As Daily Kos continues to cover, anti-trans legislation popping up around the nation focuses on trans and nonbinary youth. Unsurprisingly, a lot of this discrimination would impact how students are treated at school; for example, the Republican effort to ban transgender girls from competing in girls’ sports teams. While some leaders are pushing hateful agendas, others are doing what they can to make schools a safer place for trans youth who are already more vulnerable to bullying, harassment, and violence than their cisgender peers.
Virginia, for example, has new policies that will help protect trans students so they can attend school safely as themselves, including, for example, making sure that teachers and staff use the student’s name and pronouns, as well as having inclusive bathrooms and locker rooms available. This should be a good thing, but of course, far-right folks are not only against the new policies that protect vulnerable youth but are willing to protest over it, as reported by the Times News.
“We can’t discriminate against my little girl and say we’re providing more freedoms for somebody else,” said Jony Baker, an organizer of one Stand Up Virginia rally in Wise County, Virginia. Baker, who works at the local sheriff’s office, said her daughter attends public school in the state and suggested that trans-inclusive policies will remove God from school.
Baker told about 100 people who attended the protest that she didn’t want her daughter having her mind “corrupted,” and added, “We love our guns. We love our God, we love our Constitution, we love those kids.”
Mind you, of course, giving rights and protections to trans youth—and trans folks in general—hurts no one. It takes rights away from no one else. Cisgender girls and boys will still have all of the same rights and protections.
But Baker wasn’t the only person to express herself at the rally, which was held outside of the Wise County school board's central office (which was closed at the time as it was after business hours).
“Homosexuality is a special kind of sin,” said Huey Ellis, who has a child and nephews attending a school in the county. “If I have to, I will take my children out of school and teach them myself.”
Also in the state of Virginia on Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Fred Watson dismissed a challenge to the Virginia Department of Education, as covered by local outlet WFXR. The Christian Action Network sued to stop trans-inclusive model policies from going into effect, such as requiring teachers to use a student’s name (instead of their name given at birth, or “dead” name) and pronouns. Watson argued that the plaintiffs simply don’t have standing and that one can’t claim they suffered damages related to the trans-inclusive policies that haven’t actually been implemented yet.
As of now, Stand Up Virginia has another protest planned for Thursday.
Virginia, for example, has new policies that will help protect trans students so they can attend school safely as themselves, including, for example, making sure that teachers and staff use the student’s name and pronouns, as well as having inclusive bathrooms and locker rooms available. This should be a good thing, but of course, far-right folks are not only against the new policies that protect vulnerable youth but are willing to protest over it, as reported by the Times News.
“We can’t discriminate against my little girl and say we’re providing more freedoms for somebody else,” said Jony Baker, an organizer of one Stand Up Virginia rally in Wise County, Virginia. Baker, who works at the local sheriff’s office, said her daughter attends public school in the state and suggested that trans-inclusive policies will remove God from school.
Baker told about 100 people who attended the protest that she didn’t want her daughter having her mind “corrupted,” and added, “We love our guns. We love our God, we love our Constitution, we love those kids.”
Mind you, of course, giving rights and protections to trans youth—and trans folks in general—hurts no one. It takes rights away from no one else. Cisgender girls and boys will still have all of the same rights and protections.
But Baker wasn’t the only person to express herself at the rally, which was held outside of the Wise County school board's central office (which was closed at the time as it was after business hours).
“Homosexuality is a special kind of sin,” said Huey Ellis, who has a child and nephews attending a school in the county. “If I have to, I will take my children out of school and teach them myself.”
Also in the state of Virginia on Tuesday, Circuit Court Judge Fred Watson dismissed a challenge to the Virginia Department of Education, as covered by local outlet WFXR. The Christian Action Network sued to stop trans-inclusive model policies from going into effect, such as requiring teachers to use a student’s name (instead of their name given at birth, or “dead” name) and pronouns. Watson argued that the plaintiffs simply don’t have standing and that one can’t claim they suffered damages related to the trans-inclusive policies that haven’t actually been implemented yet.
As of now, Stand Up Virginia has another protest planned for Thursday.