On Tuesday, The Washington Free Beacon reported that Virginia democrats on the state legislature’s rules commission voted 5-4 on Monday to reject Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R.) plan to protect same-sex spaces and increase parents’ role in education.
The article reports:
If the plan is adopted, administrators and teachers would have to seek parents’ consent before referring to children by different names or pronouns. The plan would also preserve sex-specific sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms.
That sounds like common sense to me–parents need to know if their children are asking to be addressed by different names or pronouns. I also would like to keep teenage boys out of girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.
The article continues:
The vote is the latest attempt by Virginia Democrats to block Youngkin’s transgender policies. Delegate Elizabeth Guzmán (D.) in October floated a bill designed to counter the governor’s policies, which would make it a crime for parents to ignore their children’s chosen name, pronouns, or sexual orientation. School districts in liberal enclaves across the state have pledged to flout Youngkin’s plan if implemented.
A spokeswoman for Youngkin said the governor did not support the commission’s decision.
The commission’s vote was largely formal. The model policy, which was introduced in September, will be finalized by Virginia’s Department of Education and does not require legislative approval. The policy improves upon guidelines put in place last year by disgraced former Virginia governor Ralph Northam (D.), which mandated that schools abide by names, pronouns, and bathroom choices that correspond with a student’s perceived gender.
The article concludes:
Harry Jackson, a parent of Fairfax County students who submitted a public comment, told the Free Beacon that it has been “terrifying to see the politicalization of the K-12 education in Virginia.”
“Parents do not know they are in custody battle with these activists,” he said.
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a mother of three from Fairfax County who spoke during the public comment period, said that “a tyrannical minority has taken transgender policy so far that it is threatening freedom and parental rights.”
“Not only are parents’ rights to raise their children formally being dismantled, but many Virginians are afraid to even discuss it,” she told the commission. “We need to reset the scales, and I believe Governor Youngkin’s Model Policies will help us to do that.”
Youngkin was elected in 2021 after campaigning to defend parents’ rights in education. After taking office, he signed nine day-one executive orders to ban critical race theory from classrooms and investigate wrongdoing in Loudoun County schools, among other measures.