If California Governor Gavin Newsom thought his state cornered the market on radical pro-transgender legislation, he was mistaken. He was actually beaten to the punch two years ago by Virginia House of Delegates Member, Democrat Elizabeth Guzman, when she introduced Virginia’s controversial House Bill 580. Recently, Guzman publicly stated her intent to reintroduce the bill, which expands the definition of child abuse to include “physical or mental injury on the basis of the child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.” [Emphasis added.]

Guzman’s saber-rattling about the bill caught the attention of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who ripped it to shreds during his October 15 Tucker Carlson Tonight program. Carlson said Guzman’s new offering “will charge parents with a felony, strip them of their employment, and imprison them if they don’t go along with their minor children’s sex changes.” He continued: “If your 12-year-old daughter wants a mastectomy and you object in any way — if you raise questions, Elizabeth Guzman will send you to jail.”

Carlson backed up these charges by showing a news clip of a reporter summarizing the content of Guzman’s new bill: “Her bill would expand the state’s definition of child abuse and neglect,” he said, “to include parents who do not affirm their child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.” The news report then included a clip of Guzman explaining that the legislation would not only require an investigation by a social worker “but also a police investigation before a decision is made that there is going to be a CPS (Child Protective Services) charge.”

The reporter asked Guzman what the consequences might be for parents who fail to affirm their LGBTQ child, to which Guzman replied that it would depend on what the investigations showed. “It could be a felony, it could be a misdemeanor, but we do know that a CPS charge could harm [a parent’s] employment, education ...”

The Washington Stand also tackled the subject of Guzman’s bill. The Stand quoted Guzman as telling local media that the measure “is designed to ‘help’ parents go by what the Bible says about gender ideology and homosexuality,” making the casual observer wonder if she has ever actually read the Bible.

The article observed that the lawmaker “seemed delighted by the possibility of ruining the future career prospects of parents who oppose transgender ideology... She said her bill’s goal is ‘educating parents, because the law tells you the do’s and don’ts’ of raising your own children. So, this law is telling you do not abuse your children because they are LGBTQ.”

Carlson pointed out that Guzman is a recent immigrant from Peru (she speaks in heavily accented English) and that it might be a good idea for her to “wait a few generations” before telling American parents how to raise their children, particularly when what she is proposing to force on them “would never be tolerated in the country from which she comes.”

But even if Guzman’s bill advances and eventually makes it to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s desk, it’s unlikely he would be willing to sign it, and it’s questionable whether the legislature could muster sufficient votes to override a veto. Nonetheless, this is an ominous attempt to further strip parents of their right to raise their own children as they see fit.

Gender dysphoria exploding

Recent studies show an explosion in gender dysphoria among American schoolchildren; in fact, it has nearly doubled in just a few years. A report by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law shows that approximately “1.6 million people ages 13+ identify as transgender in the U.S.,” with nearly one in five between the ages of 13-17. The study used data obtained from the CDC’s “Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System,” a survey given nationally to adults, and the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which is administered to high school students, and advanced statistical modeling.

In one example described by the Family Research Council, students claiming to be transgender has increased “almost 11-fold” in Montgomery County, Maryland Public Schools (MCPS) since 2019, when the district introduced an Intake Form: Supporting Student Gender Identity. The school district is Maryland’s largest district, located in a wealthy suburb of Washington, DC. FRC author Joshua Arnold wrote: “Here in this wealthy suburb of the nation’s capital, it seems the Left’s fixation on gender anarchy is troubling the youth.”

Arnold relates that reports of gender nonconformity are accelerating among students in Montgomery County district schools:

• In school year 2019-2020, 35 students filled out the form (four in elementary school, 19 in middle, 12 in high). In school year 2020-2021, 108 students filled out the form (15 elementary, 40 middle, 53 high) for a cumulative total of 143. In school year 2021-2022, 239 students filled out the form (18 elementary, 129 middle, 92 high) for a cumulative total of 382. In (the current, incomplete) school year 2022-2023, 41 students have filled out the form (four elementary, 15 middle, 22 high) for a cumulative total of 423 students.

He explained that the number of forms “tripled from 2019-2020 and then doubled again from 2020-2021.”

An October 11 article by the Daily Caller reported a 582 percent increase in the number of students identifying as gender nonconforming in just two years in Montgomery County Public Schools, “according to internal data posted to an educator’s Twitter page.” The Caller revealed that the data was not publicly available to parents or taxpayers, but that it was posted on Twitter October 6 “when educator Elicia Eberhart-Bliss shared an image of a slide show presented at a meeting of the district’s ‘Pride ALLiance.’” That post has since been taken down.

