Tab Lyn Uno - Freedom Voter Guide

Party:

Democrat

District:

13

Office:

State House

https://www.tablynunoforutahhouse.com/

https://www.facebook.com/tab.uno

Survey Responses:

S = Support
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

Candidate's Comments:

Abortion involves among the most difficult of ethical dilemmas in trying to define a "right to life" and "person." A mother has fundamental rights and a living human entity is likely to have a potential "right to life" and trying to balance the two has never really been satisfactorily answered by philosophers, religious practitioners, politicians, or the public as a whole. Our society needs to begin to hold a serious dialogue as to how we as a society can address the potential of becoming a person with a right to life and the critical issues of a mother who does not want to have a child but is pregnant. This is only the beginning of a long road to coming up with humane ways to define the precious concept of personhood and when it begins and ends and the many practical, serious issues that mothers have to contend with during the pregnancy process whether or not they want it. 1. Even saving the mother's life over a living human entity with a potential for a right to life is not an easy call, but like the Titanic and the lifeboats where there are more people than can be safely rescued on a single lifeboat, sacrifices must be made. Still I believe our society needs to begin a serious discussion about these moral issues and how to balance one life against another. 2. I have reservations about using public tax dollars for abortions because our society has yet to really have a meaningful discussion about abortion and what it entails on the part of both the fetus AND the mother. Each side seems to ignore the other side in the abortion debate. 3. I lean in favor of physician-assisted suicide, but there still needs to be more substantive discussion as to what it means to have a right to life as with abortion, very little moral discussion has been really held to my satisfaction. When does a right to life end? At what point does the person have or not have the mental faculty to know what is in their own best interest?

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:

4. I personally would allow a creative business person to decline to participate in a special event or business transaction that would violate the person's fundamental moral or religious beliefs. However, I believe that a business cannot refuse to sell creative products or services that are already made and available to the public as a whole. 5. I cannot support a blanket, wholesale statement of allowing faith-based organizations free reign to conduct themselves in any manner whatsoever. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no fundamental right is absolute in our society. There are limits and thresholds where no person or organization has complete freedom to do whatever they want, especially if it intrudes on other people's fundamental rights. 6. As far back as U.S. Supreme Court justices Douglas and Black during the 1970s, I have been a big supporter of First Amendment Free Speech rights. Only through the ability of our Country to allow freedom of discussion can our Country remain truly free. 7. The privacy of donor information is a difficult, not a black and white decision. Nowadays with hundreds of millions of dollars of dark money going into campaigns for public office and influencing who is elected in our Country, there is a danger that our democracy could be taken over by people or forces we do not know, I would restrict the definition of charities to non-political entities that are truly non-profit and have no nefarious designs on taking over our government.

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:

8. I lean against simply allowing a male who identifies as a female to compete in women's sports. However, there may be individual circumstances as further discussion about what constitutes a male and a female where a moral and biological resolution may come about that may alter my belief. I have not undertaken any real ethical or scientific study to come to any definitive, reflective answer to this statement. The Utah State Legislative earlier this year until the last minute, secret vote that overturned the original bipartisan commission to address this issue remains a serious alternative that I would be interested in seeing put into law and see how it might work to bring our society together on this matter. So far our Utah Legislative has continued to make decisions that divides us rather than unifies us. 9. As a former licensed clinical social worker, I have found it invaluable to allow trained, outside professionals to help a person or family to work through and address difficult challenges in their lives. It is so hard to do so alone, especially for young people. 10.I lean in favor of adding "sexual orientation" as a protected class. It appears that this issue is a generational one and that while many older people like myself are resistant to this idea, a substantial number of younger people, teenagers and those in the twenties and even thirties however are bringing a totally different, transformative attitude towards the concept of sexual identity. Even as I have reservations, the U.S. Supreme Court has held "sexual orientation" as a protected class and our national legislative Congress has moved in the same direction. But I am willing to keep an open mind and listen to alternative voices on this matter as my heart and mind are divided. 11. I am going to leave any response blank because I am truly undecided on this matter. I have not looked into "gender identity" in any depth nor have I had much in the way of discussion with various stakeholders or residents in Utah House District 13 on this matter.

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:

11. As a former Salt Lake City Board of Education member, I have fought for years to bring back local control and accountability to our local public schools. With the expansion and wider availability of public Charter Schools in Utah, parents and students now have more opportunities to seek alternative educational experiences. I do not believe that our current public school system can continue to provide a modicum of quality education if our public tax dollars are stretched so far that we cannot support our current public schools. I believe teachers and parents as well as students in our local public schools need greater voices in overseeing how their schools are operated in order to improve the educational experience for students and turn the tide of students exiting our public schools. Public schools properly operated offer the greatest potential of bringing our society together instead of continuing to divide ourselves into smaller and smaller educational factions. 12. As a compromise, if we can offer parents and teachers more oversight in their own schools, I believe we can resolve to the greatest extent possible, this divisive desire on the part of parents to ban and censor legitimate educational materials for our youth to experience. I am willing to consider the creation of an independent, impartial local school district committee to hear appeals from parents about the curriculum and textbooks and media materials that are approved for use in their local schools. Competent home schooling might be alternative answer or checking out the free Charter Schools available. 13. This statement appears to be an extended description of "Critical Race Theory" that was originally developed in the legal system to explain the historical facts of discrimination towards African Americans over time in this Country. I have a faith in both parents and young students themselves about their own moral integrity and upbringing that if our public schools can educate on the basis of validated, historical facts pertaining to the history of various ethnic races in America, they can come to their own moral and judgmental conclusion about racism in our Country without the need for theory. 14. As a teacher, it is hard enough to teach students without having parents of particular students in their class being able to selectively pick and choose what is to be taught or not taught. It would make teaching a literal nightmare and practically impossible. Instead, concerned parents need to bring their concerns about the overall curriculum and teaching methodology to the school district or local school so that some resolution on an agreed unified curriculum could be taught to all students, not some students. Having briefly been an adjunct instructor at the Salt Lake Community College in Taylorsville, I experienced first-hand the difficulties of creating and trying to teach from just a singular curriculum. Teachers are already been worn out, burnt out by the multitude of regulations and testing requirements of our micro-managing State Legislature . Our teachers mentally cannot handle another burden placed on them by individual parents when it comes to their own lesson plans.

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:

15. As public employees, the paramount imperative is the health and safety of the public based on the most exacting, validated medical science possible. If health care workers deliberately place the value of their own personal beliefs and conscience ahead of their patients, they should not have the privilege nor opportunity to recklessly place the health of their charges at risk. They have no place in the public health care system. If they want to work in the private sector and offer an alternative treatment regimen they have that right to do so. 16. I lean towards disclosure to parents. Parents are the legal guardians of their children. This is a huge responsibility and hard work. As children grow older into their teenage years, such guardianship begins to transform into one of guidance. There are likely alternative counseling and medical services other than schools that confidential services might be available if such children are so desperate to seek such services. The school setting may not be the place to create a firestorm that may substantially detract from the primary role of schools in educating our students. 17. As a former licensed clinical social worker, I hesitate to approve a blanket requirement for informing parents of "any" information or treatment a child might receive from school. There are important legal and moral exceptions to this protocol expecially when it comes to domestic violence, abuse, or suicidal ideation or attempts. Unfortunately, there are a number of actual cases where a parent has been the instigator or criminal perpetrator of horrendous acts towards their own children or spouse. While in general and in most instances informing parents may be appropriate, I would instead accept "Directing schools to inform parents of any mental, physical, or emotional health information and treatment that a child is receiving at school that will not place the child at risk of significant physical or mental danger."