A bill killed this year in the Virginia General Assembly that would have required schools to out students that identify as a gender other than their biological sex to their parent or guardian still has support among Republicans hoping to retake the state Senate this November.

Philip Hamilton, a Charlottesville resident and Republican nominee in Senate District 11, spoke of the House bill known as “Sage’s Law,” during an Aug. 7 event in Amherst County. He vowed to support the bill, which gained approval from the House of Delegates but failed to move out of the Senate Education and Health Committee, should he defeat Democratic Sen. Creigh Deeds, also of Charlottesville, in the upcoming election.

Hamilton said he sees “culture wars” going on in the state and nation and believes Christians and conservatives “need to take a stand against the wokeness that’s going on.”

“There are real-life consequences to what’s occurring,” Hamilton said. “Parents are being placed in the dark. It’s very real.”

With all 140 Virginia General Assembly seats up for grabs Nov. 7, Hamilton said Republican leadership is crucial for “parental rights” — a popular term in Republican circles that has been applied to limiting speech in classrooms, content in school libraries and gender expression in schools. He described himself as an underdog against Deeds, who served in the House of Delegates from 1992 to 2001 and has served as a state senator for the past 22 years.

Deeds moved from Bath County to Charlottesville in 2021 to run for the seat after the state Supreme Court reconfigured legislative districts. He defeated Del. Sally Hudson, a University of Virginia professor, in a competitive primary in June with 51% of the vote.

The district encompasses the city of Charlottesville as well as Albemarle, Nelson and Amherst counties and parts of Louisa County after recent redistricting.

Hamilton said he is in favor of exploring 20-year term limits for state lawmakers and feels Deeds has been in office too long.

He said if Republicans can flip the Senate, where Democrats have a slim majority, in addition to holding on to the House, they can further strengthen parental rights by passing Sage’s Law.

“There is no way that a child should have one name or one gender ideology in school and then have another at home with their parents,” Hamilton said. “Parents should never be left in the dark — period. It should be against the law.”

Sage’s Law explained

The bill bears the name of a minor who, according to her adoptive mother Michele Blair of Appomattox survived a case of sex trafficking after running away from home because of bullying at school. On the child’s first day in ninth grade at Appomattox County High School, the teenager decided to identify as a gender apart from the one assigned at birth and told a counselor of that decision, Blair said.

Blair said she was not told of that conversation and through interaction with school staff, her adopted child learned of a phone app that led to a stranger abducting the minor to Maryland and placing the teen in a sex trafficking ring.

Blair said that although her child was rescued, much psychological trauma was done. That’s why she’s fighting for Sage’s Law.

“What happened to my [child] could easily have been avoided if the school simply had been honest with me,” Blair said.

In a statement, Appomattox County Public Schools Superintendent Annette Bennett said the division “does not now and has never had any policy or practice of withholding information about a child’s gender identity from parents or guardians.”

“The claim that this particular individual was unaware of her child’s gender identity expression at school, and that school staff did not communicate with her regarding that, is simply not correct,” the division’s statement reads. “The ability of Appomattox County Public School[s] to respond to allegations pertaining to any particular child is limited due to privacy laws. However, Appomattox County Public Schools has appropriate policies and procedures in place to prevent bullying.”

The division’s staff upon any report of bullying immediately investigates and takes appropriate action as needed based on the results of the investigation, the statement continues.

“ACPS allocates significant resources, including staff training, to ensure we provide caring and supportive trauma-informed care for all students. We take our responsibility for every student’s care very seriously and seek to maximize their emotional and educational well-being.”

Blair said her child, now 16, is working through a lifetime of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Blair said of the child surviving the plight. “I’m grateful because God is in the details.”

Concerns over ‘forced outing’

At the Feb. 16 meeting of the Senate Education and Health Committee, Ghazala Hashmi of Chesterfield said the proposed legislation received considerable feedback during a public hearing. Several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, Equality Virginia and others, spoke in opposition to the bill, according to Hashmi.

“The concern is this would be a forced outing of a child and sometimes there are not homes or stable families in which a child who is part of the LGBTQ community or is transgender would have an opportunity to speak with an adult,” the Democrat said.

The committee heard testimony that many transgender children struggle with homelessness because their families or communities have rejected them, Hashmi said.

“This bill was deemed harmful by many who spoke because it takes away the opportunity for vulnerable children to receive counseling as they might necessarily need to do within a school environment. I move that we pass by indefinitely,” Hashmi said.

Democrat Chapman Petersen of Fairfax County said at the meeting he strongly believes in parental involvement and agrees parents should be kept up to speed on issues affecting their child. He said his concern is the proposed legislation almost resembles a mandatory reporting bill that is done in cases of a crime against a child and his hesitation with Sage’s Law is it could put conversations between children and school staff “on blast.”

“I feel like this bill, rather than solving the issue, would exacerbate the issue and the issue is parents and talking to their children, children talking to their parents, and children having the confidence to maybe speak with a teacher and not have to worry about getting put on blast,” Petersen said.

‘Not going to forget’

Blair said at the Aug. 7 event in Amherst she believes teachers or counselors being able to suggest life-changing medication that has permanent consequences to children is wrong.

“They’re kids. They can’t even balance a checkbook, their mental health,” Blair said. “They change their mind every time the wind blows. It’s a part of life. This is why schools have no business of discussing gender with our children.”

Parents, not school staff, should be the ones guiding students through such issues, Blair said.

“I am not here to tell you how to raise your kids. I’m here to tell you we should not be placing adult decisions on children, especially not behind a parent’s back,” Blair said. “These kids are trying to grow up in a world where sex traffickers are lurking on every cell phone just waiting to trick your child into their sick game. We need schools to communicate with parents.”

Schools need to respect parental rights, Blair said, adding her child “slipped right through the cracks because of a school’s decision to keep me in the dark.”

“We must be the voice of reason for our children,” Blair said. “We must save our children before it’s too late. Society may win a few battles but they will not win the war because parents have only begun to fight.”

Hamilton said conservative activists must continue to tell stories such as Sage’s as they fight for so-called parental rights.

“We’re not going to forget about what happened and we will continue to fight for Sage in the 2024 General Assembly session,” he said.