I live in Charlottesville (Albemarle County) and I oppose Petition 432.

This petition is not about locker rooms. 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. Given the small number of trans athletes this will actually affect, and the likely harm to non-trans athletes when someone accuses them of being trans, this specific petition will likely do more harm than “good”. 

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. 

My nine year old is transgender (they have insisted, consistently, since the age of two that they are not a boy) and will be negatively impacted by both the specifics of this petition and the general language and hurtful political rhetoric that have led to its creation. Targeting young trans athletes is not going to address the many actual issues facing women in sports today, but WILL to irreparable harm. Please reconsider and do not vote for this blatantly discriminatory petition.