Last month, as Madeline covered, Gov. Glenn Youngkin's (R-VA) administration released the final education policies to do with transgender studies in a way that reaffirmed parental rights, known as "Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools." Standing up for parental rights is an issue Youngkin has focused on since his time on the campaign trail. While some particularly liberal school districts in Northern Virginia continue to push back, it's also worth pointing out that the governor has considerable support.
All children in Virginia deserve to have a parent engaged in their life and to be treated with dignity and respect.
— Governor Glenn Youngkin (@GovernorVA) July 18, 2023
I am committed to ensuring that every parent is involved in conversations regarding their child’s education, upbringing and care.https://t.co/eywLB6h15n
A recent segment from CBS 6 in Richmond featured numerous parents pledging their support at the Virginia Board of Education business meeting on July 27. According to the local news outlet, "a majority of the speakers... backed the Youngkin administration's new policy," which included "parents, religious and family values groups, and a few doctors."
As the newscaster explained, "the new model policies would allow families to opt out of using school bathrooms or locker rooms where a transgender student is present," adding that "supporters praised the provision requiring parental approval for name changes and counseling requested by students questioning their gender identity."
When it comes to critics claiming there could be danger involved if students were "outed" to non-supportive parents, the newscaster spoke to how "backers of the new policy say they include protections against abuse."
Among those pledging their support included Ginny Gentles of the Independent Women's Forum (IWF). The segment included an excerpt towards the end of Gentles' remarks, and IWF tweeted out her full remarks.
Gentles began by sharing how she pulled her children out of the Arlington Public Schools, "because we no longer trust our residentially-assigned schools to educate our children," adding "too many elements of the Virginia Public School System prioritized activism over academics."
As the segment mentioned, some felt that the previous polices went too far. Gentles mentioned the March 2021 policies from Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's administration.
Those policies, Gentles explained, "required teachers to address children by their ever shifting array of pronouns, abolished sex-specific facilities... encouraged schools to develop secretive action plans to support the student's transition, and considered reporting parents who affirmed their child's biological sex to Child Protective Services."
As she moved on to affirm her support for the 2023 policies, Gentles described them as those which "protect children from government employees who want to require school staff to deceive parents and encourage young women to medicalize their insecurities," adding that "pressuring a child to choose a new identity and name, and then hiding the child's social transition from her parents is manipulative and cruel."
Gentles also had words of caution about schools following the 2021 policies, in that "they teach children from young ages that they may have been born in the wrong body," which she said "is confusing and destabilizing for emotionally vulnerable children."
"The children caught up in the social contagion of gender ideology often have special needs, they often have underlying conditions" Gentles reminded, calling to mind how these children are thus further taken advantage of. "Puberty is excruciatingly hard for these emotionally intense young people, and they're understandably seeking relief offered by the elusive promise of trans joy."
"These vulnerable children, often girls, deserve their parents' involvement as they struggle through puberty," Gentles continued, once more sharing harsh truths for those schools who would still stick by the 2021 policies.
"Unfortunately the 2021 model policies intentionally drove a painful wedge between parents and children," with Gentles further explaining how those policies "cruelly put children down a one-way path into medical transitions, and school staff and bureaucrats eager to oppose the 2023 policies must acknowledge the irreversible damage that so many people experience after transitioning, including negative impacts on bone density, cognitive development, cardiovascular health, fertility, and sexual function. The activist-drafted policies from 2021 disregard these well-documented risks."
Gentles closed on a hopeful note, saying in part that "the new 2023 model policies protect emotionally vulnerable children, respect parents' rights to be involved in their children's lives, and free teachers from the burden of having to keep secrets from parents."
It's time to end secretive and destructive gender support plans.
— Ginny Gentles (@ginnygentles) July 27, 2023
Virginia's 2023 Model Policies protect emotionally vulnerable students, respect parents’ rights to be involved in their children’s lives, and free teachers from the burden of having to keep secrets from parents. https://t.co/ykEBG4p7P4
Gentles' concern about secret support for minors' transitions is not merely a hypothetical. As Madeline also covered last summer, the Fairfax County Public School System (FCPS) was training teachers to transition students without parental consent.
FCPS is the largest district in the commonwealth, and among the largest in the country. Like other liberal districts, it has consistently resisted Youngkin's efforts to protect parental rights. On July 19 Superintendent Michelle Reid offered a message to families suggesting FCPS would not follow such policies, in the name of being "inclusive."
"I want to be clear that FCPS remains committed to an inclusive and affirming learning environment for each and every student and staff member including those who are transgender or gender expansive. Our schools will continue to be safe, welcoming, and respectful learning spaces," Reid's message in part read.
The business meeting from last Thursday is not the only venue where parents have expressed their support for the new policies.
Mary Vought wrote an op-ed for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, "Parents really do matter, thanks to Gov. Glenn Youngkin." In the Fairfax County Times,
.@GlennYoungkin is bringing sanity to Virginia politics with a simple message: parents matter.@MaryVought: “I’m glad that Gov. Youngkin’s admin agrees, and has taken steps through the revised standards to restore some much-needed sanity.…”https://t.co/vBIBVkqr71
— Team Youngkin - Spirit of Virginia (@TeamYoungkin) July 27, 2023
Governor Youngkin’s new model policies aren’t just fair to parents – they are best practices for children https://t.co/4JEcd2h1lQ via @fairfaxtimes
— Rob Damschen (@RobDamschen) July 27, 2023
The month of July was also full of Youngkin participating in his Parents Matter town hall events, with positive coverage coming from The Roanoke Times, Inside NOVA, WSLS, and WSET.
Exit polls from the 2021 gubernatorial election showed that Youngkin won with voters who prioritized the education issue. He won with 50.6 percent of the vote overall, compared to former Gov. Terry McAuliffe's 48.6 percent. Even in liberal strongholds where Youngkin did not win, he still managed to outperform former President Donald Trump.
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