Democrats in Virginia are fighting to abolish single-sex bathrooms in public schools and prevent parents from knowing when their children assume different genders at school.
In a 5-4 vote on Monday, Democrats on the state legislature’s rules commission rejected Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plan to protect same-sex spaces and increase parents’ role in education.
Youngkin’s plan includes asking parents’ consent before referring to children by different names or pronouns, as well as preserving sex-specific sports teams, locker rooms, and bathrooms.
This comes after Democratic Delegate Elizabeth Guzmán introduced a bill in October that would counter the governor’s transgender policies. Liberal school districts across the state have also pledged to flout Youngkin’s plan if adopted.
According to a Youngkin spokesman, the governor disagreed with the commission’s judgment.
The vote of the panel was mostly formal. The Virginia Department of Education will finalize the model policy, which was introduced in September and does not need legislative approval.
The guidelines, which were put in place by former Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam last year and required schools to use names, pronouns, and toilet arrangements that corresponded with a student’s perceived gender, have been improved by the new policy.
The state Education Department is “in the process of reviewing more than 71,000 public comments” before the state superintendent announces the final version, according to a spokesman.
“Children do not belong to the state,” said Education Secretary Aimee Guidera. “They belong to families.”
Since gaining control of the General Assembly in 2020, Democrats have not used the rules commission. Chris Head, a Republican delegate, pointed out that the chairman of the commission allowed left-wing organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union and Equality Virginia to speak while only allowing parent organizations to make brief public statements.
The Virginia ACLU and Equality Virginia both argued that Youngkin’s model policy would lead to a “hostile” school environment that harms LGBT youth and increase their risk of suicide.
Fairfax County parent Harry Jackson, meanwhile, said that it has been “terrifying to see the politicalization of the K-12 education in Virginia.”
Youngkin was elected in 2021 following a campaign to support parents’ rights in education. He issued nine executive orders on his first day in office, among them bans on teaching critical racial theory in the classroom and investigations into malfeasance in Loudoun County schools.
