Did a VA Legislator Really Want to Criminalize Non-Affirming Parents?
The policies of a VA legislator went viral Friday afternoon after FOX News and other right wing outlets accused her of wanting to jail parents who did not provide gender affirming-care to their trans children. Unsurprisingly, the real story is more complicated.
by Evan Urquhart
Break a champagne bottle over us please, ladies, men, and nonbinary friends, because Assigned has issued our first correction, having allowed right wing coverage (and an impending dinner date) to skew our perception of a bill proposed by VA Delegate Elizabeth Guzman.
The story originated with an interview with Guzman by reporter Nick Minock of WJLA TV, which is one of two flagship stations of the Sinclair broadcast group. An article by Minock, which has not been corrected as of this writing, stated that, if Guzman’s bill passed, non-affirming parents could face felony charges.
This was false, and a longer version of the interview that was posted by WJLA Friday night proves that Sinclair could and should have known it was. When asked directly if non-affirming parents were committing abuse, Guzman told Minock it was not true.
In truth, Guzman’s bill only sets out to protect children from “physical or mental injury on the basis of the child's gender identity or sexual orientation.” The bill was introduced once already in 2020, and it failed to pass because all children are already protected from child abuse. If re-introduced, it is likely to fail again for the same reason.
Once Sinclair’s misleading and inflammatory article was live, the right wing media ecosystem propagated it widely. In addition to the FOX News piece in our original post FOX’s Tucker Carlson denounced the non-existent proposal, the false claim was repeated by the outlets such as the Washington Times, it was denounced by GOP politicians including Senator Ted Cruz on Twitter, and at least one Democrat in a tight race had to distance themself from Guzman.
In an earlier post, Assigned also repeated some of the language used by the right wing propagandists in our summary of what the outrage on the right was concering. While we regret the oversight, we stand by the sentiment that the child welfare system is the wrong tool to bring to the problem of LGBTQ+ youth in non-affirming families, unless those families are also severely abusive. In regards to Delegate Guzman, of course our opinion of the legislation is moderated by the fact that the reality is not nearly as extreme as the right wing media ecosystem portrayed it as. However, the bill is still not great. It reinforces people’s false notions of the reliability and usefulness of the child welfare system in fixing problems between families and children. Although we’re sure her heart is in the right place, we find Guzman’s approach concerning, and ultimately unhelpful. While removing children from abusive parents is sometimes necessary to save their lives, the truth is that we have yet to find a solid, reliable way of ensuring every child can be loved and cared for, regardless of what family they are born into.
