Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s office removed resources for LGBT youth and issued a statement reaffirming parental rights following an inquiry from The Daily Wire.
Governor Youngkin’s (R) Department of Health removed a list titled “National Resources for LGBT Youth,” shortly after an inquiry from The Daily Wire. The list previously included a “social justice website” for children called “Queer Kid Stuff” and an anonymous chat site for minors.
“In Virginia, the governor will always reaffirm a parent’s role in their child’s life. Children belong to their parents, not the state,” Youngkin Press Secretary Macaulay Porter asserted in a statement.
“The governor supports providing resources that are age appropriate, however the government should not facilitate anonymous conversations between adults and children without a parent’s approval,” Porter added.
“Sexualizing children against a parent’s wishes doesn’t belong on a taxpayer supported website,” she contended.
The Daily Wire inquiry and accompanying story focused on two different sites listed on the website: “Queer Kid Stuff” and the “QChat Space.” Queer Kid Stuff describes itself as an “LGBTQ+ educational web series for children ages 3+” that seeks to “actively destigmatize queer topics in early childhood spaces.”
The organization also works to center “queer identity, experience, and history at the core of all of our work with particular emphasis on unearthing historic erasure,” specifically by “honoring the Black and Brown trans women at the core of the modern (and historic) LGBTQ+ movement.”
The organization’s YouTube channel includes a video where men dressed in drag teach children how to make gay and transgender pride flags. Another video discusses transgender medical interventions, including puberty blocker use, top surgery, and bottom surgery.
The QChat Space, an anonymous chat site for children as young as 13 who identify as LGBT, was also previously listed on the site. The site, which does not verify users’ ages, has a “quick escape” button that allows minors to quickly hide their use of the site.
The QChat Space hosts conversations on a number of different topics, including “drag culture,” “gender-affirmation surgeries,” “self discovery in astrology,” and “queer youth activism.”
What is it that needs to be kept hidden? Here are some of the chat topics:
– Sex change operations
– "Queering" Tarot cards
– Astrology
– Drag culture pic.twitter.com/PrZFmwq5jJ— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) July 18, 2022
The decision to remove the resources page was reportedly met with dismay by some inside the office, according to Virginia Mercury. Director of the Office of Family Health Services Vanessa Walker Harris reportedly sent an email to employees that read “I’m noticing that the referenced webpage is no longer accessible and I’m having a bad case of deja vu.”
“What am I missing? I’m very concerned that staff were directed to remove the webpage without engaging [subject matter experts] in response to a politically motivated inquiry, yet again,” the email continued, according to Virginia Mercury.
Emily Yeatts, a supervisor for the Department of Health’s Division of Child and Family Health, wrote, “here we go again with removing things from the webpage without consulting ofhs.”
Gov. Youngkin’s office previously removed other material from the site, including an FAQ page that led users to a chatbot powered by Planned Parenthood. The office also removed information on five different organizations that provide financial support for abortions.