I live in Prince William, County, and as a cis woman, I oppose Petition 432.

This petition is not about locker rooms. The Board of Health has no business labeling groups of people harmful based on who they are. 

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like domestic violence, maternal health, and poverty. 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. We have already seen cis-women attacked directly in other localities while they were in the restroom for the presumption of who they are -- Petitions like this one endanger all women. 

Predatory men will attack women without dangerous propositions like this one that only serve to put trans and nonbinary folks as well as cis women in danger. It embolden those who would harm other people only because of their own prejudices and wrongly placed presumptions against our trans and nonbinary neighbors. 

I speak as a parent of a trans child and one in community with trans and nonbinary friends, as opposed to those who speak from presumptions that are false and prejudice against anyone unlike themselves. No one should face discrimination because of who they are. Trans and nonbinary people have always been here, and always will be.