Virginia Governor Takes Stand Against Secretive Gender Transition Programs In Public Schools

The grooming continues.  Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin took a stand against school districts on recent news that teachers in Fairfax County were required to complete a training program ahead of the 2022-2023 school year that says parental consent is not required for transgender students who want to “socially” transition within the school system. “Social transitioning” includes going by a preferred name and preferred pronouns that align with someone’s “gender identity.”

The training program, “Supporting Gender Expansive and Transgender Youth,” was assigned on July 22nd for teachers in all grade levels at Fairfax County Public Schools, including preschool, according to the Washington Examiner.

Aspects of the training include keeping gender transition information secret from parents, how to address children by their preferred pronouns, allowing transgendered students to use their preferred bathrooms and locker rooms and mix with students of the opposite sex in those environments, and pressuring classmates to conform to transgender pronouns and names.  

The FCPS training program was assigned a month after the district’s school board approved an expansion to its student code of conduct that further detailed penalties for students who “deadnamed” or “misgendered” transgender students. That policy, approved at a June school board meeting, allows administrators to discipline students who violate the policy under Title IX.

The ability of school districts to discipline students who misgender or so-called “deadname” transgender classmates has been a topic of notable controversy after a Wisconsin school district opened investigations into three middle school students under Title IX for using a transgender student’s biological pronouns. The district later dropped the investigations after widespread backlash (Using the “wrong pronouns” is not sexual harassment). 

The Fairfax district training program also included several slides on “Equity at the Center.” These slides told teachers they must “create student centered experiences” and “affirm and sustain gender identity, gender expression, and racial, linguistic, ability, and cultural identities.”

Governor Youngkin noted that:

“At the heart of all of these topics is parents and what I’m continually surprised by is really the approach that would push parents out of any decision that’s material in their child’s life and to write a regulation for a school that says don’t tell parents is just wrong…”

The growing opposition to schools and teachers involving themselves in the sexual lives of students has caused a reactionary response among political leftists.  Their arguments vary from denying that there is any LGBT or trans indoctrination agenda in schools, to defending such an agenda as “civil rights.”  Initially, complete denial was the primary policy, but too many incidences have been exposed to the public and to parents and so the narrative is changing.  

There is indeed a threat of this kind of behavior from school officials and teachers leading to abuse, because it rationalizes sexual conversations with students in the name of false civil rights arguments.  Where sexualized discussions between teachers and students would lead to disciplinary action or possible prosecution if the teacher is straight, the social justice community is actually making it justifiable and protected if the teacher is gay or trans.

That said, the issue is not limited to sexual interactions.  There is also the problem of ideological indoctrination of children into the leftist fold, which is more likely the intended goal.  With no legitimate science to back the notion of “gender fluidity” other than an extremely small number of people with a disorder called “gender dysphoria,” the debate over how much society should accommodate people who claim to be transgender is in question. 

Public schools and the leftists that run them have decided to enforce trans indoctrination of children as well as teachers without parental consent.  They are sidestepping the debate and brainwashing children before they have a chance to make up their own minds.  This includes punishment for non-conformity. The trans rights argument is a typical backwards ploy often used by social justice activists – “Your freedom of speech is a threat to my freedom from harm.”  

Of course, no one has the right to compel other people to speak how they want or to use the pronouns and language they prefer.  Speech does not cause harm.  Also, no one has the right to be free from emotional distress.  That is up to the individual to deal with in their own way; it’s not the job of society to make sure you feel comfortable and happy 24/7.  

There is no place for teachers or school officials in the personal lives of students.  There is no reason for teachers or school officials to share their own personal lives with students.  There is no place for gender identity politics in the classroom, and no place for sexualized discussions between school employees and children. It’s not something that needs compromise.  These are hard fast rules and luckily there are some state governors that are finally taking notice.