Moms for Liberty hosted a Harrisburg-area town hall on Tuesday entitled “Giving Parents a Voice” that focused on education and parental rights and featured four Pennsylvania legislators.
“There are a lot of things happening in the state of Pennsylvania,” event coordinator Lisa Bowden said. “The people of Pennsylvania want their voices heard.”
Rep. Barb Gleim, R-Cumberland County; Rep. Joe D’Orsie, R-York County; Rep. Jamie Walsh, R-Luzerne County; and Rep. Marc Anderson, R-York, spoke on a legislative panel at the event.
Gleim, D’Orsie and Anderson are on the state House Education committee. Gleim is the Republican chair for the Subcommittee on Basic Education, and D’Orsie is the Republican chair for the Subcommittee on Special Education.
Holly Magalengo, a mother in Bucks County, and Bucks County Moms for Liberty Chapter Chair Jamie Tromba also spoke on a panel.
Magalengo made headlines after requesting a restraining order to stop transgender student athletes from participating in girls’ sports in January. She filed a lawsuit after her daughter, representing Quakertown High School, competed against a trans person in a high school cross-country meet.
The town hall, held at Progress Fire Company in Susquehanna Township, was free. An event flyer said all viewpoints were welcome. The panels were moderated by Moms for Liberty CEO and co-founder Tina Descovich.
Moms for Liberty is a conservative group founded in 2021, focused on parental rights. It specifically targets curriculum that mentions LGBTQ+ rights and critical race theory, and has advocated to ban books that address aspects of gender and sexuality in schools.
There are multiple chapters in the central Pa. region.
The event started with the singing of the national anthem, a prayer and then the organization’s “Madison Minute,” where they read words written by the Founding Fathers. At this event, those included a reading from Noah Webster and part of the prologue of Charlie Kirk’s book “Right Wing Revolution: How to Beat the Woke and Save the West.”
Magalengo and Tromba then spoke.
Magalengo told the story of her daughter, who finished second in a Bucks County cross country meet to a transgender girl. While running, the girl said, “Why are you racing against girls? You’re a boy,” which got her reported to the athletic director. Magalengo then retained an attorney because she was worried about her daughter getting in trouble.
That decision turned into a lawsuit, which is now being appealed in the Third Circuit Court.
“There are males and there are females,” Magalengo said. “It’s been like this from the beginning of time. This is not something new, and it should not be something controversial to talk about, and it’s sad that we have to sit here and talk about it, but I will.”
Tromba spoke about how she felt called to her position as Bucks County chair and the pushback she got from community members and local media.
“Something is not right,” Tromba said. “Now is the time to be bold, to be fierce, to speak up. You can.”
The panel of legislators then spoke, many on policies that they’ve been vocal about in the past.
D’Orsie said he is passionate about school choice, free speech in higher education and his Dads Defending Daughters bill, which would block transgender girls from competing in girls’ high school sports.
Gleim has introduced multiple education bills and served on the Cumberland Valley school board for eight years. Among the legislation she has recently introduced is the Honesty in Teaching Act, which defines indoctrination and would ask teachers to present both sides of theories.
Anderson was a teacher for more than a quarter century before turning to public service. “Everything I do is through the lens of students, of kids,” he said.
Walsh said he got into politics after his documentary “The Truth about KOOTH Mental Health,” which opposed a mental health program that included gender ideology.
During a question-and-answer panel, the panel hit hard on teachers’ unions.
“The teachers union is the most powerful entity in education,” Anderson said. “The teachers union exists to primarily protect the bottom 10-20% of the pool.”
The legislators also answered a question about bringing God and Christianity back into schools.
Anderson said he used to pray with kids going through hard times and ran an after-school Christian club. Walsh said that Pennsylvania needs a spiritual revival to introduce God back into schools.
The panel provided Moms for Liberty supporters an opportunity to hear more about the organization and what other chapters were doing around the state. Many of the around 50 attendees were taking notes as legislators spoke about the process of getting a bill out of committee and on to the House floor.
The session ended with Walsh encouraging attendees to get involved with Moms for Liberty, at least one hour a week.
“Once you start fighting this fight and you get into the guerrilla warfare with us, it becomes infectious,” Walsh said. “Don’t leave here tonight without getting someone’s contact number that can follow up with you.”