A proposed Virginia law criminalizing parental response to LGBTQ issues will force parents to choose between their beliefs and prison.
Under a new law, parents could face felony charges, irreparable harm to their reputations, job insecurity and possible revocation of state financial aid if they do not pursue sex change surgery for their children.
Introduced in response to the newly released “2022 Virginia Department of Education Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for all Students and Parents,” which includes guidance preventing school staff from concealing items such as gender identity and sexual orientation from parents, the new law criminalizes parental response to such information.
Democratic Virginia State Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, a social worker, plans to reintroduce a bill expanding the state’s definition of child abuse and neglect to include parents who do not affirm their child’s perceived identity or sexual orientation through surgery. Mandated reporters, such as teachers, would be obligated to report student concerns regarding sexual orientation acceptance and issues.
“If the child shares with those mandated reporters, what they are going through, we are talking about not only physical abuse or mental abuse, what the job of the mandated reporter is to inform Child Protective Services,” Guzman told 7News. “And then that’s how everybody gets involved. There’s also an investigation in place that is not only from a social worker but there’s also a police investigation before we make the decision that there is going to be a CPS charge.”
New: A Virginia lawmaker plans to reintroduce a bill that could lead Child Protective Services to investigate parents who do not affirm their child’s sexual orientation and gender identity. @7NewsDC https://t.co/THK0jMiSYO
— Nick Minock (@NickMinock) October 13, 2022
In the event that charges are filed, parents who question the science behind mutilative surgery for children could face felony charges, the two-term delegate said.
“It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor, but we do know that CPS charge could harm your employment, could harm their education, because nowadays many people do a CPS database search before offering employment,” Guzman said.
Pushing back against Republican sentiment that the bill criminalizes parenting, Guzman plowed forward, claiming the law will simply teach parents how to parent.
“It’s educating parents because the law tells you the do’s and don’ts,” the Peruvian-American politician said. “So this law is telling you do not abuse your children because they are LGBTQ.”
Guzman has no concerns for the possible First Amendment implications of such a law, nor does she care if gender reassignment is against religious doctrine, such as with the Muslim and Catholic faiths.
“The Bible says to accept everyone for who they are,” she said. “So that’s what I tell them when they asked me that question, and that’s what I will continue to tell people. You know, we all have a commitment to God. And for those believers out there, we know that there is life after life, and there is going to be a conversation between that person and God and that’s what we’re after, to go by what the Bible says. It is not my job to judge anyone. It is my job to help people.”
The bill will provide protections for marginalized groups, Guzman said, protections from caregivers and parents whose hands will be tied and left with no options aside from major surgery should a child decide they would prefer to be a different gender.
“I think that it’s extremely important that we show that as a community we are ready to accept each other for who they are and whom they love,” Guzman said. “And this is not a bill that will agitate parents because we haven’t seen any parents to come against it.”
Responses on Twitter questioned the identity of the delegate’s donors, said she “should be in jail for even proposing such a bill,” and called her a “groomer.”
That is likely unconstitutional in Virginia.
— Dr Sheryl D Baldwin (@jaderesearch) October 14, 2022
The proposed Virginia law forcing parents to choose between their beliefs and prison is in contrast to guidelines implemented in Texas in August 2021, determining that child sex change surgeries constituted child abuse.
Prompted by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) began investigations of families for potential child abuse over treatments their transgender children were receiving. The guidance was challenged in court and temporarily stopped following an appeals court ruling.
However, in May the Texas Supreme Court ruled the lower court had “abused its discretion.”
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