I live in Fairfax County and I oppose Petition 432.

Like many who will read this comment, I grew up pledging myself to a country dedicated to "freedom and justice for all." That is why I find it so utterly SHOCKING to see people, who likely grew up under the same precepts, consider rules that run so counter to these ideals. To consider a notion of utterly Un-American.

I strongly and whole-heartedly OPPOSE rules to ban trans children from sports that align with their gender identity. This sort of rule does significant damage to a minority already under siege by extremist politcal forces in our country. In return for this, such a rule provides little to no benefit to those it purports to benefit. In fact, it may often do MORE harm to them, than good.

To find supporters of this rule's arguments compelling, one must somehow hold two contradictory notions in mind simultaneously: 1) that the population of trans athletes is so insignificant so as to minimize the damage of these rules; yet, somehow, magically, despite this insignificance, 2) that trans athletes represent a pervasive and persistent threat to cis athletes, particularly young girls. Even taken at face value, this notion stretches credulity to its limit. And yet, simple verification of facts further erodes the already tenuous arguments of this rule's supporters. For example, they may claim that the inclusion of trans-women in women's sports removes chances for success and recognition from cis-women. Yet, they struggle to point to actual occurrences of this supposedly wide-spread problem. Even the most famous of these, Riley Gaine's supposed swimming loss to Lia Thomas was over a tie for fifth place. Or consider claims of danger to cis-girl athletes to physical injury. This claim pre-supposes (without evidence or logic, just a thought-terminating appeal to baseless "common sense") trans-girls as fanciful uber-mensch, capable of feats beyond even the strongest of cis-men. When pressed for evidence of such danger or injury, they seldom have any evidence and certainly have no evidence that demonstrates any chance of injury greater than that found when cis-girls play against other cis-girls.

Looking to the future, a word of caution supporters of rules banning trans-girls from girl's sports: do not be surprised to find the same arguments used to support banning trans-girls from girls sport being used, a few years later, to support defunding girls sports entirely. Considering that trans-girls do not represent any significant increase in risk to cis-girls in sports, it is almost inevitable that an opponent to girls sports will use the risk of injury inherent to sports as a reason for refusing to fund girls sports. After all, how could they be expected to fund an activity that represents such a risk to their precious little girls? They will simply claim they are defending girls while stripping those girls' rights to play sports away from them.

To, reiterate, I OPPOSE any rules to ban trans children from playing sports that align with their gender identity. It is a fundamentally Un-American proposal predicated on fantasies propogated by right-wing extremists and it has no place in a modern, compassionate and, most importantly, free America.