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McAuliffe Agrees Public Schools Should Not Tell Parents If Their Child Is ‘Gender Fluid’

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Imagine the following as a Glenn Youngkin ad:

The number of youth confused about their gender is up over 1,000 percent.

If it’s your child, Terry McAuliffe doesn’t think you should know about their struggle. He would force schools to hide a student’s new name and pronouns from parents. He even supports policies where schools use the child’s birth name with parents but a different name at school.

New genders without parental consent. Pitting parents against children. Terry McAuliffe’s education agenda is bad for Virginia.

Shockingly, these claims are true. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed a bill into law in March 2020 that mandates the Virginia Department of Education develop “model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools.”

The model policies came out in April of this year, and they are frightening. McAuliffe proudly endorses them on his website. They mandate co-ed bathrooms for all, force teachers and students to accept and use new names and pronouns, and clear the way for boys to participate in girls’ sports.

All school boards in Virginia were required to have adopted the model policies by the start of the current school year. Many Virginia school boards have passed the model policies, while others have bravely rejected them.

In a high-profile case, a teacher in Loudoun County was placed on leave in May for refusing to comply with its version. The Virginia Department of Education has even threatened school superintendents that schools will be on the hook for civil damages that result from “noncompliance.”

Don’t Tell Parents If Their Child Is Gender Confused

The most pernicious aspect of the model policies is the alarming mandate that schools not tell parents if their son or daughter has adopted a new gender at school: “If a student is not ready or able to safely share with their family about their gender identity, this should be respected.”

The policies even suggest teachers use a child’s birth name with parents but a name of the opposite sex at school. Apparently, McAuliffe has no objection to schools giving teachers the green light to deceive parents about their children’s adoption of a false identity.

The model policies continue, “For example, a plan may include addressing the student at school with their name and pronoun consistent with their gender identity while using the legal name and pronoun associated with the sex assigned at birth when communicating with parents or guardians.”

Few people agree with the lie pushed by the media and corporate America that one can change one’s sex. When it’s one’s own child who might be affected as school districts actively work to delude you, the danger becomes much more concrete. One hardly needs to be a Christian or a conservative to find the prospect horrifying.

Unfortunately, this scenario is also far from some distant possibility. Adolescents have seen a ten-fold increase in gender dysphoria in the last decade.

Youngkin Should Condemn This Dangerous Policy

Conventional wisdom dictates that establishing a strong contrast with McAuliffe on this matter makes gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin appear to take a side in the culture wars, which in turn could motivate suburbanites in left-leaning Northern Virginia to turn out for McAuliffe. However, this new policy is so perverse that outraged normal parents would far outnumber any newly energized far-left voters.

Youngkin has already launched a digital ad that hits McAuliffe hard for vetoing bills that would require schools to inform parents of “sexually explicit” school content. The ad also highlights McAuliffe’s belief that parents should not “be telling schools what to teach.” Schools’ hiding pronoun changes from parents would complement Youngkin’s theme of keeping parents in the dark.

Youngkin is certainly correct that McAuliffe’s vetoes are inexcusable. But they pale in comparison to the consequences of denying parents the opportunity to save their children from living a lie that sets them on an irreversible pathway to infertility, inhumane surgical procedures, and mental anguish.

In this case, the right thing for families of all political persuasions also happens to be excellent politics. This is Youngkin’s opportunity to put himself over the edge and prevent his opponent from cementing this dystopian nightmare in Virginia’s public schools.