The Utah Eagle Forum strongly supports the efforts of the Utah Legislature to ensure the safety of children online by implementing the Utah Social Media Regulation Acts of 2023. Here's a comprehensive overview of the legislation:

Legislation Overview: In 2023, the Utah State Legislature passed two landmark bills, SB 152 and HB 311, collectively known as the Utah Social Media Regulation Acts. These comprehensive laws were enacted to address the significant and evolving challenges posed to children and young people by social media platforms.

Under SB 152 and HB 311, the state of Utah has taken proactive steps to hold social media companies accountable for their role in safeguarding the well-being of young users online. The legislation introduces a range of measures aimed at protecting minors and ensuring responsible behavior within the digital realm.

These measures encompass strict age verification requirements for adults seeking to establish or maintain social media accounts in Utah. Additionally, parental consent is now mandated for users under the age of 18, granting parents or legal guardians a pivotal role in overseeing their child's online activities.

Furthermore, social media companies are obligated to provide parents or guardians with full access to their child's social media account, fostering a sense of transparency and accountability. To promote healthy sleep habits, a default curfew setting has been established, which restricts overnight access to minor accounts (from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am); this setting can be customized by parents to suit their preferences.

The legislation also introduces stringent safeguards to protect minors from unapproved direct messaging and ensures their exclusion from search results. Importantly, social media companies are prohibited from collecting data from minors, targeting their accounts for advertising purposes, or employing addictive design features that specifically target this vulnerable demographic.

The enforcement of these groundbreaking regulations falls under the purview of the Division of Consumer Protection, which is authorized to take administrative or civil actions against companies found in violation of these new laws. Starting from March 1, 2024, individuals and organizations can report violations to the Division, underlining the state's commitment to ensuring the online safety and well-being of its young citizens.

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 26, 2023

CONTACT: Press@eagleforum.org

Target: Stop “Targeting” Our Kids
State and National Groups Unite in Call for Target to Remove/Move Divisive “Trans Pride” Products
Group Sending Letter and Petition to Chip and Joanna Gaines
Seeking Support to Protect Childhood Innocence

After fifty years of Title IX protecting women’s and girls’ access to education, sports, and privacy, the Biden administration is erasing what it means to be female and turning Title IX on its head. The Department of Education decided to change the definition of ‘sex’ to include sexual orientation and gender identity. This means that biological men can play in girls’ sports teams and have access to their private spaces. Parents of minors do not have to be informed about these changes and any opposition could have severe consequences.

Eagle Forum joined the Title IX Network to team up with like-minded groups to restore the original intent of Title IX. This Thursday, January 26th, we will meet with multiple members of Congress in Washington, D.C., to ask them to advance bills that protect girls, women, and parents from this dangerous rewriting of not only womanhood but language. 

We need you to echo these concerns and solutions to your elected representatives from the grassroots. We, along with the Title IX Network coalition, are asking Congress to:

• Pass the Parents Bill of Rights Act, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, the Campus Free Speech Restoration Act, and the Campus Equality, Fairness, and Transparency Act
• Oppose all language that expands definitions of “sex” and “sexual harassment”
• Conduct hearings on the experimental procedures conducted on children for the purposes of “gender transitioning”

Your voice is so important because you are the one who holds your representatives accountable. Our goal is to have Eagles from across the country flood the offices of House Members right after coalition lobbies this Thursday. 
The message is simple — we will not stand for the elimination of the definition of ‘female’ that will lead to real harm to women and girls!
​
Contact your Representative and Senators now and ask them to restore the original intent of Title IX!

URGENT ALERT!

WE NEED YOU IN COMMITTEE TOMORROW TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT!  The bill that will stop unproven surgeries and hormonal treatment on minors under age 18 will be heard in committee on Tuesday, January 24th, at 2:00pm in the House Building, Room 30, in the House Health and Human services committee. HB 132, sponsored by representative Rex Shipp, will end experimental medical procedures that hurt and sterilize children. 
 
Medical doctors and mental health experts will be in the meeting to testify about the dangers of these procedures and why Utah must pass this bill to Protect our children. De-transitioner Chloe Cole will share her story about her journey through puberty blockers, cross sex hormones and a double mastectomy at age 15. 
 
We need you to be there please come and support this legislation. Let the committee members know that you expect them to protect Utah’s children by passing HB132. Please email, text and call all the Republican members of the committee and ask them to vote yes to protecting Utah’s children.
 
