RICHMOND (LifeSiteNews) — The Virginia House of Delegates recently passed two bills which aim to ban keeping child “gender transitions” from parents and prohibit men from competing in women’s sports.
The Republican-led House approved two pieces of legislation on Tuesday. HB 2432, also known as “Sage’s Law,” requires school officials aware of any evidence that a child is experiencing gender confusion to discuss the matter with at least one of the child’s parents. HB 1387 seeks to ban biological men and boys from competing in sports designated for women and girls within the public school system. Both bills will now advance to the Democrat-controlled Senate.
HB 2432 “requires the Board of Education to include in its guidelines for making such contact criteria to assess whether students have begun to self-identify as a gender different from their biological sex and criteria for notification of and discussions with parents of students self-identifying as a gender different from their biological sex.”
Additionally, the bill would bar counselors, social workers, and psychologists within the school system from “encouraging or coercing a minor to withhold from the minor’s parent the fact that the minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex or withholding from a minor’s parent information relating to the minor’s perception that his or her gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex.”
Notably, the legislation seeks to clarify that an “abused or neglected child” does not include a child who is raised in accordance with his or her biological sex. This applies to “mental health or medical decisions.”
The bill was introduced and nicknamed “Sage’s Law” after a teenage girl suffered from drug and sexual abuse in the aftermath of school administrator’s hiding her “gender transition” from her family. As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, Sage started experiencing depression during COVID-19 and began “identifying” as a boy named “Draco” at school. Eventually, she ran away from home and became a victim of sex trafficking.
Sage’s family was accused of “misgendering” her, despite school officials failing to discuss the girl’s gender confusion with her adoptive parents. The girl’s confusion began in high school, where she said most of the girls “identified” as something other than female. She is now home safely and does not claim to be a boy.
Protecting women’s sports
In addition to “Sage’s Law,” Virginia lawmakers are also striving to protect the vulnerable by banning men and boys from competing in female sports, regardless of any perceived “gender identity.”
HB 1387 states that no institution within the public school system is permitted to allow students to participate in school-sponsored athletics that do not align with their biological sex.
“Each interscholastic, intramural, or club athletic team or sport sponsored by a public school shall be expressly designated as one of the following based on biological sex,” the legislation states. Athletic categories are for “males,” “men,” or “boys,” for “females,” “women,” or “girls,” or for “coed,” or “mixed.”
Additionally, “no government entity,” including licensing and athletic organizations, are permitted to “entertain a complaint” or “open an investigation” into a school for implementing the proposed law.
“Any school that suffers any direct harm as a result of a violation of this section shall have a private cause of action for injunctive relief, damages, and any other relief available under law,” it says.
Additionally, students “deprived of an athletic opportunity” by other participants unlawfully competing in a sporting event designated for the opposite sex will be eligible to receive relief for damages.
The same rules are laid out for athletics in public institutions of higher education and, if passed, would go into effect at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year.
Virginia lawmakers are not the first to take a stand against the LGBT ideology permeating America’s public school system. Last February, the Florida House of Representatives passed a parental rights bill that prohibits discussion of sexuality and “gender identity” from kindergarten through third grade and limits similar lessons in higher grades. This year, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that he will strive to pass a ban on child mutilation.
Last week, both West Virginia and South Dakota passed legislation in their respective Houses to ban hormones and surgeries given to minors for the sake of satisfying their perceived “gender identity.” Additionally, states such as Oklahoma and Utah have prohibited students from competing in sports which are not designated for their biological sex.
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