PANAMA, August 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) – A powerful video produced by Panamanian pro-family activist Jibaro Artz brings to life the struggle of Panamanian families to resist the imposition of gender ideology education in their country.
The video records the multitudinous protests that drew tens of thousands of families to the streets of Panama on July 13 to express their rejection of a draft bill known as “Law 61,” which would have mandated that Panamanians schools indoctrinate students in gender ideology and impose explicit “sexuality education.”
After the march, several representatives from the protesters entered the National Assembly to communicate to legislators their objections to Law 61. The president of the Assembly and other deputies capitulated to the protesters and agreed to return the law to the Work, Health, and Development Committee rather than pass it on for debate by the full Assembly.
“We made history!” the video’s voiceover declares. “Day and night, in the rain, before politicians, before people who look down on us, but today, thousands of people are united. The Panamanian people have demonstrated the power there is in unity.”
“We’re going to continue protecting our children, adolescents, and future generations from laws that seek to distort the original model of the family,” it continues.
“Certain people want to take away the responsibility of parents for the education of their children. They want to foment licentiousness among children and adolescents by giving them information but without adequate formation.”
“Today we decided not to remain silent, and we went out into the streets in a peaceful march to express our opposition. … The Panamanian family went to the National Assembly of Deputies and we were heard.”
The draft bill mandates “integral sexual education” and “sexual and reproductive health” for children at every educational level, including what appears to be a gender-ideological distinction of biological “sex,” and “sexuality,” which it defines as “anatomic, physiological, psychological, and affective.”
In seeking to implement such “education” in the nation’s schools, the Ministry of Education has been working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to create sexual education “guides” that teach children as young as seven that “gender” and “sex” are two different things, and to induce them to talk about their genitalia in class.
The pro-family Children’s Platform (Plataforma para la Niñez), which is a coalition of Catholic and evangelical groups that organized the July march, is warning legislators that if the guides are not withdrawn, they will stage another protest demanding that the country’s education minister be fired, according to the Panamanian publication Telemetro.
The National Assembly recently announced that hearings at the committee level will soon begin again on the bill, which will allow input from pro-family groups. However, Telemetro reports that while pro-family groups are happy that the draft bill has been returned to the committee, they have no desire to discuss modifications to the bill and want to see it completely discarded and replaced.
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