This week, at Fairfax County, Virginia’s school board meeting, the Muslim community made a stand against gender ideology and sexually explicit materials in public schools. 

Thoraia Hussein, a mother of six children who attend the district’s public schools, spoke at the dais to school board members in front of an unusually packed auditorium. Among the crowd were about 75 Muslims who came to support Hussein in her testimony. She said, “I am here on the behalf of my community, Muslim and interfaith, as a concerned parent.”

Hussein objects to gender ideology instruction in public schools and the controversial pilot program that Michelle Reid, the district’s superintendent, is implementing in 14 elementary schools next year. During her testimony, Hussein cited the survey data that was completely ignored by the district’s leadership, which showed community members’ objections to the sex-combined pilot program and gender identity instruction in schools.

Hussein reminded the school board members of our constitutional rights. “According to the First Amendment,” she explained, “you may have personal beliefs, but you may not impose them on others.” 

And without a doubt, the district’s leaders are imposing their views on our children in violation of the First Amendment. Aside from their obsession with teaching elementary school children about so-called gender identities, they are mandating the use of preferred pronouns under the penalty of suspension.

Like most of us, Hussein also takes issue with the sexually explicit books available to our children in Fairfax County school libraries. She specifically cited This Book Is Gay, Gender Queer, and All Boys Aren’t Blue, which are readily available in the school district’s libraries. Karl Frisch, the board’s childless chairman, notably swore his oath of office on the latter two books in lieu of a religious text, symbolizing what we all know to be true: the LGBT indoctrination of our children is Frisch’s true religion.

But Frisch’s religion is not for everyone and shouldn’t be taught in public schools. In This Book Is Gay, for example, the white male author, Juno Dawson, pens a section titled, “How to Argue with Muslims.” Dawson also shares directions with readers on how to register for Grindr, a hook-up app for gay men. 

During her testimony, Hussein explained, “Those books are not just sexually exploiting children, but also offensive and touches our core values as Muslims.”

In a district where the leadership incessantly discusses inclusivity, Fairfax County’s school board members and administrators spend a great deal of resources implementing exclusionary policies.

Hussein, on the other hand, expressed a genuine desire for the inclusion of all children in public schools. She said, “Parents want school to be educational and nurturing children from all walks of life while respecting all beliefs.” 

If only Fairfax County would listen.

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Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network.

Last week, I was having coffee with a friend who referred to the gaggle of white liberal women often surrounding Justin Wilson, the mayor of Alexandria, Virginia, as “AWFLs.” I thought she was using the word “awfuls” to describe people who abandon their principles to get power or simply to sit near it. As it turns out, I was close. Affluent, white, female liberals are, according to Democratic strategist James Carville, though not by this acronym, so annoying and repulsive that they’re driving centrist voters, particularly men, away from the Democratic Party.

Enter Jill Biden.

As President Joe Biden fights for his life metaphorically and perhaps literally, the first lady’s power and influence are becoming clearer to the public. Her appearances next to her husband lately suggest that she is something other than a supportive wife. Unless, of course, a loving wife publicly emasculates her husband, treating him like a 6-year-old after his catastrophic debate performance. As queen of the AWFLs, she projected her kindergarten teacher tone and said, “Joe, you did such a great job. You answered every question, you knew all the facts.”

Meanwhile, people on both sides of the aisle found ourselves united in recognition of the truly cringeworthy moment. Many of us anticipated there would be more to follow. We were right.

On Monday, Jill Biden flashed her AWFL card again. Not often asked difficult questions from the adoring liberal media, she certainly is not adept at answering them. When a reporter asked her a reasonable question on many of our minds about how she would respond to the House Democrats who want Biden out of the race, she victimized herself.

“Why are you screaming at me?” she asked as she raised her arms, donning a designer white blazer. Then she added, “You know me. Don’t scream at me, just let me talk.”

And then she never answered the question. Instead, she climbed into an awaiting vehicle and departed. Victimizing herself before she ignored the important questions on people’s minds was a tactic to distract us. Her most ardent followers on the Left are perhaps starting to notice that she is, as they would say, “flexing her privilege” — her AWFL privilege.

And she isn’t the only one. Carville was right to note that the Democratic Party is filled with “preachy females.” Fairfax County, Virginia, is no exception. During the district’s school board meetings, the public is too often privy to preachy political stump speeches on a variety of issues from all Democratic-endorsed members, especially the vice chairwoman, Melanie Meren.

But these AWFLs do not practice what they preach.

They spend hours advocating racial justice, for example, but have elected a white chairman and vice chairwoman to the board’s leadership. Meanwhile, the white superintendent, Michelle Reid, selected and hired by the board, goes on listening tours for weeks before implementing whichever dysfunctional policy she preselected. The listening tours are meant to make parents feel like they have a say.

Despite all the preaching on the importance of transparency and inclusion among the district’s leadership, the only thing AWFLs actually care about is their social and political appearance, not loyalty to principles. They are hoping we don’t notice the disconnect and hypocrisy.

This year, for example, Reid has antidemocratically decided to implement a controversial sex education pilot program. In 14 schools, the trial program, which evaluators most likely have already deemed a success before its inception, will combine boys and girls for sexual education instruction in grades 5-8. Despite overwhelming opposition to co-ed sex education — 84% of survey respondents in the county objected — Reid is unilaterally pushing through the measure anyway.

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The lesson here is that AWFLs are power-hungry. They want those they govern to do as they say, not as they do.

The good news is that we have agency. In our democracy, these AWFLs can only have power over us if we grant it to them. And what we now seem to be hearing across the political spectrum is a collective “no.”

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network.