Equality UUCA is affiliated with the 650 member Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington Virginia and we speak for the inherent worth and dignity of LGBTQIA people. Our congregation has several transgender youth and adults as current congregants as well as transgender people who grew up in this church and came out as transgender children in our midst as many as 30 years ago. Our congregation has a long acquaintance with the real practical tools for managing and respecting gender differences. This proposal is antithetical to everything that we know works from real experience.

The Board of Health has no business labeling groups of people harmful based on who they are. 

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like domestic violence, maternal health, and poverty. Don’t let this hateful petition distract from your important mission to protect the health and promote the well-being of ALL people in Virginia.

Across our races, backgrounds, and genders, we all deserve to be treated fairly. There is a nationwide effort by some politicians and interest groups to force transgender people and LGBTQ+ people out of public life. These political attacks harm us all, whether we’re gay or straight, transgender or not, because they foster discrimination and distract us from the real problems we face. 

This proposed regulation has nothing to do with the health of Virginians and everything to do with discrimination. No one should face discrimination because of who they are. Trans people have always been here and always will be. Trans people cannot and will not be erased by this back door manipulation of the health code to obtain a result that could not be obtained in the legislature.