California Mom Tells Why She Jumped Into Politics | Tara Thornton

In our schools, the trans agenda in the schools is very much about getting between the parent and child and saying if you're not being affirmed, then you're not being supported, and you should find a family. There's so many ways that our children are not only at risk, but are being influenced by the laws and the policies that are passing. If your child is not fully vaccinated and they go to a doctor, you risk CPS coming after you and taking your child away. Last year, a bill called AB665 in California passed. It basically emancipated all children 12 and up to be able to leave their family home without any guardrails, no proof of abuse or neglect, and move out to a residential shelter facility. If your child is mad that you don't want them to be on social media, they can now leave their home without any proof of abuse. That's how you lose your children to the state and to the progressive policies. Hello and welcome to Bay Area Innovators. I'm your host, Steve Esparza. Our guest today is Tara Thornton. Tara is an expert in driving legislation strategy in Sacramento, working with both Democrats and Republicans in supporting or opposing legislation that does not represent California. Today, we'll talk about what goes on behind the scenes at the state capitol, how bills get prepared, and how they are passed. Tara, welcome to our program. Thank you for having me. Great to have you here. So I want to talk about your background. You have been, you grew up more in a liberal environment and now you're identifying with issues that are leaning towards what we'd say conservatives, like human freedom in general and rights for people. I was looking the other day at Tulsi Gabbard's path and then she was the vice chair of the Democratic Party in 2012, I think, and then she ended up being the main speaker at CPAC just earlier this year. Do you feel that you had a similar path as far as changing your direction? Well, I started in community engagement as a teenager and on human and civil rights issues and environmental justice issues. At the time, in the 80s and 90s, these were being led by the Democratic Party. So, you know, I worked in what would look at as the far leftist democratic realm. What we were fighting was corporate greed. We were fighting the contamination of the environment, the first GMOs being planted out into the earth in 1987. All these things that were, you know, a question of like how do we create a free and just and against a war machine, corporate greed, corporate capture. And then through the years, I became a mom and in that process, I was always seeking what is the world I want to create for my son? Where is it? What is a healthy world? What is a free world? And I went about, like most people, just trying to focus on my family and my community until 2015 in California. And my son was four years old and the bill SB 277 was brought before the California legislature that would remove the personal belief exemption to vaccines for childhood schedule for kids to go to school K through 12. Although this didn't affect my child because I was always going to create something for him for his education that was outside of the system. At that time, I already knew that the education system was captured, that public and private didn't serve our children the way that I wanted my son to know and be raised in. I still knew it was a complete violation of our children, of our parental rights, our human and civil rights. And it was a sellout to the corporate capture of the medical cartel by the state of California and that it was such a great injustice that it had to, it had to be stopped. It had to be exposed. And that's what really brought me into politics as an adult and a parent. And it completely changed my worldview on what I thought I understood about the two party system. The main responsibility of a parent is to raise their kids well and give them a good education so they can contribute to society. Now, there are people saying that the direction that some of the legislation in Sacramento goes is against that. And an example is this SB107 that would take kids away from their families for various reasons. Can you please talk to us about that? Yeah, SB107 is a bill by Senator Scott Weiner that was passed into law in 2022. This actually makes California a sanctuary state for gender identity, gender affirming care of children. And that means cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers and surgeries, sterilization and mutilation surgeries of the genitals. It also means, as a sanctuary state, that children from any state across the country can come to California. And if one parent or no parents are with them, the state can take custody of the child, temporary custody for the gender affirming care. About the bill SB107, what was your first reaction after you read the bill? I think it's a shock when you, you know, even though we see extremist bills being pushed all the time, it's still shocking to see, especially, you know, in the last few years, the last three years in particular, the the transing of our children and the trans rights issues have become foremount in the political spectrum and in our communities. And so to see a bill that sanctifies what is the equivalent of child sterilization and mutilation is it's it's horrifying. And in truth, if you go out into the community and you talk to the people of California or any place on this earth, they do not believe it is a good idea to force