A Virginia lawmaker withdrew her threat to introduce legislation that would have criminalized parents who refused to “affirm” their children’s chosen gender identities, blaming her change of plans on “a misleading news piece,” i.e., one that exposed her bill for what it was.
Delegate Elizabeth Guzman, a Democrat, had planned to reintroduce a bill (previously introduced in 2020) to add “physical or mental injury on the basis of the child’s gender identity or sexual orientation” (emphasis added) to the state’s definition of child abuse.
In a Thursday interview with WJLA, Guzman said she intended to introduce the bill in response to Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s new gender policy for schools, which requires students to use restrooms corresponding to their biological sex, mandates that school sports be segregated on the basis of biological sex, and forces schools to get parental approval of children’s name and pronoun changes.
“The day that Governor Youngkin wanted to implement this policy, I immediately texted the policy lead of that committee and said, this is how we’re going to push back,” Guzman recalled.
Guzman told WJLA’s Nick Minock what she envisioned would happen if a student told a teacher or school official that he felt he wasn’t being affirmed in his gender identity at home.
“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 that mandated reporter is to inform Child Protective Services (CPS),” she said. “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.”
“What could the penalties be if the investigation concludes that a parent is not affirming of their LGBTQ child? What could the consequences be?” asked Minock.
“It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor,” Guzman replied, “but we know that [a] CPS charge could harm your employment, could harm their education, because nowadays many people do a CPS database search before offering employment.”
And there you have it: Under Guzman’s bill, if the notoriously corrupt CPS decides you’re not affirming enough of your child’s gender switch, you’ll be charged with a crime and potentially become unemployable.
Guzman dismissed concerns that her bill might infringe on religious freedom, saying, “The Bible says to accept everyone for who they are…. It is not my job to judge anyone.”
“This is not a bill that will agitate parents because we haven’t seen any parents to come against it,” she said.
That, of course, was because few parents knew about it. Once WJLA’s report came out, though, Republicans pounced and Democrats scrambled to distance themselves from it.
Youngkin’s office issued a statement saying: “It’s clear that the goal of Democrat lawmakers in Virginia is to criminalize parents who are trying to be involved in their children’s lives. Children belong to families not to the state and Virginians can count on Governor Youngkin to continue empowering parents in the Commonwealth.”
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, also a Republican, called Guzman’s bill “another entry for the Woke Olympics.”
On Friday, Virginia House Minority Leader Don Scott, Jr., a Democrat, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that Guzman’s bill, if introduced, would be “dead on arrival.” He pointed out that her 2020 bill had died in subcommittee even though Democrats then ran the show in Richmond.
Guzman ultimately chose not to reintroduce the bill. She blamed her decision on public outrage motivated by “a misleading news piece … that mischaracterized a pro-safety, anti-abuse bill.”
Unfortunately for her, “WJLA posted the full interview where Guzman, who repeatedly refers to her work as a social worker, notes that she is not an ‘attorney’ when asked for clarification on what ‘affirmation’ means in her own legislation. Furthermore, LGBT activists have repeatedly cited mental health as a reason to chemically and genitally mutilate children and use their ‘preferred pronouns,’” wrote LifeSiteNews.
Guzman’s critics understood full well what her bill would do. Thanks to their reporting of it — and to the delegate’s own loose lips — Virginia parents can sleep a little more easily at night.
