Tipsheet

Take a Guess Why Democrats Oppose Transparency in Children's Programming

Amy Curtis
Amy Curtis  |  June 24, 2026 2:00 PM

FCC Chair Brendan Carr called out the 68 Democrats who opposed transparency in children's programming, a day after Democrat Josh Shapiro said his party was the party of freedom.

They don't want parents to decide, because some parents — a majority of them, really — would oppose LGBTQ themes and gender ideology in their children's television shows.

One of those Democrats is Ed Markey, who is creepily coming out against the measure.

"A few weeks ago, the Trump Federal Communications Commission launched a new proceeding to attack and stigmatize LGBTQ+ Americans," Markey said. "The commission is twisting a 30-year-old law to pressure TV stations into creating a new warning label for shows that include transgender and non-binary people."

"I know that the FCC is abusing its authority because I wrote that law," Markey continued. "In 1996 I created the V chip law to encourage television to adopt ratings guidelines that help parents understand what is in television programming and to decide what shows are right for their own families. It was meant to empower parents, not empower the government to censor speech and single out vulnerable communities."

Fine. Why doesn't that apply to parents who don't want their children to watch shows with transgender and non-binary people, Ed?

As for 'vulnerable communities,' we're literally in a month that proves the LGBTQ+ community is not 'vulnerable.'

"In fact, the law specifically prohibited the FCC from forcing stations to adopt any recommended ratings guidelines. Yet the FCC is now considering whether 'controversial gender identity issues' should have a different TV rating," Markey continued. "This is outrageous."

No, what's outrageous is that the 1996 movie 'Twister' has a warning that reads 'intense depiction of very bad weather,' but parents can't know if a trans person is in the show their impressionable kids watch.

"The Federal 'Censorship' Commission is once again abusing its authority and acting as the MAGA speech police. Let's be clear: there is nothing indecent about being transgender," Markey said. "There is nothing harmful about a child seeing a non-binary character, a transgender classmate, or a family that looks like families in their own community."

What happened to parents making decisions about what's right for their families, Ed?

Just like 'woman,' Ed won't be able to answer.

Yes.

It does not.

It just is.

"On one side, you have people who still hold to an Aristolean-Thomistic view of nature and the human person. Although they might not articulate it in scholastic terms, they believe (rightly) that a man can never become a woman and vice versa, and those who attempt this are engaging in a monstrous and perverted lie. They believe, in other words, in the givenness of reality," Davidson wrote. "On the other side you have people like Markey, who think all of reality is malleable, and if some men want to dress and act like women then we should expose children to that because there’s nothing “indecent” about it. Though they might not admit it (because most people would recoil if they did) people like Markey don’t think anything, in the end, is indecent. All is permitted because nothing is given."

"A civilization split between these two camps cannot survive in that state. It will become all one or all the other."