Virginia Regulatory Town Hall
Agency
Department of Education
 
Board
State Board of Education
 
Guidance Document Change: The Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools guidance document was developed in response to House Bill 145 and Senate Bill 161, enacted by the 2020 Virginia General Assembly, which directed the Virginia Department of Education to develop and make available to each school board model policies concerning the treatment of transgender students in public elementary and secondary schools. These guidelines address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices and include information, guidance, procedures, and standards relating to: compliance with applicable nondiscrimination laws; maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students; prevention of and response to bullying and harassment; maintenance of student records; identification of students; protection of student privacy and the confidentiality of sensitive information; enforcement of sex-based dress codes; and student participation in sex-specific school activities, events, and use of school facilities.
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1/15/21  3:08 pm
Commenter: Werner A, Lind

Opposed!
 

The proposed "guidance document" ignores biological reality in favor of an anti-science ideology which inflicts irreparable physical and emotional harm on children.  It is not "scientific" to pretend that genetically-coded sexuality does not exist and that gender is a purely artificial and arbitrary construct.  It is not "enlightened" or "compassionate" to exploit temporary feelings of gender confusion (which are common among adolescents) in order to subject teens and even pre-teens to manipulative "counseling" that pushes them toward gender dysphoria (and even to agreeing to irreversible genital and other physical mutilations, which many victims subsequently regret), while criminalizing attempts by any caring adults in their lives to help them be comfortable in their body.  Moreover, the document violates legally established parental rights, infringes on basic freedom of speech, subjects children of both genders to invasions of private spaces by members of the other, and requires biological females to compete in sports against biological males.  If they are adopted, they will be challenged in court and invalidated, but only after considerable tax money is wasted in trying to defend this ideologically motivated folly.

CommentID: 90187