I live in Alexandria City, 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. Doing so is fascist behavior, and based in hatred and ignorance and is shameful.

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. 

While I am not trans, I have trans friends, trans family, friends with trans children, and I work with trans people. They are just regular people like everyone else just trying to be themselves and live their lives. No one chooses to be trans. No one wants to subject themselves to the stigma, harassment, and hate that trans people receive from ignorant and fearful people. The fact is that accepting themselves and living as who they truly are despite the awful social repercussions is vastly better than the agony of forcing themselves to live as someone they are not. 

Bills such as this one further stigmatize and harm trans people and are based on fear and ignorance. It is unacceptable, and inhumane to other trans people, and no excuse and lies about them will ever make it moral or acceptable to exclude and cause harm as this bill will do. 

Studies show that trans athletes do not have any unfair advantages (https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/early/2024/04/10/bjsports-2023-108029.full.pdf

Allowing trans people to participate in sports improves their mental and physical health and helps their peers learn that trans people are just like them. It furthers understanding and acceptance, which is what the sponsors of this bill fear because they must always have a boogey man of sorts to use to scare people and control others. 

our experience as a trans person facing discrimination in public spaces

What you’ve learned from a trans friend or family member

Your concerns about the potential for harm if the Board of Health acts on this petition

Improving health in VA looks like feeding all school children for free, providing health services for the poor, providing access to mental health services, providing women's health care unrestricted by religions, providing parental leave and affordable child and elderly care. It is ensuring we treat everyone equitably and do not discriminate. Religion and fascism have no place in the healthcare laws of our state. 

This petition has nothing to do with the health of Virginians and everything to do with 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.