RICHMOND, Va. — A new bill introduced in the Virginia House would require educators to alert parents if their child starts presenting as another gender. The sponsor argues this is about keeping parents informed about their children, but critics have called the process of outing a student dangerous.
Virginia's House Bill 1707 was introduced on Jan. 9, and was referred to the Education Committee, which has become a hotspot for parents' rights legislation.
"This ensures that parents are kept in the loop," said Tara Durant, the bill's sponsor and a Republican serving the Fredericksburg area. "With what’s happening with their children. And they’re never kept in the dark.”
If passed, the bill would require all “administrative or instructional personnel” at schools to contact a student’s parent if that child is either “at imminent risk of suicide” or if that “student is self-identifying as a gender that is different than his biological sex.”
The bill calls for educators to make sure the parent is aware, and ask the parent if counseling is wanted.
The bill has been greeted with backlash from many transgender advocates and supporters. Del. Danica Roem, a Prince William Democrat, who is Virginia's first openly-transgender lawmaker, said this bill can be dangerous.
“It's interjecting themselves into what can be a very toxic and very hostile situation," she said. "Where quite frankly - where if you have never had to worry about someone outing you, you don't understand and you don't know."
Durant, who is currently running for the 27th Senate District, pointed toward studies showing a higher rate of suicidal thoughts among transgender youth as the reason for involving parents.
"This is simply ensuring that children are getting the help they need," she said. "The support they need, and making sure that those who care about them and love them the most - who are the parents - are always on there side. That they're never stuck in the dark."
Roem, who is also running for a Senate seat in the 30th District, agreed that the risk of suicide in transgender youth is a problem, but argued that forcibly outing kids could just make it worse. She said it's the stigma that's causing suicidal thoughts in the first place.
"Being trans, or being non-confirming, or non-binary in itself is not the reason that you have that statistic," she said. "The reason you have that statistic is that trans, non-binary, gender non-confirming people feel stigmatized, feel ostracized, and feel outcast by other people."
The bill faces a difficult path toward becoming law. Democrats control the State Senate, and Roem said they are unlikely to pass this bill.