children down this path or affirm them down this path. I think it's very important right now that people make a very clear distinction to say that there are only two sexes, male and female, and that you don't be shamed into feeling like you have to be compassionate and affirm what is essentially a delusion if it's anything other than male or female sex. That doesn't mean that there isn't a full spectrum of expression for both sexes that should be celebrated. And, you know, I think the important thing, though, is we don't sexualize. We don't groom children and we don't push them down a path that they cannot come back from. And that's what SB 107 does in, you know, it in pushing the trans sanctuary state. It is actually against the direction that the rest of the world is going. Countries of northern Europe are already banning gender affirming care, which is the cross sex hormones, puberty blockers and the surgeries, the gender surgeries. And in California, what we have is you're seeing these state battles like the red states versus the blue states, just like on, you know, California is also a sanctuary state for immigration. Everyone I know, no matter what party they are, believes in legal immigration, that that is part of our country, that's part of our potential strength. But to have straight up open borders and, you know, laws that incentivize the continued, you know, open borders and illegal immigration isn't serving anyone, just like the sanctuary state of California for trans and kids isn't serving the children or the families of California. And it's really honestly, you know, Gavin Newsom and the legislatures that passed this, they're really off target on it. We have the high ground on this. Protecting children and families and parental rights is the high ground. The people of California do not want to see the children trans or pushed into medical surgeries and decisions that they can never recover from. This affects their sterility, their fertility, you know, for the rest of their lives. Medicalized for life. Medicalized. It's a you know, the the transing of our children is a very it's it's a social contagion issue right now. It's spreading rapidly. And as each not even each year, it's each month goes on. There's more and more families that are experiencing it because it's being pushed so heavily through the school and education systems. And what you have is, you know, everyone wants to be accepted. Everyone wants to be kind and accept other people. But what they're not seeing is that there are forces. There's multiple forces on the transing of our children issue that do not have the well-being of our children in mind. And, you know, one of them that you're seeing is the it's the Marxist agenda. I would say it's the authoritarian, you know, playbook from whether it's the Cultural Revolution and Mao's Red Guard to any other regime, which is get between the parent and the child, whether it's the state or some private public entity. But put other adults between the parent and the child, break up the family unit and and then control from there. That's one of the factors. The other, as you mentioned, it's the medical cartel. These are cradle to grave consumers. It's a commoditization of our children's bodies. Another of the influences that have a shared, you know, motive for pushing this is the the minor attracted persons mission, which is pedophiles to get access to our children. And then the last one is the transhumanist agenda, which seeks to kind of break beyond gender and break with God and creation and, you know, pull even reproduction out of the sacred cycle and and make it something, you know, separate. That ties very much into an authoritarian control regime as well. So there's so many forces that are just preying on our children who are just trying to find themselves, who are just trying to grow up and let them evolve themselves, you know, and help, you know, as parents, we try to help them evolve. I think we were doing really good on all these issues of race and sexual identity until the last three to five years where those have been co-opt and are forcing a fake divide. I know that my child and his friends in their young teens, they don't see race in a negative connotation. They don't see sexual orientation in negative connotation. I think that's the direction we all wanted them to go. And now we're trying to make it a part, you know, a partisan divide and say that there are issues instead of moving towards the world that we want for them. I mean, our kids are not our kids are not born in the wrong body. And they're also not born with bias and hate. They you know, we're to create a world where they feel safe as who they are. But they are male and female. They are boys and girls. And that's OK. They can be whatever expression they want to be of themselves. We need to get them through childhood, into their adulthood so that they can be as healthy as they can be. Yeah, that sounds to me like a communist approach where the state is above all the state that care of the kids, not the parents. Have you been involved with this bill at all? Yes, we were fighting Bill SB 866 at the time, which was the it lowered the age of consent for vaccines for children to age 12. And we were working. It's very hard to work multiple bills at the same time. We were fighting it, but it passed along party lines, which is the norm in California. It's so important for people to get engaged because there are so many bills. And if we don't get in and start building relationship