The article also described the MCPS “guidelines for dealing with students who identify as gender nonconforming: Kids have a ‘right’to keep their in-school gender identities private. The form used to collect data on which students identify as gender nonconforming states that parents can be involved only ‘if the student states that [the parents] are aware of and supportive of the student’s gender identity.’” This is yet another example of a public school district promoting gender ideology behind the backs of parents.

What’s fueling the explosion?

For years, many if not most schools have incorporated pro-LGBTQ curricula in health and sex education classes, and this instruction has trickled down to include kindergarten and even preschool classrooms. More recently, teachers and administrators — on little more than the child’s whim — refer to students by names and pronouns of the opposite gender, typically without parental knowledge or permission. Still more recently, some schools have created secret transgender transition closets in which children can change into clothing of the opposite sex for the school day, and which Education Reporter described last June. Observers might logically wonder what kids wouldn’t enjoy playing dress-up at school. The “secret” part about theses closets of course is keeping them secret from parents.

Also in vogue are written “gender support plans” that school administrators across the nation use “to help young children transition into the gender identity of their choice, without the knowledge or consent of their parents.” Similar to the MCPS “Intake Form,” the Gender Spectrum Education and Training Gender Support Plan form specifically states that its purpose is “to create shared understandings of how the student’s authentic gender will be accounted for and supported at school,” as though such matters are routine business of the public school.

On August 30, Catholic News Agency (CNA) reported that these “gender support plans include procedures for the child to socially transition while at school with a new name, clothing, pronouns, and referrals to gender clinics for counseling and treatment, such as prescriptions for puberty blockers. Frequently missing from the picture? Parents.”

CNA asserted that it’s not always easy for parents to know if their child has a gender support plan. “Parents have to start by looking in the right places — often embedded in school district websites or under a school’s ‘counseling resources’ tab.”

Parents also need to listen to their children and look for signs that something is going on, such as emotional distress, although experts concede this may not be enough, and that further digging may be needed. If educational alternatives are not possible, such as homeschooling, parents “need to try their best to be actively involved in their children’s schools.”

Is it any wonder students are failing to learn basic skills and that schools are hiding the results of standardized tests because the scores are so bad, as one New York mom charged on Twitter. For some time now, schools have shown they are indoctrination centers rather than sources of genuine learning.

CHOP training videos

As if all the above weren’t enough, a grassroots parent activist who identifies herself on Twitter as Megan Eileen, posted eye-opening videos about the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia's Gender and Sexuality Development Program, known incredibly by its acronym CHOP. The clips reveal the level of manipulation the gender-dysphoric child or teen and his or her parents are exposed to by “professional resources” at this clinic, which partners with schools and community organizations, and is unfortunately not the only one of its kind in the country.

The videos Megan Eileen shared on Twitter can no longer be found on the CHOP website, but remain posted on her Twitter feed. The first clip shows a teenage boy, Jacob, being interviewed in an exam room by a sympathetic “professional” who affirms that the teen wants to identify as a girl named Amanda, and elicits information from him about his mom’s attitude. She then asks whether or not the teen wants “some help from us to help your mom understand what’s going on with you.” The young man confirms that his mom “won’t listen to me or my therapist,” opening the door wider, but the piece of information these “professionals” ultimately latch onto — the “hook” so to speak, is that the teen claims he isn’t eating because he wants to stay “skinny” in order to look “more like a girl.”

The second clip shows three of the staff collaborating on how to “help mom get on board, so we can get Amanda the help she needs.”

The third clip shows mom in the exam room with the professional and the teen, where mom displays her unhappiness with the situation. The examiner sends her to get some coffee and after she leaves, conspires with the teen by commenting that “the most helpful thing we can do today is really to start a conversation with your mom.” Jacob responds: “Yeah, she’s just really unhappy about this.”

The final clip shows the three medical “professionals” ganging up on the obviously distraught mother, focusing on the fact that the boy is refusing to eat and that “we just want the best for Jacob, and I think we all want his health to be in a better place.” In the end, they tell her the boy is called “Amanda” at school, and ask if she can consider doing the same at home. She at first says she doesn’t think she can do it but later concedes that she “will try.” And thus, the stage is set for a gender transition just as these activist “professionals” intended.

Whether these videos are entirely fictional or reflect actual interviews that were recreated for training purposes is anyone’s guess. Regardless, they shine an eye-opening light on the tactics that are used to lead confused and questioning young people down a dangerous road from which there is often no return.

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