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Parents Sue School Board for Not Adopting Youngkin’s Transphobic Policies

The new guidelines bar transgender girls from girls’ sports teams, and give teachers and other students permission to misgender students.

Two Virginia Beach parents have filed a lawsuit to push their school board to adopt Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s controversial policies for transgender students, according to the Associated Press. The policies bar transgender girls from girls’ sports teams, give teachers and other students permission to call a transgender student by the name and pronouns related to their sex assigned at birth, and require teachers to use those pronouns unless their parents have agreed to the student’s preferred gender, thereby potentially outing some students. In August, Virginia Beach did not adopt the guidelines due to a tie vote. The Youngkin administration has said the new rules will grant parents more say in how their kids are treated in the classroom, but there is no established mechanism for the state to make counties fall in line. Opponents claim the rules violate federal discrimination laws and point to the court decision in support of transgender Virginia student Gavin Grimm, who sued over his district’s bathroom ban.