Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: Every day, throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, educators and school leaders work to ensure that all students have an opportunity to receive a high-quality education. As a part of that work, educators strive to meet the individual needs of all students entrusted to their care, and teachers work to create educational environments where all students thrive. The Virginia Department of Education (the “Department”) recognizes that each child is a unique individual with distinctive abilities and characteristics that should be valued and respected. All students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, or bullying. The Department supports efforts to protect and encourage respect for all students. Thus, we have a collective responsibility to address topics such as the treatment of transgender students with necessary compassion and respect for all students. The Department also fully acknowledges the rights of parents to exercise their fundamental rights granted by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children. The Code of Virginia reaffirms the rights of parents to determine how their children will be raised and educated. Empowering parents is not only a fundamental right, but it is essential to improving outcomes for all children in Virginia. The Department is mindful of constitutional protections that prohibit governmental entities from requiring individuals to adhere to or adopt a particular ideological belief. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees religious freedom and prohibits the government from compelling speech that is contrary to an individual’s personal or religious beliefs. The Department embarked on a thorough review of the Model Policies Guidance adopted on March 4, 2021 (the “2021 Model Policies”). The 2021 Model Policies promoted a specific viewpoint aimed at achieving cultural and social transformation in schools. The 2021 Model Policies also disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students, including transgender students. With the publication of these 2022 Model Policies (the “2022 Model Policies”), the Department hereby withdraws the 2021 Model Policies, which shall have no further force and effect. The Department issues the 2022 Model Policies to provide clear, accurate, and useful guidance to Virginia school boards that align with statutory provisions governing the Model Policies. See Code of Virginia, § 22.1-23.3 (the “Act”). Significantly, the 2022 Model Policies also consider over 9,000 comments submitted to the Department during the public comment period for the 2021 Model Policies.

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10/26/22 1:21 pm

Commenter: AWF

almost died from being outed in college- can't imagine the impact on younger teens

I knew that I was a lesbian since I was 14. However, being raised in a southern, conservative, Christian household, I knew that I had to keep this very large secret as close to me as possible, at least until I was older.

I did my best in school, got into a good college, and pursued a very highly-regarded professional career path. I loved what I studied, held various leadership roles around campus, and helped to tutor students younger than me.

Outside of this horrible angst surrounding my sexual orientation and gender expression (as a bit of tomboy), I was generally someone you'd want to have your community, and was someone who contributed a lot to our greater society with through my professional work.

When I was 21 and still in college, I was accidentally outed to my entire academic department and to my family. My family disowned me, and I spent my final portion of undergrad sleeping and crying on friend's sofas, and working nearly full-time while attending school. In school I was socially ostracized, and sexually harassed my other students and one much older professor.

Because I was still under 24, and my parents wanted to punish me for being queer, they refused to fill out the FAFSA- meaning that I had no access to student loans in any capacity. I had to rely entirely on merit-based scholarship money, any money that I made, and honestly just a lot of charity through folks at my college. The impact of my parent's financial abuse was horrible. They genuinely did their best to stunt me in every aspect- because they did not want to see a successful, healthy adult daughter, who also happened to be queer. It was entirely mean-spirited and vengeful.

During this time in my life, my mental health struggled immensely. I was working between 60-80 hours a week between work and schoolwork, and without being able to afford therapy, turned to alcohol to cope. I didn't realize what a problem it would become, and ended up accidentally overdosing at 22, and suffering a stroke. I nearly died.

I'm now in my mid-20s, and have a successful white-collar, professional career. I moved to the West Coast. Virginia is home and I miss it every day, but I just did not feel valued at all within the pre-existing social structures and wider culture. I have long-term sobriety, am completely financially independent, and can afford therapy.

What I went through was so damaging, and so traumatic. It was bad. To me, 21 seems so young- I was truly still a bit of an adolescent then-- literally just a baby. I really shudder to think of what it would have been like had I been younger high school student, with no college education to even begin with, and even less resources.

If this policy is adopted, LGBT youth will die, like how I almost did.

I got extremely lucky, but not everyone will have the luck that I did.

Without a doubt other families will pull the same financial abuse tactics that mine did- refusing to fill out the FAFSA, even after disowning their queer children, to prevent them from ever accessing a college education.

And the chilling truth too- is that a lot of Virginia families, just like mine, would much rather have a dead daughter, than a daughter who is a dyke.

CommentID: 198929