Virginia Parents Under Siege!
In an Orwellian fashion, Governor Northam and the Democratic-majority in the legislature are transforming Virginia into a state in which parents can no longer parent their children.
Over seventy years ago, George Orwell described in his book, 1984, a world in which children would be co-opted by the government, manipulated into disavowing their parents’ teachings and values, and commissioned to actually report parents who didn’t follow the state’s edicts. Sadly, that’s exactly the kind of state Virginia is becoming, and the Marxist left – which is dedicated to the destruction of the nuclear family – is going about it in a very calculated way. Here are just a few examples:
1. Pushing comprehensive sex-education and LGBTQ curriculum to desensitize children to sex and sexuality.
2. Passing laws and regulations that prevent a parent from helping their minor child overcome unwanted sexual desires or gender confusion, yet encourage the facilitation and development of those feelings.
3. Soliciting children to communicate with anonymous “experts” through a state-sponsored program about sex, sexuality, relationships, STDS, and more, without their parents knowing.
4. Encouraging kids to report their parents to government agencies if they fail to affirm their child’s unnatural sexual orientation or gender identity that conflicts with biological realities and/or the parents’ values.
5. Making sex and sexuality the highest cultural value, and justifying it using a counterfeit form of religion.
These things are not conspiracy theories, but they are actually unfolding in the public square right before our very eyes.
Family Life Education (i.e., Sex-Ed) has been taught in Virginia public schools for years. What was meant to be abstinence-first education has turned into a “how to” seminar conducted in some localities often using materials that are produced by Planned Parenthood. That’s right, the nation’s largest abortion provider is helping to teach our children about family planning and sex education. The Family Foundation has worked with conservative lawmakers over the years to either peel back some of the curriculum or insert reasonable requirements that give parents more oversight of what’s being taught to their children. But now some school boards in Virginia are adopting “LGBTQ” curriculums to further desensitize children to radical Sex-Ed teachings and manipulate them into celebrating sexual practices that defy biological realities and foundational social norms. The Marxist-left is bent on removing God from schools and replacing Him with the idol of sexual hedonism!
Yet, teaching pervasive sexual promiscuity and perversion in our schools and communities has not satisfied Virginia’s radical Left in their attempts to undermine a youth’s biblical or family values, so they recently implemented policies to help achieve that goal. There’s no better example of this than the laws and regulations passed this year that prevent minors from simply being able to talk to a licensed health professional about their unwanted same-sex attractions or gender-related confusion – an act they’ve erroneously dubbed “conversion therapy.” (We call it Biological Affirmation Counseling.) But what’s even more insane is that while a licensed professional is prohibited from helping a child overcome these unwanted unnatural desires, they are expressly allowed to provide counseling that facilitates a child's coping and identity exploration and development of their sexuality. In other words, they can push kids into embracing an “LGBTQ” identity, but not the body they were born with.
Virginia has taken away options for parents to seek counsel for their child’s unwanted sexual desires, leaving them vulnerable to people with a one-sided worldview and entrapping them in a lifestyle that only conforms with the state’s view of sexuality - not their personal religious or family values.
And now that talk therapy by licensed professionals has been demonized and prohibited, organizations -- deemed to be “advocates” -- can swoop in to affirm children’s feelings and curiosities about all things related to sex. This became abundantly clear last month when we learned about the Virginia Department Health’s (VDH) BrdsNBz teen sex text line. The VDH program invites teens, as young as 13, to communicate anonymously with a volunteer or employee from the American Sexual Health Association (ASHA) about sex, sexuality, STDs, relationships, and more – all without their parents’ knowledge. Not only does this misguided sex text line overstep parental rights, it destroys everything we’ve taught to our children – don’t talk to strangers, don’t share your phone numbers, go to parents with questions about personal topics like sex, and never share graphic pictures of yourself.
With this teen sex text line, the Left is thumbing their noses at Virginia’s law (Section 1-240.1. Rights of parents), which states: “A parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent's child.”
Senator Steve Newman (R-Bedford), who first brought attention to this issue, along with Delegate Kathy Byron (R-Bedford), introduced budget amendments during the 2020 Special Session to at least pause this program until the General Assembly could evaluate it further. Not surprisingly, the Democrat-controlled House of Delegates and Senate defeated the budget amendments on a party line vote, but what was particularly appalling were the comments offered by some Democrat Senators (House Democrats refused to debate the issue) who downplayed any concerns about the program – suggesting we’re acting like “our hair is on fire.”
The most telling (and most Orwellian) comment came from Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), who argued against stopping the program because sometimes sexual abuse occurs in the home by parents and family members, and therefore texting a stranger would be safer for a teen. Go to the 4:23:23 mark of the floor debate to hear for yourself!
Finally, under Marxist thinking parents would have to be punished if they did not submit to their child’s, and the state’s, view of sex and sexuality. This year, a bill (HB 580) was introduced that would have redefined “child abuse and neglect” to include any “mental harm inflicted by a parent due to a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity.” So basically, if a parent does not affirm their child’s homosexual feelings or “transgender” identity, the Virginia Department of Social Services could potentially have the authority to remove the child from the home. If the Left succeeds in passing this legislation in the upcoming legislative session, Virginia will have effectively given children the ability and means to turn on their parents!
Based on all of this, it’s abundantly clear that Virginia’s government is guilty of actively seeking to undermine parental authority and luring children away from a parent’s protection and instruction.
So parents, be on high alert. The Family Foundation certainly is!
