I live in Ruther Glen, Caroline County, and I oppose Petition 432.

We need to trust people to know which bathroom and locker room facilities are appropriate for them. And in other states where the types of laws the petition is posing have been enacted, there have been cases of civilian vigilantism where cisgender people have been attacked in bathroom spaces because other people were trying to make determinations about their gender by how they looked. These laws are actually dangerous to both transgender and cisgender people, and especially to women in general. 

There is no evidence or data to support the idea that transgender women are dangerous to cisgender women, in any context or space.

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like access to quality affordable healthcare and rising costs of food. 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. These political attacks harm us all, whether we’re gay or straight, transgender or not, because they foster discrimination and distract us from the real problems we face. 

I am a parent to transgender child, and I shared many spaces with transgender people. I have never felt unsafe around transgender women or transgender people. What I have felt is their absolute heartbreak that their communities are actively trying to exclude them from public spaces and facilities.

This petition has nothing to do with the health of Virginians and is only a tool for discrimination. 

No one should face discrimination because of who they are. Trans people have always been here, and always will be. Trans people cannot and will not be erased. 

OPPOSE petition 432.