This bill prohibits a health care provider from performing a medical procedure on a minor for the purpose of attempted sex transitioning or attempted sex change. HB 132 PROHIBITS: 

• Hormonal transgender procedures on minors, which means cross-sex hormones, giving testosterone to biological girls who are trying to appear as boys and giving estrogen to biological boys who are trying to appear as girls 
• Performing a puberty inhibition procedure (puberty blocker) on minors. "Minor" means an individual who is less than 18 years old. 
•  "Sex characteristic-altering surgical procedure" for the purpose of effectuating or facilitating an individual's attempted sex change.  
• Any surgical procedure that is related to or necessary for a procedure that would result in the sterilization of a minor who is non-sterile; or removing any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.

Please email, text and call all the Republican members of the committee and ask them to VOTE YES to protecting Utah’s children:Rep. Stewart E. Barlow
sbarlow@le.utah.gov
801-289-6699

Rep. Stephanie Gricius
sgricius@le.utah.gov
801-901-8251

Rep. Marsha Judkins
mjudkins@le.utah.gov
801-669-6962

Rep. Anthony Loubet
aloubet@le.utah.gov
801-657-0466

Rep. Quinn Kotter
qkotter@le.utah.gov
385-202-6683

Rep. Robert M. Spendlove
rspendlove@le.utah.gov
801-560-5394

Rep. Steve Eliason
seliason@le.utah.gov
801-673-4748

Rep. Tim Jimenez
tjimenez@le.utah.gov
801-560-8061

Rep. Raymond P. Ward
rayward@le.utah.gov
801-440-8765

Media Statement
 
 Utah Judge Stone Oversteps in Delaying Law Triggered by SCOTUS Abortion Ruling 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY--July 11, 2022--The Utah Eagle Forum today declared Third District Judge Andrew Stone’s temporary blockage of SB174, Utah's pro- life trigger law, as legislating from the bench without a single mention of the rights of the unborn babies. Responding to the knee jerk lawsuit by Planned Parenthood, Stone sided with them using the same reasoning as the Supreme Court of the United States did in “Roe v. Wade”, only this time he used the Utah Constitution for his unconstitutional bias opinion instead of the US Constitution.  
  
“This is an obvious example of legislating from the bench, in violation of the Utah constitution,” states Gayle Ruzicka, President of the Utah Eagle Forum. “We expected such desperate action from Planned Parenthood seeking to overcome the will of the people and rights of the unborn. But we are shocked and disappointed in this rock-hard liberal judgment and are prepared to continue fighting for full implementation of SB174, which is current law in Utah.” 
 
Ruzicka continues, “In our Republican form of government, the people elect legislators to make laws reflecting the will of the people.  In this case Judge Stone and Planned Parenthood seek to overrule the people’s vote and subjugate the law to force their agenda. That’s not the way our free government works.” 
  
The Forum believes Roe v. Wade was always an unconstitutional ruling by the Supreme Court. The right to abortion does not exist in the Constitution. The Forum affirms that we now have a Supreme Court majority that rules according to correct constitutional and moral principles.  
 
In a triumphant day for unborn babies and their mothers, the 2022 SCOTUS ruling affirmed that each state can now decide what laws will govern abortion in their state. 
 
About the Utah Eagle Forum
The Utah Eagle Forum has been a leader in the pro-life, pro-family movement and is part of the National Eagle Forum founded by Phyllis Schlafly in 1972. The Forum’s mission is to enable conservative and pro-family men and women to participate in the process of self-government and public policymaking so that America will continue to be a land of individual liberty, with respect for the nuclear family, public and private virtue, and private enterprise. For fifty years, Eagle Forum’s network of state organizations has led the charge to mobilize the grassroots to defend the founding principles of the United States. Since 1989, Utah Eagle Forum has been led by Gayle Ruzicka, who has committed her time as President to the defeat of Roe V. Wade

HB 60 Vaccine Passport Amendments (Substitute 1)
Please contact members of the House Business and Labor Committee and urge them to vote YES on HB 60 1st Substitute.

WE NEED YOU! It is vitally important that you come and show your support FOR this bill. It is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, February 15 at 4:00 p.m. in room 445 of the Capitol.
(Contact information for committee members can be found below.)
 
