Virginia Beach Parents Sue School Board Over Transgender Policies

Two parents in Virginia Beach, Virginia have filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Beach school board, demanding the nearby school systems enact Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s new policies on transgender students. One of those policies includes banning Transgender girl from sports.

The lawsuit was filed by a conservative pair of parents and law firm. They allege that local school boards should adopt these policies, replacing accommodations that were made by democrats for trans students.

Many school boards across the state had mixed reactions to the policies. More conservative boards adopted the policies while more liberal boards have not enacted them.

Both the governor and attorney general demand action for the policies, stating that parents should have insight on how their child is presented in the classroom.

This yet again comes as an attack on the trans community, as many see schools as a safe haven in the ability to have self-expression. Taking these protections away from them in schools would forcibly out trans students, many whom do not have supportive parents at home. 

This lawsuit, if given the green light, would force all school boards (law 5-7-1) in Virginia Beach to enact these policies such as sports being assigned based on sex at birth, which means that trans girls would be banned from joining in sports.

Additionally, these laws would misgender transgender students, as the policies would require teachers to refer to them as their sex assigned at birth.

Virginia, is just one of many states whose school boards have made discriminatory rules against its transgender pupils, many of which require parental notification if a student wants to change their pronouns.

These measures are extremely harmful to our transgender community, as in recent months, there have been over 574 bills that have been introduced against trans people, according to Trans Legislation Tracker .

Opponents of Youngkin’s actions state that these policies would violate federal law. They cite the court ruling of Gavin Grimm, who sued the district over transgender bathrooms.

The unfortunate obsessions that many rightwing politicians have had with transgender people have been rather scary and extremely unsafe for our folks. This opens the idea that we must watch and protect those who we love and support no matter who they are.