and talking with the legislators, they're just going to pass out on straight party lines. Now, as a parent, what kind of feedback did you get from other parents about these bills? How do moms and dads feel about this legislation? Well, you know, I think the nation looks at California and thinks that everybody's extremist because of the extremist laws that we've passed here. But the truth is these bills only pass because the people don't know about them and then they don't engage on them when they do. The people of California are not extremists in any way. When you actually start to talk to them about the bills that have been passed or are pending to pass, I don't care what district or demographic they are. They do not support this. You know, the bills that are going after lowering age of consent or they get between the parent and the child and put the state or other adults and entities in between the parent and child. Nobody thinks that's a good idea. Everybody wants to protect the parent-child relationship and the family unit. Across district and demographic. As a mother, do you feel that your child, as a result of all these policies, may be taken away by the state at some point in time? Well, there's a lot of laws that have been put in place and social ideas that allow for that. I mean, if you're looking at the vaccination issue, if your child is not fully vaccinated and they go to a doctor or emergency room, you risk CPS coming after you and taking your child away. You in last year, a bill called AB 665 in California passed, which allows it lowered the age. It basically emancipated all children 12 and up to be able to leave their family home without any guardrails, no proof of abuse or neglect, and move out to a residential shelter facility. That's a way for the state to essentially kidnap or coerce your child out of your home. So that's losing your child. You know, it's if your child is mad that you don't want them to be on social media or to be talking to another, you know, an older boy or someone, if they get mad at you, they can now leave their home without any proof of abuse and be on their own. So I would say that is state-sanctioned kidnapping. As far as our, you know, in our schools, like we talked about the trans agenda in the schools and on social media is very much about getting between the parent and child and saying, if you're not being affirmed, then you're not being supported and you should find a family elsewhere that will love you, will protect you. The school, the people on social media, the state, the government, the NGOs will be your family. That's how you lose your children to the state and to the progressive policies. Again, these are fake partisan issues. I don't care what district or demographic, people don't want that. They want to be part of their child's life. They need to have, we need to have strong parent-child relationships and laws and not the laws that we're seeing that are continually trying to lower the age of consent, break up the, break up parental rights. You see it in battles where they're trying to give privacy rights to children at school so that the parents don't know about what's going on and what the other adults in state or private are trying to push on them. So there's so many ways that our children are not only at risk, but are, you know, being influenced by the laws and the policies that are passing. Now, you have quite a bit of experience creating strategy around these bills. Please tell us the inner workings of Sacramento, the capital. How does a bill come into play and how does it get passed and what are the inner workings? Well, I think the important pieces to know are that to pass or kill a bill, it is a team sport. And that means that you need to get people to side with you for whichever direction you're trying to go. And this becomes a numbers game based on the issue. If it's a Democrat backed bill that the Democrat party platform is pushing, then you're going to need to get not only Republicans, which is a minority, but you're going to have to get both moderate and progressive Democrats to stand with you. This is why it's so important to protect the First Amendment where you have a true and transparent media, because what you'll have is a media that portrays extremism as parents who are trying to protect their child and their parental rights. And it makes legislators and everyone too afraid to stand with you against a bill or for a bill. And so if people are afraid to stand with you, then they can't be on your team. One of the reasons we work so hard to build relationships and encourage people to work at the hyperlocal level in their districts to build relationships is because once you start to have conversation with people, they can't just, you just can't be written off as an extremist or, you know, a hate group. They start to see the issue as human and then that they are OK to stand with you so that you can pass or kill a bill. One of the problems is there are thousands of bills every legislative session. That is part of the problem of having a full time legislative machine in California that's churning out laws, rules, regulations and never even fixing the things that they put into play as well. So you've got and then below them you have a horizontal of staffers and from there they have a lot of relationships with each other and communicate. And normally as a grassroots advocate or as a mom or dad or community member, you're trying to get your voice up, like on a vertical, up through the