I live in Arlington, Virginia, and I strongly oppose Petition 432, titled "Prevent biological males from female-only athletics and certain female-designated spaces." This petition is a misleading, back-door attempt to legalize discrimination, and it is not based on any legitimate evidence of a pattern of danger posed to girls or women. Instead, it will pave the way to cause far more harm than it prevents. 

I personally believe this petition is rooted in unfamiliarity, misunderstanding, fear, and prejudice against an extremely small group of people, namely transgender girls and women. It is not based on any compelling evidence of harm broadly caused by permitting transgender athletes' inclusion as a group - compared with the routine risks that always accompany athletics. What's more, I urge you to see how this petition is truly just the latest step in a frightening nationwide political campaign to eliminate equal protections for all transgender Americans of all ages. Enacting a blanket prohibition at the state level for this murky athletic fairness concern goes way too far. 

To be sure, I strongly agree there are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, such as domestic violence, maternal health, economic inequality, sexist treatment by authorities, and poverty. But as a resident who believes in Virginia and wants a thriving Commonwealth for myself and all my neighbors, I am deeply concerned that the harm enabled by the policy described in Petition 432 (both to transgender individuals, and to anyone else whose gender presentation or body does not conform with popular expectations) will far exceed the potential harm of whatever off-chance there is of a cisgender girl or woman encountering some instance of athletic unfairness in competition against a transgender girl or woman. 

I am a tax-paying adult US citizen employed full-time, and whatever the Virginia Board of Health's technical legal authority may be, I view this petition's requested prohibitions as a grossly inappropriate abuse of the Board's role. I urge you to stand on the right side of history and reject Petition 432.