I live in McLean and I oppose Petition 432. 

This bill isn't about locker rooms, and we all know better. Many people who support this bill do not personally know a transgender woman or any trans person.

The idea that trans women are more likely to act immorally than any other kind of person is pure discrimination and is not tolerable under law or morality. They said this same thing about lesbians and gay people not too long ago. Trans people cannot and will not be erased just because you are saying they cannot belong on your sports team or in your bathroom. It just makes their lives worse and doesn't guarantee your safety because they are not immoral for being transgender.

The idea that trans women are transitioning just to win athletic competitions has no basis in reality. Not only is that an extraordinary ordeal they have not been winning competitions in great numbers anywhere. It's a pure imagined fear.

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like domestic
violence and affordable healthcare. The Board of Health cannot let this hateful petition distract from protecting the health and promoting the well-being of everyone in Virginia.

Trans rights are human rights. Trans people belong in sports leagues like everyone else. Trans people have the full right to use the bathroom they feel comfortable in, as long as they don't act to harm others, same as anyone else. This petition seeks to effectively limit or cut out an oppressed group of people, and there is no justification for that, especially when we have actual systemic issues that are hurting great numbers of people. 

If the Board of Health acts on this petition, trans people across Virginia will be cut out from a meaningful social pathway. Trans people deserve to show their skills and make friends in sports too. There are only a few hundred or few thousand trans people in the entire state and due to existing ostracization, few of them even attempt to play sports. Regulating how trans people should participate in activity groups or use the bathroom just because of a small number of trans athletes in the entire state is crazy.

The Board of Health's time is much better spent spreading knowledge of how vaccines work, containing ongoing pandemics, and listening to the needs of health care workers and educators. 

Nobody who restricted or controlled which bathrooms people get to use, or who can belong on the sports team for any reason but measured skill, was not remembered for being on the correct side of history. Please reject Petition 432.

Sincerely,
Sree Thiru