Virginia Students Protest in Droves Against Youngkin’s Trans Policy

Thousands of Virginia students walked out of school Tuesday to protest anti-LGBTQ policies introduced by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, with more than 90 schools participating. The new school policies, unveiled in early September, require parents to sign off on names, pronouns or gender identities not aligned with students’ official records, and otherwise requires them to be referred to by their biological sex, potentially preventing them from using facilities or programs of their preferred gender. The policies are a walk back from the previous administration’s guidelines, which allowed students to identify without “any substantiating evidence.” “While students exercise their free speech today, we’d note that these policies state that students should be treated with compassion and schools should be free from bullying and harassment,” Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement.