ALT “Gov Youngkin and the VDOE made a dangerous, politically motivated decision to ignore the thousands of Virginians who submitted public comments in opposition to his proposed model policies - policies which single out transgender and nonbinary youth in our schools," said Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia. "Youngkin did all of this with no input from LGBTQ+ advocacy groups nor subject matter experts. Throughout the comment process, though, Virginians made it clear that LGBTQ+ youth deserve safety, respect and the opportunity to thrive. This comes on the heels of a scathing 18-month report released last week by JLARC that detailed how Virginia is underfunding its K-12 public schools at a lower rate than national and regional averages. Instead of addressing the very real issues we have ahead of us, Governor Youngkin's response is to escalate a culture war and drop a policy that harms kids, removes resources for teachers and ignores the rights of parents in Virginia.

ALT "The Governor is playing politics with their lives by moving forward with a policy that does nothing to improve our schools. The Governor is showing what his priorities are through this policy: disregarding expert opinion, harming students and eroding trust between parents, educators and school personnel. All students in Virginia deserve an education that allows them to learn and grow free from harm; transgender and nonbinary students must be afforded the equal opportunity to learn in a safe and affirming school environment. These new model policies do not provide our students with this opportunity and would instead create learning environments that are unsafe, hostile and dangerous. To the transgender and nonbinary students, their parents, and their teachers who are grappling with this disappointing news-we see you and loves you. These policies are not yet in effect and we will do everything in our power to make sure your school district rejects them."