Virginia House Passes Bill Prohibiting Teachers from Hiding Students’ Gender Identity from Parents

The Virginia House on Tuesday passed legislation that would require teachers to inform parents if their child is identifying as a gender that doesn’t align with their sex.

The “Minor students experiencing gender incongruence; parental notification” act, which passed the chamber 50-48, requires any person licensed as an administrative or instructional personnel by the state Board of Education and employed by a local school board to notify at least one parent if a student is self-identifying as a gender different from his/her biological sex.

The faculty member aware of the student’s new gender preferences must ask “whether such parent is aware of the student’s mental state and whether the parent wishes to obtain or has already obtained counseling for such student,” according to a summary of the bill.

The bill also bars any licensed school counselor, professional counselor, clinical social worker, or psychologist or other counseling personnel in a school district from “encouraging or coercing a minor” to keep their gender dysphoria from their parents. Staff are also forbidden from gatekeeping any information related to the minor’s gender confusion from their parents.

Additionally, the bill nullifies the idea that “dead naming” or so-called misgendering constitutes child abuse. The legislation also declares that a parental approach that doesn’t involve affirming a child suffering gender incongruence cannot be deemed neglect.

“In no event shall referring to and raising the child in a manner consistent with the child’s biological sex, including related mental health or medical decisions, be considered abuse or neglect,” the summary reads.

Dubbed “Sage’s bill,” the measure is named after a teenage girl, who believed she was a boy and was sex trafficked and raped after the state stripped her parents of custody on the grounds that they abused her by “misgendering” her, the Daily Caller noted.

The bill now heads to the state Senate, which is controlled by a Democratic majority of 22 seats to the Republicans’ 18. If the bill survives the Senate, it goes to the governor for final approval.