Virginia GOP Plan to Use "Parental Rights" to Erase Gays, Blacks and Undermine Public Education

Following the game plan of Republicans across the country and Glenn Youngkin's disingenuous support of "parental rights" that many suburban voters - especially in Northern Virginia fell for - an number of GOP backed bills in the coming session of the Virginia General Assembly will seek to erase gays, limit the teaching of accurate history and seek to divert funds from public education.  Together the bills represent a wet dream of sorts for the Christofascists and anti-vaxers at The Family Foundation and other hate groups operating in Virginia. While not as severe as the "don't say gay" and "anti-woke" bills passed in Florida which a number of commentators demonstrate are dumbing down public and college education in Florida, combined with Youngkin's efforts to declare war on LGBT students and erase "divisive concepts" via executive order - namely any honest discussion of slavery and racism and the existence of LGBT individuals - from public school curricula, the GOP efforts do not bode well for quality education and equal treatment for all students.   Fair minded individuals and those who support an honest discussion of race, slavery, and LGBT issues can only hope the bills die in the Democrat controled Virginia Seante.  A piece in the Virginian Pilot looks at some of the GOP backed bills.  Here are excerpts:

Several education-related bills — many focused on expanding what the sponsors call parents’ rights — have been pre-filed for the 2023 General Assembly session and will be up for a read when it convenes Jan. 11.

Among the bills is House Bill 1379, sponsored by Del. Tim Anderson, which seeks to have schools keep a catalog of any materials in the school library that have “graphic sexual content.” Schools are to then let parents opt out of allowing their children access to these materials.

He said this bill allows parents to determine what is appropriate for their own children, without telling schools what they can keep in their collections and without “stepping on the First Amendment.”

He also noted that the bill would only apply to visual depictions of sexual content, such as in animations on film or in graphic novels. It would not apply to sexual content found in just the words of a printed book, for example.

Senate Bill 787, sponsored by Sen. Bill DeSteph, also a Republican from Virginia Beach, is similar to Anderson’s, but would require schools to have procedures in place that would require “mandatory prior written parental consent” before students are permitted to check out sensitive material.

Also this session, House Bill 1371 and matching Senate Bill 823 seek to establish an Education Savings Account program in Virginia. The voucher-like program would allow parents to use state funds to educate their children outside of their traditional public school. The money could be used to send students to private school, purchase material or programs for a homeschool education and pay for tutoring services, among other things. The bill seeks to have the program in place before the 2023-24 school year. Del. Phillip Scott, R-Fredericksburg, and Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Colonial Heights, are the chief sponsors.

Other education-related bills that will come up during the session include:

• House Bill 1397, which would allow parents to opt out of state-required immunizations for their children, without having to file a religious or medical exemption.
• House Bill 1387, which would require athletic teams associated with K-12 or higher education institutions to be expressly based on biological sex, and would require a student’s biological sex to be included on an eligibility form signed by a licensed medical professional.
• HB 1434, which would ban schools from changing the name of students on any educational records unless they receive a change-of-name order from a court.
• Senate Bill 818, which would require all public K-12 schools to provide an age-appropriate course on mental health.

Transgender students are particularly targeted and I strongly suspect that "graphic sexual content" will include anything mentioning LGBT individuals and same sex relationships. The bills would in effect allow The Family Foundation and its followers and other hate groups masquerading as "family organizations" to censor school curicula and siphon funds from public education while endangering students by exposure to unimmunized fellow students.