A Republican campaigning for a spot on the Fairfax County School Board is responding to claims he attacked the LGBTQ+ community by posing as the parent of a transgender child in a phone call to a local medical clinic.
Jeff Hoffmann recorded himself lying about his identity on a call with the Inova Pride Clinic, which offers medical care for transgender people.
"I have a … I used to say beautiful boy. I'm the stepfather," he says to the receptionist during the phone call, which Hoffmann posted to Twitter.
Hoffmann told News4 during an interview on Tuesday that he made the call to the clinic because he wants to "raise awareness" about the clinic.
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"There is a clinic, the same hospital system where one of my ... boys were born, that provides gender affirming care for minors," Hoffmann said.
The Inova Pride Clinic is a private clinic that opened last year and treats members of the LGBTQ+ community.
During his phone call to the clinic, Hoffmann suggests a connection between an LGBTQ+ group, the school system and the clinic, and seems to imply that the school system is sending children to the clinic for gender affirming care.
"Now you have a group called FCPS Pride that is directly connected to the Fairfax public schools," Hoffmann says in the phone call to the clinic.
"No, we are not directly connected to them," the receptionist replies.
When News4 asked Hoffmann why he lied to the clinic about his identity, he replied, "That's irrelevant. Why don't you look at a group like Democracy Fund."
"Yeah, honestly, I honestly think that's irrelevant," Hoffmann said when asked again about why he lied about his identity.
Christina McCormick is a mother to two transgender students, one just graduated from the county school system and the other is currently enrolled. She said both of her children go to the Pride Clinic.
"Did any other group, FCPS Pride or teachers at FCPS, encourage your kids to go there?" News4 asked during a video interview with McCormick.
"Absolutely not was there any suggestion or recommendations by anybody at school or FCPS Pride. It was something that I heard about just because we're dialed into that community right now and resources for the kids," McCormick said.
"I don't have any other way to describe it but silly. It's just goofy. It's factually inaccurate," Robert Rigby, with FCPS Pride, said of Hoffmann's recorded phone call to the clinic.
