AG Mark Herring Successfully Defends Virginia’s Policies Protecting Transgender Students

“Every single child who goes to school in the Commonwealth deserves a positive, safe, nurturing learning environment, without the fear of discrimination or harassment simply because of who they are,” said Attorney General Herring. “We must do all we can to ensure that transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students feel supported and protected and this model policy gives school divisions the roadmap to doing just that in their schools. I am incredibly proud of the work my team did defending Virginia’s model policy for transgender students and I hope that today’s win shows young people all over the Commonwealth that they will be supported here.”

Attorney General Herring has made protecting and defending members of Virginia’s LGBTQ community a top priority during his time in office. Earlier this month, he again successfully defended the Virginia Values Act, a landmark piece of civil rights legislation that protect LGBTQ Virginians and others from discrimination, against another legal attack by conservative activists. He created the Office of Civil Rights in order to expand, enhance, and centralize his ongoing work to protect Virginians from discrimination and to secure and expand the rights of all Virginians, including combating LGBTQ and gender-based discrimination. Attorney General Herring also successfully argued that Virginia’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples was unconstitutional and should be struck down. Additionally, he championed legislation that updated Virginia’s definition of a hate crime to include gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability, and he has supported numerous federal laws and regulations that put more protections in place for LGBTQ Americans.