I live in Chesterfield County and I oppose petition 432. I am a cisgender woman and I have worked in the nonprofit sector in Virginia my entire adult life, including at an organization that serves survivors of domestic and sexual assault. The idea that trans women pose a threat to other women would be laughable if it weren't so harmful. Data alone will tell you that men, particularly men with whom women have relationships, are the single greatest threat to women. This statistic holds true not just in Virginia or the United States, but globally. Trans women are a small percentage of our population, but they do exist and have always existed. Public health legislation that targets such a small and vulnerable portion of our population is dangerous and disingenuous. There is a litany of real health issues facing all women in Virginia. Please focus on those issues: poverty, access to healthcare, violence against women, and sexual assault, to name just a few. The argument that this legislation is meant to protect women in locker rooms is based on the notion that men are going to impersonate trans women in order to commit assault in locker rooms. The common denominator in that scenario is (once again) men. Recent testimony from the head of the NCAA regarding trans women in sports revealed that there are "less than 10" trans women in college athletics out of more than 500,000 (see Charlie Baker's Senate testimony in December 2024). Mr. Baker went on to testify that it is "debatable" that trans women have an unfair biological advantage over cisgender women. I'll note Mr. Baker is a Republican. The real threat to our female student athletes is predatory coaching and online harassment from... you guessed it, men. If our state board of health is interested in protecting women, consider passing regulations that protect all women from real, not imagined threats.