Gary Stein
Election Information:
Party:
Democrat
District:
92
Office:
State House
Contact Information:
N/A; should be up by September 1
N/A
N/A
Survey Responses:
S = Support
O = Oppose
NR = No Response
O = Oppose
NR = No Response
|
Life
|
S | O | NR |
|---|---|---|---|
1.Prohibiting Abortion: Prohibiting abortion except when necessary to save the mother's life. |
X | ||
2.Taxpayer Funded Abortion: Allowing taxpayer dollars to fund organizations that provide abortion. |
X | ||
3.Physician-Assisted Suicide: Allowing voluntary physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. |
X |
|
First Amendment
|
S | O | NR |
|---|---|---|---|
4.Conscience Rights for Creative Professionals: Allowing creative professionals (photographer, baker, wedding vendor) to decline to participate in events or create messages that violate their moral or religious beliefs. |
X | ||
5.Conscience Rights for Faith-Based Organizations: Exempting faith-based organizations from regulations that cause them to violate their sincerely held religious beliefs. |
X | ||
6.Free Speech on Campus: Prohibiting speech zones or speech codes that restrict where students can discuss controversial or unpopular issues on college campuses. |
X | ||
7.Donor Privacy: Protecting confidential donor information so individuals are able to privately support charities of their choice without fear of being doxed. |
X |
Candidate's Comments:
As with questions 1-3, questions 4-7 are poorly constructed bi-polar absolutes, none of which apply to real life. Private businesses, that receive no government support or direct subsidies, should be able to make mostly whatever rules they want; "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" has been a long-time direction in many businesses. Restaurants need to follow public health and safety rules, even if they are private, or they can be shut down by their (usually) municipal government. We may not like certain rules, and fighting against certain rules can be a meaningful exercise of either citizen or consumer rights. If a business owner doesn't want to serve a customer, they should be allowed to not serve a customer; it their "values" or beliefs are more important than their profit margin, so be it. Religious liberty may be the most important right citizen's have. The first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees freedom of religious practice and expression, but it also guarantees the freedom FROM religion. Judeo-Christian values are NOT codified in the U.S. Constitution; "American" values are. All American citizens are not "Christians". Our religious plurality is what makes our country unique in the world. Native-American spirituality is more "American" than what the European invaders brought from their world. Yup, even atheists can be citizens. We "trust in g-d", who has given us free will to make decisions in the mundane, temporal world we live in. Hashem is deeply offended when theocrats and so-called "ministers" offer a discriminatory plan for governing the various states, and nation. The Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment should be fortified, so that we never live under an "Established" religion, as we did when we lived as colonies. There is a long history of restrictions on American's constitutional Freedom of Speech; think "yelling fire in a crowded movie theater". Freedom comes with responsibility. Most folks who talk about free speech today have no idea of the history of it's legal restrictions in this country. Oh yeah, remember that churches don't get taxed; I don't think their is a greater guarantee of religious liberty than that. Religious extremism of all types must be stopped. As far as confidentiality of donor information, I'm not a big fan of anonymity. We should also be working on significant campaign-finance reform; money has become the engine of legislation, to the detriment of every state and the country.
|
Family
|
S | O | NR |
|---|---|---|---|
8.Women's Sports: Preventing biological males who identify as female from competing in women's sports. |
X | ||
9.Gender Identity Counseling: Allowing parents to obtain professional counseling for children struggling with gender identity issues to help them reach their desired outcome. |
X | ||
10(a).Protected Class for Sexual Orientation: Adding “sexual orientation” as a protected class alongside race, religion, sex, age, and disability in nondiscrimination law. |
X | ||
10(b).Protected Class for Gender Identity: Adding “gender identity” as a protected class alongside race, religion, sex, age, and disability in nondiscrimination law. |
X |
Candidate's Comments:
Better questions; more focused, though still overly general. The simple solution to the various gender-based conflicts in our culture would be to include a "third gender" on birth certificates, as is now being practiced in a number of countries around the world, most recently Germany. This 'new' category would likely create some 'harm' still, but it might be an excellent starting point from which to move forward. The science of the last 50 years is mind-blowing; everything we thought we knew about sexual and gender identity has been turned upside down. The number of children born with a "mosaic pattern" of x/y chromosomes is increasing significantly. Doctors do not have answers for parents who are usually worried and nervous about having a healthy baby, regardless of identified gender. There really is no medical or health reason to even identify a child at birth as boy or girl; it is simply a cultural expectation. We could avoid a lot of problems and heartache if we consider waiting to identify gender until there is some certainty of the decision. Of course, we'll still likely get some cases wrong...
