RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) – The ACLU is now suing over Virginia’s transgender student policies.
Thursday, it announced it filed suit on behalf of two transgender students, one that attends school in Hanover Country.
The Hanover School Board adopted the new transgender policy change in November.
Attorney General Jason Miyaras said all school districts had to and that they comply with state and federal anti-discrimination laws.
In this lawsuit, the ACLU tries to argue that’s not true.
“Sadly, the VDOE moved forward with these policies, and now they’re doing exactly what those folks said they would, which is making it so that trans young people aren’t safe,” ACLU Attorney Wyatt Rolla said.
The ACLU of Virginia says it is fighting back, filing suit against the Virginia Department of Education over changes to the model policy for transgender students.
The changes emphasized parents’ rights and reignited the debate over pronoun use, parents’ rights and student privacy.
“I think it’s a sad comment on the environment that’s been created in Virginia by the advance of these anti-trans policies that’s really part of a coordinated, nationwide effort right now to target trans-youth,” Rolla said.
The suit was filed on behalf of a transgender student in Hanover and another in York County.
Attorney Wyatt Rolla said the Hanover Middle School student was denied a place on a girls’ sports team because of the new policy.
“To have that kind of community with her teammates, and again, even though her parents supported her in doing that, Governor Younkin took away their ability to make those decisions for their children and have them be able to fully engage in our public schools,” Rolla said.
However, some conservative advocacy groups have no problem with the policies.
“I think it’s a desperate attempt to undo something people don’t like,” The Family Foundation president Victoria Cobb said. “The biological male kept from playing sports and playing girl sports in Hanover may not appreciate that his school is choosing to protect girls from unsafe and unfair competition, but poll after poll shows that Virginia’s support this policy.”
Cobb said they agree with the policy, and it’s meant to protect all students.
“But that is also balancing the rights of girls to be in private spaces without having biological boys there, and we know that it’s important from the sexual assault situation that happened in Loudoun County,” Cobb said.
The lawsuits ask the Hanover and York County courts to vacate the 2023 model policies and rule that school districts do not have to adopt them.
12 On Your Side received no comment from the Virginia Department of Education or Governor Youngkin’s office.
We also reached out to the Hanover County School Board for comment and received this statement from Chair Bob May:
“As you know, the lawsuit has been filed against the Virginia Department of Education, not Hanover County Public Schools or the Hanover County School Board. Therefore, it is not appropriate for us to comment on this pending litigation.”
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