staffers to your elected representatives. And that is so important because what we found in, you know, 2015 and all the way up through to 2022, we were unable to really build meaningful, ongoing relationships with the legislators. So what happened was the staffers would really create the idea of the terrain on a bill. They would talk to each other and tell each other how they felt that their member was feeling or which way it was going. And so it created the idea that there was no real opposition to a bill when in truth, in 2022 with the bill SB 866 I mentioned earlier, we were able to get in, speak directly, ongoing basis with the legislators and we could tell them, hey, these five Democrats are now publicly abstaining. Go talk to this person. If you start to know who has relationships with who, you can tell them, go speak to your friend here. They've said this and they're publicly off a bill. As you start to explain the evolving terrain to them, they can then see that it's OK to stand against a bill, against even their party leadership. And like I said, in a numbers game in California, you have to also have progressive Democrats, not just the moderates. So to stand against a party platform bill is a really big deal. If they can start to see that their colleagues are also seeing that it's extreme to lower the age of consent, to go up to parental rights, to break up local control, you know, to be soft on crime, then it's safe for them to stand together and with the community and actually represent them because the people of California are not extreme. How much influence do the staffers have on the legislature and is it sometimes their decision that makes a difference? Well, if you have nobody talking to the legislators and they're not talking directly to each other on every bill that you might be interested in and they don't know, maybe they know two or three other colleagues positions, but they don't know 20, 30 others. The staffers have then, you know, are free to communicate with each other and share the idea that the train's all moving in one direction. And that is like a self-fulfilling prophecy. So this is, again, why it's so important to engage. And one of the things that we teach is that, you know, you don't need anything other than who you are right now to step in and start building and creating the world we want. You don't need new clothes. You don't need to know more about legislation. You don't need to know about law or science. All you need to do is step in and build a relationship with your elected officials. That could be at the school board, the city council, board of supervisors or commissioners or the state level. And if you don't, you've got to know that nobody else is. So if you're there, they know that you have the voice of like 10,000 people behind you because nobody actually takes that first step to step in and mostly because they're worried. They don't know how to do it and they're going to do it wrong. I can tell you, if it's from your heart, you can't get it wrong. You can just step in and all you have to do at your district, say assembly or Senate, is call them up, ask for an appointment or stop by the office and just start talking and say, I'm worried the crime is out of control. My kids, I can't even have access to my kids in school. We're struggling to pay the bills. What are you doing about this? What about the, you know, ask questions. And that's all you have to do. Speaking of that, we hear a lot about a party line vote. Tell us about it. You know, usually people when they hear a party line vote, they feel like they lost hope that, you know, there's nothing you can do because it's party line. Is that is it the case? Well, it's if we don't engage, it absolutely is the case, because, again, it's a numbers game. Whatever you're in a red state or a blue state, whatever party has the numbers is going to move forward their their positions or policies or agenda. So in a state like California, which is a blue state, it's run by the progressive Democrats in the executive and legislative branch. If we do not engage, they have the numbers, the votes and things will move right through. But again, the people of California are not extremists. They want a moderate and balanced position. There is a real progressive Democrat. There is a real move and an honest feeling within some of the legislature to bring a course correct that the the progressive Democrat leadership has gone too far. And bills like SB 107, which made a sanctuary state for trans and kids. SB 132, which puts men into women's prison based on gender identity. Bills that have, you know, AB 1078, which takes local control of school boards away so that the parents and the school boards can't keep their children safe from over sexualization and grooming in their books and curriculum. All those things have gone too far. And then you look at the crime. That is then a real measure of how far it's gone, where it doesn't matter people's party anymore. They want to feel safe. They want to see small business and communities thrive. And the work of the state legislature to the public safety committees in particular on their activists bent to, you know, dismantle the criminal justice system over the last decade has really now hit a threshold where people are ready to course correct. Tell me, what was the moment where you decided to move into making these changes for society? What was the clicking moment? Well, I'd say the biggest one was as a mom in 2015 with SB 277 and then again in 2019 