I live in Arlington County and I oppose Action 4905.

As a Virginian and as a transgender woman, I firmly hold that the Board of Health has no business labeling groups of people harmful based on who they are. The last thing the women of Virginia want or need is invasive policing of their bodies and privacy. This action will only succeed in eroding individual freedoms and putting women in uncomfortable or harmful situations. 

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like violence, economic hardship, and reproductive health access.  Don’t let this hateful petition distract from your important mission to protect the health and promote the well-being of ALL people in Virginia.

Across our races, backgrounds, and genders, we all deserve to be treated fairly. There is a nationwide effort by some politicians and interest groups to force transgender people and LGBTQ+ people out of public life. Bathroom laws often target cisgender women who don’t conform to outdated ideas of femininity. In fact, trans masculine people have been assaulted and murdered in women’s rest rooms. These political attacks may harm us all, whether we’re LGBTQIA+ or straight, though they are targeted at a small, vulnerable minority. Assaults on trans feminine people’s presence in public life like this one are shaped by the same forces that would damage the progress gained in women's rights as a whole. Virginians are adamantly opposed to the erosion of women’s rights in any way.