A Virginia politician on the November ballot gained substantial free publicity proposing an outrageous new law, then walking it back.
Democratic Delegate Elizabeth Guzman proposed legislation to change Virginia’s definition of child abuse. Guzman wants to criminalize parents who do not affirm their child’s gender identity or sexual orientation, according to a WJLA report.
“It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor,” Guzman responded to a reporter’s question about parental consequences, “but we know that CPS charge could harm your employment, could harm their education, because nowadays many people do a CPS database search before offering employment.”
The Epoch Times further reported:
She added that she wanted to do this to counter the transgender student policy recently released by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The draft policy requires public schools to acquire written parental consent before treating a student as a different gender.
“Children are scared. Governor Youngkin and Republicans are putting LGBTQ kids at serious risk of harm and homelessness by encouraging schools to out children to their parents,” Guzman said in a tweet on Friday. She didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’s inquiry.
On the same day, Virginia House Minority Leader Don Scott Jr. (D-Portsmouth) said that he spoke to Guzman, and she had assured him that she wouldn’t introduce the reported bill. In addition, he called the bill “unnecessary” and “a distraction” to key Congressional races in Virginia.
Stacy Langton, a Fairfax County mother of six and a Republican, has been fighting to remove obscene books in the county school libraries. She told The Epoch Times, “I would like to take this moment to thank Delegate Guzman for committing the Terry McAuliffe gaffe for the 2022 midterm elections.”
She was referring to former Virginia Gov. McAuliffe’s debate comment that is generally believed to have cost him a second term. “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach,” McAuliffe said in September 2021, during the early voting period of the gubernatorial election.
“Thank you for winning us all the elections in Virginia. Literally, the damage is done. She can’t undo what she did. And she just did a Terry McAuliffe-size gaffe!” Langton added. “It’s Terry McAuliffe part two! Terry McAuliffe 2.0!”
Ian Prior, executive director of Fight for Schools, a parental rights advocacy group, lives in Loudoun County. The current school district policy allows schools to treat a student as a different gender without informing parents.
“It’s too late for Virginia Democrats to unring the bell. This legislation was merely an attempt to codify what schools are already inviting,” he told The Epoch Times. “These woke school districts are preventing parents from knowing if their children are claiming to be transgender because of the possibility that ‘non-affirming’ parents present a safety risk to their own children.
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