Senate to Hear Bills Targeting Parental Rights and Religious Liberty!
Tomorrow, the Senate Education and Health committee will hear HB 386 (D-Hope) and HB 145 (D-Simon), both of which are a direct attack on parental authority and religious liberty.
ACTION: Urge the Senate Committee to OPPOSE HB 145 and 386!
HB 386 will prevent parents from seeking counseling for their children who may struggle with their sexual identity or are experiencing unwanted same-sex attractions. Under this bill, if any licensed health professionals (counselors, psychologists, physicians, etc.) provides talk therapy for these minors, they risk having their license taken away, jeopardizing their careers and livelihood. This bill has everything to do with silencing professionals and trapping young minors in a lifestyle they desperately want to avoid.
Incredibly, however, HB 386 would allow licensed professionals to provide “acceptance, support, and understanding” to a minor undergoing “gender transition” or exploring unnatural sexual desires. That’s right – a counselor could encourage a young boy to “transition” into a girl, but would be prohibited by law from helping that same boy understand and affirm his identity as a boy! This 2 minute video from whatwouldyousay.org perfectly describes this utter lunacy.
Also targeting parental rights and rights of conscience is HB 145, which will require the Department of Education to develop model policies for handling “transgender” students that would be dictated on every school district in Virginia. These policies would require students to be allowed to use the bathrooms and locker rooms of the opposite sex, allow biological males to compete on all-female sports teams, and demand that students and teachers use a student’s preferred pronouns which they simply declare from one day to the next.
Most alarming is that the bill would allow biological males to compete for spots on female athletic teams despite the unique physiological advantages that males have over women. While we are seeing this crop up in numerous states, there are some brave girls that are fighting back, like the two female track athletes from Connecticut who’ve filed a Title IX complaint against Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for allowing two biological males to compete on a rival female track team. These two males have managed to rack up a combined total of 17 high school girl’s track state championships in just two years.
All of these bills seek to codify into law ambiguous terms like “conversion therapy” and “transgenderism,” and further push the false narrative that people are incapable of changing their feelings or patterns of behavior. In fact, we know the very opposite is true, because there are many inspiring success stories of people who have found help, healing, and wholeness in the sexual identity through counseling. The Changed movement is a great example of a group of overcomers who used to identify as LGBTQ but through transformative power of faith-and-science-based counseling have walked away from that lifestyle.
Don’t let the General Assembly violate the rights of parents to direct the health and education of their children all to promote the culture’s sexual revolution.
Please Tell Your Senator to Respect Parental Rights and Rights of Conscience
Thank you!
