Education

Virginia Students Plan Walkout Over Gov. Youngkin’s Transgender Guidance

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Chrissy Clark Contributor
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Virginia students are set to stage nearly 100 walkouts on Tuesday over Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s updated transgender guidance, according to social media posts from a student-run LGBT advocacy group.

Activist high schoolers across Virginia plan to protest in response to Youngkin’s revised model policy. An activist group claimed that Youngkin’s new guidance on dealing with transgender students is “attacking LGBTQIA+ students across Virginia,” according to a Blue Virginia press release.

A document promoting the walkouts claims that the updated guidance “prevents students from having their real name and pronouns recognized” and “requires schools to forcibly out transgender and gender expansive students.”

The Blue Virginia press release included a quote from an alleged anonymous “Virginia Queer student.”

“As a closeted student, my friends and I are terrified that we won’t be able to come home if these proposed guidelines go through,” the statement reads. “We just want to be ourselves at school, without worrying about whether we’ll be subject to abuse or harassment.”

The walkouts are allegedly coordinated through the “Pride Liberation Project,” which claims to be a student-run “organization advocating for LGBTQIA+ rights in Virginia,” according to the group’s website. The Pride Liberation Project did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

Youngkin’s model policy for transgender students reverses previous state policies that allow students to use bathrooms that align with their perceived gender identity. The news policy further bans educators from using pronouns or names that are not on the student’s official records. Teachers also cannot be compelled to “address or refer to students in any manner that would violate their constitutionally protected rights,” according to the policy text.

One Virginia school district already vowed it will buck the state guidance, according to an email to parents. (RELATED: Alexandria City Public Schools Won’t Inform Parents Of Child’s Gender Dysphoria)

Youngkin told the Daily Caller that the guidance is not about stripping away the rights of trans-identifying students, but about empowering parents.

“This is about engaging parents in a decision moment, where they belong and previous model policy unfortunately excluded parents,” Youngkin said. “Here we are today in a world where most important decisions are being made, and there was a policy that excluded parents. That’s just not right. Parents should be absolutely at the center of this discussion with children.”