This Republican’s bill would force teachers to out closeted kids to their parents
A shocking new Republican-backed bill would force school teachers to inform the parents of transgender kids who are in the closet.
The proposed Virginia law, HB 1612, was proposed by GOP lawmaker Bob Marshall.
The law ostensibly functions to ban transgender people from using public bathrooms in state-owned facilities, but the actual contents of the law are far more chilling.
One provision would force schools to notify the parents of any child who asks to be called by a different name or gender – even if the child is in the closet, or fears a violent reaction at home.
It insists: “The principal of a public school attended by a child shall notify the child’s parent, guardian, legal custodian, or other person having control or charge of a child within 24 hours of any request by a child to be recognized or treated as the opposite sex, to use a name or pronouns inconsistent with the child’s sex, or to use a restroom or changing facility designated for the opposite sex.”
The order also seeks to implement a definition of sex as “the physical condition of being male or female as shown on an individual’s original birth certificate” – and calls for mixed-used bathrooms to be entirely outlawed.
In a provision that would outlaw mixed-used bathrooms, it stipulates: “Any restroom or changing facility located in such building designed to be used concurrently by more than one individual shall be designated for use only by members of one sex by the government entity.
“In any other setting in such building where an individual may be in a state of undress in the presence of others, the government entity shall provide a separate, private area designated for use only by members of one sex.”
If taken literally, the law would require female strip clubs to cater only for women.
Equality Virginia said: “Together, we defeated a similar bill last year and together we will defeat this one. After what we have witnessed in North Carolina, all members of the General Assembly should immediately voice their opposition to this bill.”