HB 60 Sub. 1 primarily does the following:

• Prohibits "vaccine passports" as a condition of participation in the private sector, as most individuals perceive the concept of a vaccine passport.
• Prohibits any government entity from denying services to an individual on the basis of the individual's "vaccination status" including whether the individual has an immunity passport
• Prohibits government and private employers from discriminating against their employees on the basis of the employee's "vaccination status" including whether the individual has an immunity passport
• Prohibits a governmental entity or most employers from requiring an individual to receive a vaccine.

This bill protects both businesses AND the citizens of Utah. This would prohibit the use of someone's immunity status by places of public accommodation, governmental entities, and by most employers.

This is the way to free up businesses to do business, without the loss of time, focus, and revenue caused by the need to screen employees and/or customers. It also creates a safe atmosphere where employers, customers, and employees can interact without discrimination based upon health care decisions.

With HB 60 (Sub.1), the government is doing its primary job: protecting individual rights!
 
Please find the bill here:
https://le.utah.gov/~2022/bills/hbillint/HB0060S01.pdf

Beloved Music Teacher at Draper Park Middle School for being required to teach the Social Emotional Learning program "Second Step" (shared with permission). They didn't even give his last 2 weeks:

My Dear DPMS families,
This is a difficult email to write.

I have given notice to the School and District of my resignation. I will be leaving Draper Park Middle School within the next two school weeks. This has been a heart-rending decision. I love working with your children, watching them grow and develop. I will miss being with them very much.

I know that this will come as a surprise. It has come as a surprise to me and my family. I intended to be at DPMS for years to come. Unfortunately the social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, “Second Step” was rolled out to Draper Park MS this year. Because I felt uncomfortable when our Admin announced that we would be implementing this program, I spent time reviewing the lessons, videos, teacher scripts, and student handouts from unit 1 for 7th grade curriculum, which is what I would be teaching. The more I watched and read, the more uncomfortable I became.

As a rule, I think that most people will agree that the skills, which the Second Step curriculum is supposed to teach students, are good and helpful. But way that these skills are presented in the Second Step Curriculum is concerning enough to me that I cannot, in good conscience, present the material to my students; material which teaches students that their parents are “roadblocks” to their goals; material which contains propaganda, and encourages students to become activists, among other things. I am especially uncomfortable with the anti-family undertone I have found find in the “Second Step” curriculum (particularly regarding the relationship between the students and their parents, which the curriculum occasionally calls “other generations”.) I am very concerned that this is in our schools.

I shared a detailed list of my concerns with our school Administration, who referred the issue to School Performance at the District level. At every level of interaction with school and district administrators I was treated better than I expected to be. (Parenthetically, Dr. Watts is perhaps the finest, most evenhanded administrator that I have had the pleasure to work with. His hands are tied in this situation. But even so, he has done more than I deserve to support me as we wrestled through this issue. We are fortunate to have him at Draper Park Middle.) My concerns were listened to, and a group at the district have taken the time to look at the relevant content to understand my concerns. Unfortunately, in the end, district personnel kindly told me that that my concerns are unfounded, and that I was seeing what I was “looking for”. They further indicated that the program, as applied in other schools through the district, is working well and helping achieve what they want. I was told that, as a teacher in the district, I am required to teach the concepts from the provided “Second Step” curriculum.
As a kind of compromise, I was offered some small flexibility in the way that I teach the material to the students, as guided an assigned district personnel. But having someone else tell me what I have to teach from a curriculum, which I believe doesn’t belong in the school, is even less appealing than the alternative.

I have advocated for total transparency of the curriculum for parent review, and an opt-out option for parents who are uncomfortable with the course. Because “Second Step” is a copyrighted program requiring a purchased license to access the content, parents can only review the lessons being taught to their students by going into the district office and having district personnel show it to them. No opt-out option will be offered.

I don’t expect all of you to agree with my decision, or that, given the same material to review, you would all feel reason for concern. But I hope that you will understand why I have felt the need to resign: that I cannot teach content to your children that I believe is harmful.

I also want you to know that I have not shared, and will not share, all that I am sharing with you with my students. I do not want to influence your children’s perception of the school, the “Second Step” program, or give them preconceptions about things which might make their time at the school more difficult or stressful. I will tell them that I was asked by the district to do something that I couldn’t do with a clear conscience, but will indicate that I have written to you with more detail so that you can share as much or as little of my concerns as you feel is appropriate.

I hope that you, and your children, will think kindly of me as we part ways. I have tried all that I know to find an acceptable solution which would allow me to stay. I wish all of you, your students, the school and the choir program all the best.

Sincerely,
Sam Crowley