In general, if you’re a politician – particularly an ambitious one interested in being president one day – who’s proud of something you’ve done, you want the most people possible to find out about it. Pretty obvious, right? So if, for instance, that politician comes out with a new policy that they think is great, you’d think that they’d want as many people as possible to know about it. Which is why it’s so striking that Glenn Youngkin’s administration just resorted to the classic “Friday afternoon/evening news dump” tactic of burying something you want to sneak by, are not proud of, know is unpopular, etc.
In this case, we’re talking about the release of a document entitled, “2022 Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia’s Public Schools.” Sounds pretty innocuous, right? Except that…it’s really not innocuous. Instead, what this document does is:
- Trashes/reverses the “Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools” that were adopted in March 2021, during the Northam administration, claiming that those policies (supposedly) “promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools”; and “disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students.”
- “[Withdraws] the 2021 Model Policies, which shall have no further force and effect.”
- Directs that “[School Division] personnel shall refer to each student using only the pronouns appropriate to the sex appearing in the student’s official record – that is, male pronouns for a student whose legal sex is male, and female pronouns for a student whose legal sex is female.”
- Directs that “Students shall use bathrooms that correspond to his or her sex, except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires.”
- Directs that “No policy, guidance, training, or other written material issued by the [School Division] may encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material information about a student from the student’s parent, including information related to gender.”
In other words, what we have here is an almost complete reversal of the efforts undertaken during the Northam administration to put forth enlightened, compassionate, constructive “Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools.” And yes, what we are reminded of yet again is that electing Republicans means moving backwards, being meaner, and hurting kids for absolutely no good reason. Great, huh?
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