Trans-related policies in Virginia schools have been a divisive topic for the last few years, highlighted by the outrageous case of a father who was arrested and charged for a furious outburst at a Loudoun County School Board meeting, triggered by officials' lies around the circumstances of his daughter's sexual assault. We've covered that ordeal on several occasions, chronicling Democrats' dismissive sneering about it. The father in question, Scott Smith, was briefly made the poster child for the Left's 'dangerous parents gone wild' narrative, under which the Biden administration and their allies framed concerned parents as "domestic terrorists." But when the facts of the Loudoun assault and cover-up (which resulted in another sexual assault committed by the same gender nonconforming male assailant, who was transferred to another school, where he struck again) finally came out, they resulted in firings and indictments.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, has now pardoned Smith. He's also laid out policies governing these thorny issues in the state, drawing gales of criticism from the Left. One deep blue county in Northern Virginia has threatened to defy the new Virginia regulations on school restrooms, earning a rebuke and a warning from the governor. Some Old Dominion Democrats are even attacking Youngkin's pardon of the sexual assault victim's father in the case mentioned above. Here are Democrats from both legislative chambers in Richmond apparently arguing that the dad of the sexual assault victim should be prosecuted, and should not have been pardoned by the governor:
Didn’t law enforcement make these charges…Guess he doesn’t “Back the Blue” as much as we thought…
— Delegate Candi Mundon King (@CandiMundonKing) September 10, 2023
Youngkin and Virginia Republicans are running on a pro-parents platform in the current off-year election cycle, arguing that Democrats continue to side with radical activists over the best interests of families and the rights of parents. Such stances helped Terry McAuliffe lose the gubernatorial race two years ago, but Democrats appear to be doubling down -- including in their continued fawning over anti-education and anti-science zealot Randi Weingarten. The embrace of Weingarten's child-harming agenda is the official position of the Democratic Party, starting at the very top. Meanwhile, in California and New Jersey, Democratic administrations have sued local school districts over newly-enacted policies requiring public school officials to notify parents if their child is undergoing a gender transition. Despite carve-outs for cases involving documented abuse, 'progressive' judges have thus far sided with these blue state Attorneys General over local communities and parents. Meanwhile, a mother in Virginia says her daughter endured a living nightmare after her local school facilitated a social gender transition without her knowledge. The Washington Examiner published this extremely disturbing account last week:
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A Virginia mother is suing her local school district in federal court, saying staff there secretly transitioned her daughter, putting her in such dangerous situations that she ran away only to be kidnapped and sex-trafficked. Michele Blair, mother of Sage, filed a lawsuit against the Appomattox County School Board and district staff, as well as Baltimore, Maryland, area public defender Aneesa Khan, who is accused in the lawsuit of conducting a "series of acts aimed at depriving Mrs. Blair of custody of her daughter and keeping [Sage] in Maryland to be affirmed in a male identity."... Blair said her daughter was severely bullied in school, but alleges that the school district withheld information as to why that was happening: the fact that Sage was identifying as a boy in school. "It was verbal, physical, sexually harassed with constant threats of rape by the male classmates," she said of her daughter's 2021 freshman year at Appomattox County High School. "Despite this, the school encouraged her to use the boys' bathroom." Sage had a history of mental health issues including depression, eating disorders, self-harm, and hallucinations, and Blair informed the school of it prior to any of the incidents. However, the school pursued a social transition for Sage behind the back of her parents, the lawsuit filed by the Child & Parent Rights Campaign alleges.
When this child, with a history of mental illness and emotional distress, faced ongoing bullying for her gender transition -- which, again, had not been shared by school officials with her 'non-affirming' parents -- she ran away. Things got much worse:
Vernadette Broyles, Blair's attorney from the CPRC, told the Washington Examiner that Sage ran away from home due to severe bullying and harassment at school. "The school officials were encouraging her to use the boys' bathroom, even though they knew she was being threatened with sexual assault, so she perceived herself that she wasn't safe and she runs away from home," Broyles said. "She runs into the arms of a waiting pedophile, who encounters her, rapes her, traffics her with two other men, and takes her across state lines into Washington, D.C., and then ultimately into Maryland."
This child was eventually recovered by the FBI, but was not returned to her home. Why? According to the lawsuit, a Maryland public defender decided it would not be 'safe,' due to parental opposition to the child's gender transition. Where was young Sage then kept 'safe'?
Broyles explained that the "nightmare should have ended" in Maryland, when Sage was eventually rescued by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, but the Baltimore juvenile court system took custody of the young girl at the behest of Khan. Khan concluded that the Blairs were not "sufficiently affirming" of her new identity, and "concocts a fabricated story of abuse and neglect by the parents and convinces a judge to keep this child in custody," Broyles said. While in custody, Sage was put into a juvenile facility for adolescent males "where she was again sexually assaulted, exposed to drugs, and denied medical and mental health care," the lawsuit states. "This is a 100-pound girl, what do you think happens in this facility?" Broyles said. Sage, again in fear for her safety, ran away from the facility and was again found by another pedophile who brought her to Texas "where she was again raped, drugged, starved, and tortured until law enforcement in Texas rescued her and notified her mother who returned her to Virginia," the lawsuit states.
Having been sexually assaulted and trafficked once already, this 100-pound female was placed not in her own home, but in a males-only juvenile facility, where she was again assaulted. The family's attorney says she then ran away again, resulting in another series of horrors at the hands of a separate pedophile sex trafficker. The state of Maryland's chief public defender told the Examiner that her office "fully support[s] our attorney, who appropriately represented her client in accordance with her legal, ethical, and professional obligations." Youngkin has been highlighting this shocking story for months:
Governor Youngkin mentions the story of Sage, a teenager who was trafficked and raped after the school hid her gender identity from her parents during a @CNN Townhall tonight.
— Sarah Weaver (@SarahHopeWeaver) March 10, 2023
"I believe that Sage’s grandmother is here tonight." @DailyCaller pic.twitter.com/eCVptvaQUv
I'll leave you with another school district in California refusing to be deterred by the state's legal efforts to prevent parents from being notified of their child's gender transition in government-run schools. As a reminder, in many cases, schools cannot even administer Tylenol to a minor student without parental consent:
CA School Board Passes Transgender Parental Notification Policy
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 11, 2023
https://t.co/DuOfodZ6kI
The vote reportedly sparked a walkout by dissenting school board members, as well as a "disruption" by assembled protesters aligned with the Revolutionary Communist Party. Remembers these details the next time the media frames these issues as right-wing 'culture wars.' A few more related clips:
Loudoun County father Scott Smith, having been pardoned by Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, CALLS OUT Loudoun County Attorney Buta Biberaj:
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 11, 2023
"She's one of the most evil people I've ever met!" pic.twitter.com/naHGtgc03A
Youngkin is cross-crossing the state essentially arguing that VA Dems are hostile to parental rights & VA Dems are basically responding, “yes, that’s correct.” Take note, voters.
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 12, 2023
Some background on what Barack Obama & Terry McAuliffe dismissed as a phony culture war in 2021: https://t.co/cNtQlSWICs pic.twitter.com/vsFWMw9aAK
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