when we formed Freedom Angels around the California bill SB 276. These were both public health control measures to remove personal belief in medical exemptions for childhood vaccines for kids to attend school. And, you know, that was the issue at face value. But when I stepped in, it was really about protecting my child and protecting other children about government overreach, about corporate control, about actually what are we here for and how are we supposed to create the world that we want for our children? When we were fighting SB 276 in the legislative battle, we formed the Freedom Angels through an act of civil disobedience. And it was in that moment that when I stood up on chairs with my partner, that I realized like nothing could shame me or silence me or disconnect me from my knowing that not, you know, I was drawn a line around my child. When I became a mom, you know, I made a vow. I think we all most all do that no matter what, I was going to protect him. And I didn't know that that was going to mean. And that's what a parent should do. Exactly. That is what that is the ideal of what a parent is driven in us to do. And I, you know, I knew that it what it looked like in some ways, like how to keep him from choking and what's good food for him and how to make him hear, you know, his own soul's voice and who he is and be who he is in this world. But I didn't realize I was going to have to step in and face arrest and stand up on chairs and say, go ahead and arrest me. This is my child. These are human and civil rights. And we are not going to move. I will not move. I will not and I cannot move for my child and for his future and for the future of humanity. Again, in twenty twenty, when Freedom Angels ran the covid protest lockdowns at the California Capitol on May 1st, we had thousands of people at the Capitol. Governor Newsom brought in 650, 750 CHP. And there was a moment where he had a large skirmish line of them were set up. And they tried to disperse the crowd. And it was very clearly in that moment a decision. Remember, it was very easy to not move, not only because it was our protest, but if I truly believe in the First Amendment, then I believe that at the California Capitol is our state's highest public town square. And on that ground, our First Amendment rights are most fervently protected. So if I'm going to protect that for my child, for all children, for all of humanity, and I do believe in the Constitution and is our strongest document on this planet to protect human freedom and human and civil rights, then it was simple. I don't move. So becoming a mom, you know, I never thought it was going to look like that to have to protect my child. But I will tell you that those actions gave me more than I could have ever anticipated. And most clearly inside myself, knowing how unmovable and unshameable and, you know, uncancellable I am inside that they cannot touch me, can arrest me. You can call me names, but you cannot touch me. And my conviction, it freed me in a way that I had never experienced before. And it also helped direct my actions. And I truly believe that, you know, so much of politics in life is a challenge scenario. And if we say we have a line, if our line is protecting kids and families and freedom and we don't hold it, then we don't have a line. Mostly, we don't have to be in those situations in this country where we have to face arrest. And we want to prevent that for us and for the world. We can do that by starting to engage at the ground up, hyper local level, because all politics is local. Start to just get involved and start having conversations, have a position, clarify, you know, this is a battle that we're in against good versus evil, you know, freedom versus slavery and so many other issues. But these are the cores. As Freedom Angels, our motto is to protect children, families and freedom against extremism. It is not extreme to want to keep your child close to protect a family unit. The family unit is one of the most important social developments of humanity. It is the strongest place that we can protect each other and grow a healthy and strong world. And it's also where we can network together as communities and units together at the community level. Protecting kids, that should be a baseline for all of humanity. That is not a partisan issue. And you know, shame on anyone who is pushing us off of target and making a fake partisan divide about issues of children, their safety, their well-being, their health, their security. Also breaking up families or going after freedom. And the Constitution in this country is, you know, First and Second Amendment. Even years ago in the 80s and 90s, I never, even being anti-war, never was always pro 2A. Grew up with guns, grew up rural. It's now, you know, with the Democratic Party, they're the war hawks leading the war agenda across the nation. I mean, the globe. The Republicans are party to it. But the Second Amendment, the First Amendment, these are important parts of our Constitution that will help us to have freedom. I mean, these were the hedges against tyranny that the founders put into the Constitution and our founding documents. So it's pretty simple to see why it's so important to fight censorship, to fight the media's control of the narrative, why we need transparency, why we need to break up corporate greed and corporate monopolies, and why we have to have free and fair elections. Thank you so much for your time and for your insight on all these issues. Thank you, Steve.