1. United States
2. Md.
3. Letter

**Vote No on the PROTECT Kids Act** Vote no on the PROTECT Kids Act. This bill doesn't protect kids — it targets them. By forcing schools to obtain parental consent before recognizing a student's gender identity, it guarantees that transgender and gender-nonconforming youth in unsafe homes have nowhere to turn. The research is clear: family rejection is one of the leading drivers of LGBTQ+ youth homelessness and mental health crises. This bill manufactures that rejection by design. The legislation also creates a legal mess schools can't afford. Critical terms like "gender markers" and "sex-based accommodations" are left undefined, inviting inconsistent enforcement and costly litigation — all without a single dollar of additional funding for schools to manage it. Schools that already protect student privacy under state law would face an impossible choice between federal funding and their own legal obligations. That's not governance. That's coercion dressed up as parental rights.