Virginia Lawmakers Reject Youngkin’s Gender Privacy Amendment

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin tried to amend a bill that would require school boards to send annual notifications to parents about safe storage of prescription drugs and firearms, by adding a provision to prohibit schools from withholding students’ gender identity questions from parents.

During the legislature’s one-day veto session on Wednesday, Virginia House Speaker Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, said the governor’s tweak had nothing to do with the legislation, before lawmakers effectively rejected the change. The Senate initially opted to “pass by” the companion bill for the day, before rejecting it outright.

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The bill now heads back to Youngkin for consideration, but is at risk of being vetoed, since both branches failed to compromise.

Peter Finocchio, a spokesman for the governor, reiterated Youngkin’s support for parents.

“In Virginia, parents have a fundamental right to make decisions on their child’s upbringing, care, and education,” said Finocchio in a statement.

The legislation, carried by Del. Laura Jane Cohen, D-Fairfax, and Sen. Stella Pekarsky, D-Fairfax, would have tasked school boards in each district to send parents annual reminders about safely storing guns and prescription medications via email as well as text messages, if possible. The bill stipulated that school boards provide these reminders in more than one language and post them on the school district’s website.

Youngkin’s amendment would have required schools to notify at least one parent if a student seeks help from a social worker regarding their gender identity. Schools would also need parental permission before starting any plan to help students manage their gender feelings.

On Wednesday, Del. Marcus Simon, D-Fairfax, said the governor’s amendment has “absolutely nothing to do with the underlying bill” before asking Scott to determine if the governor’s amendment was germane.

“The governor’s recommendation strays from this original purpose by requiring notification to certain parents in limited instances, a much more specific and targeted notification not related to the subject of the original bill,” Scott concluded. “Therefore, the governor’s recommendation is not germane.”

Cohen agreed that the governor’s recommendation has no relevance to her proposal. She said this is an opportunity for him to show, as he says often, that he cares about kids.

“I feel like the governor has the opportunity to, again, do the right thing,” Cohen said. “We’re sending it back to his desk, and he can choose to do the right thing and actually take some good preventive steps on making sure that we keep our kids safe from accidental poisonings and from accidental shootings.”

The language proposed by the governor is similar to a bill, carried by Del. Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, which the House failed to take up during the regular session for a second straight year. Freitas’ bill, also known as Sage’s Law, was introduced by then-Republican Del. Dave LaRock during the 2023 General Assembly Session. It successfully passed in a Republican-controlled House, but died in the Senate controlled by Democrats.

“While Sage’s Law did not even receive a hearing during the legislative session, parents have spoken loudly on this commonsense issue,” Youngkin spokesman Finocchio said.

Last year, lawmakers rejected the governor’s amendment for a similar proposal carried by Cohen and Pekarsky that would have required lawmakers to vote again on the notification bill for a second year. The amendment also prioritized parents by requiring the Virginia Department of Education to work with subject experts to create a list of parental rights and responsibilities and plan for distributing the list to parents.

“For the second year in a row, the governor has refused to address the substance of my bill,” Pekarsky said, naming gun and prescription drug safety and school-parent partnership as the goals of her measure.

“The governor refused to center the safety of children,” she said, “and instead took the opportunity to play politics with their safety.”

by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

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