such businesses and the many immoral and illegal activities that surround them. While adults may have the right to frequent these harmful locations, there is no good reason that any sexually oriented venue needs to be located so close to schools, parks, or other places meant for minors. HB 1503 will help keep sex, crime, and various other forms of degeneracy out of sight and out of mind for Hoosier children. 

IFI supports HB 1503.

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SUPPORT HB 1447: Protecting children against intrusive surveys

Summary

House Bill 1447 addresses personal or ideological surveys being administered to students, as well as other matters of politics in the classroom. The bill would require schools to send at least two forms to parents asking for permission before certain analyses, surveys, or evaluations are given to their children. If parents agree or do not reply, the survey is given. If parents opt out, their child will not have to take the survey. The permission forms must include information about the survey and the reason it is being administered. The bill also forbids schools or other third parties from collecting survey results in a way that would identify the responses of specific individuals. Also, the bill says that if any assignments involve politics, students must not be compelled to take a certain ideological stance.

Analysis

Unfortunately, activist teachers and administrators are increasingly being found in schools across the country, including in Indiana. They seek to use the classroom as a place of political re-education for students who come from Christian or conservative backgrounds, attempting to teach them LGBT ideology, Critical Race Theory, and other anti-American sentiments. Multiple strategies can be used to accomplish this. One, aspects of the curriculum can be structured in a way that twists a student’s hand, forcing them to endorse or condone a certain political ideology whether they really believe it or not. 

Furthermore, personal surveys and evaluations are increasingly being used to see which students hold views that don’t align with left-wing orthodoxy and therefore need some additional “education.” These surveys can also be used to introduce to children matters of sexuality and gender identity, trying to get them to consider whether they might be gay or transgender. Such indoctrination by educators is unacceptable. This bill would help make sure Indiana’s classrooms are places of real learning, not left-wing training camps.

Conclusion

It is the responsibility of parents, not teachers, to raise their own children. Teachers have no right to override the desires of parents and force alternative worldviews on their students. The classroom should be a place of healthy learning and discovery where radical political ideas have no role. Preventing the weaponization of unnecessarily personal surveys is an important step in keeping the classroom a safe and constructive environment for Hoosier children. Furthermore, forbidding schools from requiring students to take specific political stances during class assignments is another important way of keeping activism and indoctrination out of education. HB 1447 puts the power back in the hands of parents, ensuring they call the shots in the lives of their children, not teachers with a political agenda. 

IFI supports HB 1447.

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