A bill known as “Sage’s Law,” a Republican-backed effort to require public schools to inform parents if their child has indicated they are a different sex than what was given at birth, is set to be voted on this week in Virginia’s General Assembly.
The bill is facing headwinds with the Democratic majorities in the Virginia House and Senate. The legislation previously failed in last year’s Virginia General Assembly.
In January, Virginia state Sen. John J. McGuire, a Republican representing District 10, reintroduced the bill that would provide parents with greater oversight into their children’s lives at school and increase transparency in public education.
Senate Bill 37 states that “each public elementary or secondary school principal or his designee to (i) as soon as practicable, inform at least one parent of a minor student enrolled in such school if such minor (a) expresses to any individual who is employed in such school that such minor is experiencing gender incongruence, as defined in the bill, or (b) requests that any such employee participate in social affirmation of such minor’s gender incongruence or the transition of such minor to a sex or gender different from the minor’s biological sex while at school.”
“I predict the Democrats will try to stop it again this year,” Chris Elston, a parents’ rights activist known as “Billboard Chris,” said on WMAL’s O’Connor and Company on Monday.
“This bill is so simple,” he added. “All it says is that school officials should tell parents when their own child is having an identity crisis — if their child is going by a new name and pronouns.”
The bill is named after Sage Blair, a then-14-year-old Virginia girl who ended up in the hands of sexual predators after her school failed to disclose her gender dysphoria to her adoptive mother. The girl had a difficult past in foster care and was later adopted by loving grandparents, but she continued to struggle with mental health and her identity.
Her life went into a traumatic downward spiral when the high school chose to hide her gender change and identification. While at school, she began using the new name of “Draco,” embracing male pronouns and using the boys’ bathroom. A few weeks later, she was assaulted by a group of boys in a bathroom. While the grandparents were trying to figure out what was happening, she ran away from home to meet a “friend” from a “gender-affirming” website, who turned out to be a predator and brutally sexually trafficked her for nine days until the FBI found her. When she was found, the judge refused to return her to her adoptive parents and chastised them for calling her Sage and using female pronouns.
While she was in a behavioral health facility, she said she felt she was being pressured by staff to get a double mastectomy and eventually fled the facility, ending up in further sex trafficking in Texas. Sage was finally brought back to her family after a long battle.
With the help of Republican lawmakers and the support of the Blair family, the legislation has been at the forefront of parental rights in Virginia as supporters seek to use it as a powerful example of how hiding important information from parents can lead to dire consequences for children.
“This is the most commonsense thing in the world. Not one parent out there wants their child keeping secrets from them and schools keeping secrets from them, either,” Elston said.
Family Foundation of Virginia President Victoria Cobb said the effort to get parental rights has been “an aggressive battle” in Richmond.
“These people need to hear the outrage from the parents,” Elston said Monday.
Laura Hanford, a Virginia mom and one of the top proponents of Sage’s Law, has been pushing parents to contact the respective Virginia committees this week to let them know not to “rip kids away from parents who raise them according to biology.”
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The bill also states that any counseling of a minor at school regarding gender dysphoria should involve “parental participation to the extent requested by the parent.” It also clarifies that a child cannot be considered an “abused or neglected child” when raising the child “in a manner consistent with the child’s biological sex.”
A hearing on the bill is set for Tuesday in the Virginia House, with a vote on Thursday, Feb. 8, in the full Education Committee, which will decide whether the bill is killed or advances to a floor vote in the Virginia Senate.