|
Education and Public Safety
|
S | O | NR |
|---|---|---|---|
11.School Choice: Allowing the use of tax credits, vouchers, and education savings accounts to cover the cost of children attending the school of their parents' choice, including private schools. |
X | ||
12.Parental Rights for Opt-Out: Giving parents the ability to opt their children out of school materials and lessons to which the parents object. |
X | ||
13.Critical Race Theory: Allowing schools to teach children that America's laws, policies, and society perpetuate systemic racism and that people are either oppressors or oppressed, or privileged or marginalized, based on their skin color. |
X | ||
14.Parental Rights for Transparency in Education: Giving parents access to the curriculum and materials their children are learning in school and allowing them to decide whether or not their children should be exposed to certain ideas. |
X |
Candidate's Comments:
As a certified teacher for 32 years, these questions are pandering to your crowd. It would be better to agree on some basic ideas regarding educating minors before we start throwing stones at each other over our disagreements. I attended a Hebrew private day school, (Yeshiva) for 5 years of my primary education. I grew up with friends who attended private Catholic schools, both primary and secondary. I never once heard my parents, or the parents of my friends, "beg" for government assistance tno send their kids to private schools. Private schools are private businesses, they don't have to follow the same regulations, there's no oversight of anything that private schools want to do. To offer tax incentives to send a child to a private school is unregulated corporate welfare. It's a pathetic effort by private businesses, and so-called 'religious' institutions. Local school boards control hiring of teachers, curriculum decisions, and a host of other elements of PUBLIC education. Parents/taxpayers are always invited to participate in various aspects of school board decisions, including serving on public school boards. Curriculums are usually reviewed with a pretty fine comb to determine developmental and content appropriateness. Public schools are almost always the most CONSERVATIVE element of a community. Parents are nice people usually, but they rarely see public education from the birds eye view; most folks are wearing blinders. I encourage citizens to participate in their school board, visit classrooms, and work through established protocols to make the changes they want, that are going to be best for ALL students in the district. It's more than frustrating to see people complain about their public schools on one hand, when they are getting full-ride tuition waivers or tax credits for sending their children to private schools. No one gets EVERYTHING. Deal.
|
Health and Welfare
|
S | O | NR |
|---|---|---|---|
15.Medical Rights of Conscience: Allowing health care workers and providers the freedom to practice medicine in accordance with their personal beliefs and conscience. |
X | ||
16.Parental Rights for Healthcare Disclosure: Requiring schools to disclose to parents if the school is providing counseling or medical services to a child who desires to undergo “gender transition.” |
X | ||
17.Parental Rights for Mental Health Disclosure: Directing schools to inform parents of any mental, physical, or emotional health information and treatment that a child is receiving at school. |
X |
Candidate's Comments:
These opening questions are overly superficial and essentially divisive. The U.S. Supreme Court completely avoided their constitutional interpretative responsibilities in the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision. "Originalist" interpretation of the U.S. Constitution is a legally corrupt judicial practice. The only authority the court even has to make decisions of this nature comes from Marbury v. Madison, in 1803, not from the U.S. Constitution of Bill of Rights as primary documents. The supremacy of the U.S. Constitution should reign in disputes between the law in the various states.