Youngkin Turns Gun Bill Into Parental Rights Win Over Secret Gender Transitions

In a masterstroke of political strategy, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin flipped a far-left gun control bill into a powerful parental rights amendment forcing Democrats to show their cards on whether they support secret gender transitions for minors behind parents' backs.

Originally introduced by far-left Delegate Laura Jane Cohen (D-Fairfax), the bill sought to force schools to annually email and text parents about locking up firearms and medications. But Youngkin didn’t veto the bill instead, he surgically amended it to require schools to notify parents if their child attempts to socially or medically transition genders at school.

Youngkin’s edit doesn’t just make sense it forces Democrats to decide, just months before a crucial election year, whether they support keeping parents in the dark about life-altering decisions being made by school counselors and administrators.

The amendment mandates that school officials:

• Immediately inform parents if a child asks to be socially affirmed as a different gender,

• Request and obtain parental consent before implementing any plan involving gender transitions,

• Notify parents before providing counseling related to gender incongruence.

This approach mirrors Sage’s Law, a 2023 Republican proposal based on the tragic story of a Virginia girl secretly transitioned by her school, only to be trafficked, abused, and found in the home of a convicted sex offender in Baltimore. That heartbreaking case, which Democrats shamefully buried without a hearing, underscores exactly why transparency in schools isn’t optional it’s essential.

Democrats, with narrow majorities in both chambers, now face a gut-check vote. Either:

• Side with radical activists and risk the wrath of voters who still believe parents should be in charge of their children,

• Or admit that parents have a right to know when their child is being socially or psychologically steered down the path of gender transition.

Three vulnerable Democrats Joshua Cole (Fredericksburg), Josh Thomas (Gainesville), and Michael Feggans (Virginia Beach) have gone radio silent when asked where they stand. And it’s no wonder. In 2021, Terry McAuliffe’s infamous comment that parents shouldn’t be involved in their kids’ education cost him the election and helped propel Youngkin to the governor’s mansion.

Now the same battle is back and Youngkin is wielding it with surgical precision.

Cohen, a former school board member backed by Michael Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action, immediately blasted the amendment as “garbage.” But her own record tells the story. She fought for transgender policies on the Fairfax County School Board despite widespread public opposition. And her personal conflict having a cognitively impaired child who now identifies as transgender raises serious questions about her objectivity.

Let’s be clear: This isn’t about safety. It’s about control. And Democrats are terrified that Youngkin just handed Republicans a defining issue for the 2025 elections protecting children by putting parents back in the driver’s seat.

The vote is coming. And Virginians will be watching.

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