I live in Chesterfield County and I oppose Petition 432.

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like domestic violence, maternal health, and poverty. This petition is not about locker rooms, it is part of a strategy to alienate and discriminate against transgender people. 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. 

As a psychotherapist, I am intimately familiar with the harm that policies like this cause to transgender people and the people who love them. The level of anxiety, depression, and suicidality I am seeing in my trans clients has skyrocketed since January because of policies like this that single them out for discrimination. This policy would cause active harm to people whom I am treating.