Students stage walkouts across Virginia over governor's transgender school policies

Students across Virginia protested Tuesday in response to new guidelines putting restrictions on transgender students in the state’s public schools.

Students across Virginia protested Tuesday in response to new guidelines putting restrictions on transgender students in the state’s public schools.

Walkouts are set to take place throughout the day at more than 90 middle and high schools in the state, according to student-run advocacy group Pride Liberation Project, which organized the statewide effort. As of noon on Tuesday, students in Woodbridge, Springfield, Manassas, McLean and other Virginia cities were waving rainbow picket signs and shouting, "Trans rights are human rights!"

“Trans students are students just like everybody else. We don’t want to be out here fighting for our rights and protesting — we want to be in calculus class and learning how to drive,” said Ranger Balleisen, a transgender senior at McLean High School in Fairfax County who helped organize the protests. “But, instead, we have to be here, because they’re trying to take away our rights.”

Earlier this month, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration rewrote Virginia’s model policies for the treatment of transgender students, mandating that all students use school facilities, including bathrooms or locker rooms, according to the sex they were assigned at birth. The policy revision also forbids trans students from changing their names and pronouns at school without a parent’s permission and discourages school staff from concealing students' gender identities from their parents, regardless of whether a student prefers to keep their transition a secret. 

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin speaks during a news conference at the Capitol, in Richmond, Va., on Jan. 27, 2022.Steve Helber / AP fileProponents welcomed the policy change, lauding the new measures for giving parents greater discretion over their child's schooling experience. Parental rights in education was a central issue of Youngkin’s campaign for the Virginia governorship last year and was largely credited with sweeping him to victory.

https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/students-stage-walkouts-virginia-governors-transgender-school-policies-rcna49594


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