By the AFP Staff
A Virginia Republican and a parental advocacy group have joined forces to push through a new law in the state that bars schools from enabling children confused about their gender and lying to parents about it. The legislation follows a worst-case cautionary tale of a Virginia high school that hid a 14-year-old girl’s mental health struggle, leading to her kidnapping and rape.
The terrible story begins in summer 2021 when teachers and administrators at Appomattox County High School in Virginia never informed parents that a teenaged girl by the name of Sage (last name of the family withheld for privacy) was likely suffering from gender dysphoria, a mental health condition where an indi- vidual believes their gender is different from their birth sex. According to school records, the child was able to change her name and birth sex without ever informing the parents or even asking for their permission.
Worse still, the parents allege that a school counsellor suggested websites for Sage to visit so she could go on the internet to discuss her condition with others—all without ever giving a clue to parents about the danger this poses.
Tragically, on one of those websites, Sage met a group of transsexual males, who groomed her and convinced her to run away from home and meet them. The transsexuals then kidnapped the girl, took her to Maryland, and raped her, prostituted her, and made pornographic movies of her.
Eventually the FBI was able to locate Sage, but not before a Maryland court prevented the parents from taking Sage home over concerns that the parents did not fully embrace Sage’s “transition to a boy.” By court order, Sage was placed in a home for troubled boys in Baltimore, where she was again sexually assaulted. After a month there, her parents were able to eventually secure her release and bring her home.
Sage’s mother, who recently appeared in a press conference alongside parent advocacy group the Family Foundation to promote Virginia’s new law, said Sage is no longer confused about her gender and considers herself to be a girl, though she will be dealing with the trauma she has endured at the hands of pedophiles, criminals, and Maryland courts for many years to come.
“Sage’s Law, or the Child Protection Act, is being introduced this week in the Virginia House of Delegates by Delegate Dave LaRock in honor of this young teen from Appomattox County, Va.,” wrote Laura Bryant Hanford for conservative news website “The Federalist.”
Hanford added, “Sage hopes sharing her story will help protect others from the abuse she suffered at the hands of predators, precipitated in part by the very institutions that should have protected her.”
Sage’s Law—more formally called “Minors & Students Self-Identifying as a Gender Different from Biological Sex; Parental Notification” (H.B. 243)—requires schools to inform parents if their children are transitioning genders in school, bars counselors from encouraging children to keep secrets from their parents, and clarifies that laws on child abuse cannot be interpreted to include parents, who don’t “affirm a child’s gender transition.”
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) is expected to sign the bill if it passes the state legislature. Republicans control the House of Delegates, but Democrats still command a slim lead in the Virginia state Senate. Democrats have expressed concern for the measure.
