Virginia County Formally Opposes New Guidance on Transgender Students

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to send a letter to the Virginia Department of Education stating that its new transgender student policies will not be implemented in the school district.

The Board of Supervisors voted to formally oppose the idea, claiming that the policies are “bad for business” and would cause companies to choose to not move to Virginia, according to WTOP. 

Board members reportedly said that the school policies would have a “chilling effect on our controlled ability to attract the world’s most innovative companies.”

In a recent interview with WTOP, Virginia Gov. Glen Youngkin, a Republican, said he expects all schools to follow the guidance. 

“It’s the law,” he said. “We can’t be in a moment where people can just pick the laws they want to abide by and the ones they don’t.” He added that the policies are “fundamentally rooted in re-establishing the role of parents in these most important decisions.”

As Townhall reported, the guidance instructs school districts to require transgender students to use restrooms, locker rooms and participate in programs that align with their biological sex rather than their “gender identity.” The guidance also advises against teacher training to conceal students’ gender transitions from parents. 

“No policy, guidance, training, or other written material issued by the [School Division] may encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material information about a student from the student’s parent, including information related to gender,” the guidance said.

Previously, reports broke that teachers in Fairfax County were given training over the summer that trains them to conceal students’ gender identity information from parents. The training specified that parental consent was not required for students who wanted to “socially” transition, such as going by a chosen name and preferred pronouns at schools.

At a rally shortly after, Youngkin criticized the school district. 

"What's their name? What pronoun will they use? How are they going to express their gender? This is a decision that bureaucrats in Fairfax County believe that they should be able to make without telling parents,” he said.

The new Department of Education guidance was published shortly after. Predictably, leftist school districts near Washington D.C. said they wouldn’t follow the guidelines. And, some students staged walkouts over the policies. 

“It’s appalling - although sadly, not surprising,” Nicki Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, told Townhall of the Board’s decision to oppose Youngkin’s policies. “Students do better when parents are involved in their children’s lives, period.”