I live in Norfolk 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.

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. Respectfully, with the economy and federal government leaving everything in shambles as people lose their jobs and vital grants are not being disbursed, we have bigger problems to worry about.

Sports were a crucial part of my life. They taught me confidence, leadership, teamwork, perseverance, and ways of maintaining physical health, all of which are skills I've leaned on in my personal and professional life. Enacting this bill would prevent transgender people from gaining opportunities for personal growth that sports can provide, and our society will be worse for it.

Participation in sports gave me lifelong bonds that I still value decades later, and instilled in me how important it is to be able to work with other people- even people I disagree with politically, people I do not personally like, and people with different backgrounds than my own. To deny transgender people the right to participate in sports in this way is saying that they are not worthy of working alongside, on the court or anywhere else.

This petition 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, and if you attempt to enact this bill history will not be kind to you.