John,

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

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. 

Virginia has precedent for striking down anti-trans policies. Gavin Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board was ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm, not once but TWICE, which made a sweeping declaration that trans students should not be forced to use the bathrooms of the genders they were assigned at birth. These policies would go against the rulings of the nations' highest courts.

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. These policies also go against state law.

TL;DR Governor Youngkin’s policies explicitly contradict state law and are illegal. 

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 Governor Youngkin that these anti-trans policies cannot stand.

Until Justice, 

Denver Supinger

President, Virginia Young Democrats