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Today, the 30-Day public comment period opened on Glenn Youngkin’s
proposed anti-trans Virginia Department of Education model policy in
Virginia public schools. Governor Youngkin proposed these policies with the
descriptors, “Privacy, Dignity, and Respect” while citing his ongoing
campaign promise of “protecting parental rights in education” as a
reason for this decision. However, these policies have little to do with
“privacy, dignity, and respect.”

These model policies are rooted in transphobia and only seek to further
harm trans and non-binary kids. They create a hostile and potentially
dangerous school environment for those same students as they require
teachers and staff to “forcibly out” students to their parents against
the student’s will, even in cases where students seek counseling for
abusive at home environments.

POST YOUR PUBLIC COMMENT AGAINST THESE ANTI-TRANS POLICIES [3]

Youngkin’s policies would prohibit educators from using students’
affirming names and pronouns to help support their students and their
mental health. Putting trans students further into harm's way, they also
force the students into a bathroom and sports policy that do not adhere to
their true gender identity, making them potential targets for bullying,
abuse, and violence.

In 2021, Governor Ralph Northam signed the Virginia Values Act into law
after it was passed through the General Assembly. This law sweepingly,
effectively prohibited discrimination in public and private employment,
credit, housing, and public accommodations on the basis of sexual
orientation and gender identity, among other additional protected
categories. The protections in this act have been extended to protect
LGBTQ+ youth in Virginia public schools throughout the Commonwealth to
prohibit discrimination, harassment, and violence in against these
students.

_TL;DR GOVERNOR YOUNGKIN’S POLICIES EXPLICITLY CONTRADICT STATE LAW AND
ARE ILLEGAL. _

ADD YOUR COMMENT HERE [3]

The Virginia Young Democrats continue to support the trans and non-binary
folks in our community and are sounding the alarms to all of our allies and
supporters to help. We cannot allow for these policies to be illegally
forced upon our students in the name of the Right’s so-called
“parent’s rights” campaign against kids. We need to protect trans
kids.

These policies are the groundwork for the GOP’s national playbook, from
Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” policy to Senator Rick Scott’s proposal
to ban trans kids from schools by pulling funding from schools with
transgender support policies. These policies don’t protect anyone’s
safety, rights, or dignity. These policies only seek to harm and further
marginalize LGBTQ+ people. If Virginia allows this to go through, the GOP
will only escalate further to the national level.

JOIN US BY TELLING GOV. YOUNGKIN THAT THESE ANTI-TRANS POLICIES CANNOT
STAND. [3]

UNTIL JUSTICE,

DENVER SUPINGER

PRESIDENT, VIRGINIA YOUNG DEMOCRATS

WRITE YOUR COMMENT NOW [3]



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