Virginia students are staging strikes to protest GOP Gov. Youngkin’s policy, which bans trans students from using bathrooms and playing on certain sports teams
- On Tuesday, Virginia students staged school strikes to protest the state’s new policy on transgender students in public schools
- The model policies introduced by Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Republican administration require students to use facilities appropriate to their birth sex
- Teachers would also need express written parental permission under the new rules to address a student with a new name or pronoun
Students at dozens of middle and high schools in Virginia staged a walkout Tuesday to protest the state’s repeal of a law protecting students’ rights to choose their gender identity and preferred names in school.
When the new law comes into effect, this decision will fall exclusively to the parents of students.
The new policy, released Sept. 16 by the state’s Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also requires students to use the school toilets, pronouns and names that match their official school records.
Helicopter footage Tuesday morning showed crowds of students walking out of a handful of schools in Northern Virginia with signs and flags.
“Trans rights are human rights,” reads a sign.
Other students dispensed with the multicolored Progress flag, which includes light blue, light pink, and white stripes to honor transgender people and black and brown stripes to honor marginalized black and brown communities and people living with AIDS.
The recently introduced Progress flag features light blue, light pink, and white stripes to honor transgender people, and black and brown stripes to honor marginalized black and brown communities and people living with AIDS
Students from nearly 100 Virginia schools walked out of class Tuesday morning to protest the state’s new law that revokes some freedoms for transgender students
The policy also stipulates that students can only play on sports teams that match their birth sex.
Schools will be banned from encouraging teachers to hide information about a student’s gender identity from parents.
Although the policy has been demonized by left-wing politicians and LGBTQ+ groups, she cautions that “every effort should be made to ensure that a transgender student who wishes to change his or her title is treated with respect, compassion and dignity.” becomes”.
There will be a 30-day public comment period before the new policy officially goes into effect. This window opened on Monday and had already collected more than 16,000 responses.
The final decision on the policy will be made by the Virginia Department of Education once the public comment period closes.
A spokesman for Youngkin said the updated policy, which repeals the model policies introduced last year by the Democratic Northam government, “fulfills the governor’s obligation to uphold parental rights and to uphold the dignity and respect of all public school students.”
Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin says once the law goes into effect, school districts will have no choice but to comply
The Youngkin administration’s proposed policy reverses a model policy introduced last year by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration
Youngkin previously clarified that if the law is approved by the Virginia DOE, every school district will be required to join them.
“Parents really need to be at the center of this discussion with their children, who they knew before they were born,” Youngkin said about the law during an interview with an ABC Washington affiliate. “And I think this is in the best interests of the child and in the best interests of the family. And I think people will understand that better after reading the policy.
The current Virginia Department of Education claimed that Northam’s model of transgender policy “disregards the rights of parents” and put forward certain legal and constitutional principles designed to govern how schools teach students.