I live in Fairfax and 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.

Should this petition be accepted I worry about how this will affect Virginians overall. Already there have been many cases of people being assaulted by others who justify their violence by claiming that the person they've attacked is trans.

Women especially have been severely injured and in some cases killed because the assaulter was able to wave it away by saying that the victim is trans. By accepting this petition it gives another opportunity for women to be discriminated against and attacked and people can claim it's because they're trans. This makes life more dangerous for women. For girls and young women as well, this will pave the way for them to be discriminated, harassed, and attacked at even younger ages. There are already so many barriers and issues that women and girls have and face, imagine what providing yet another barrier and justification for discrimination, harassment, and violence would do.