Equality Virginia is a statewide organization that advocates and organizes across Virginia to build a future where LGBTQ+ people thrive. We urge the Virginia Board of Health to reject Petition 432. The requested action is outside the scope of the Department of Health’s authority, and would harm Virginia women.

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like domestic violence, maternal health, and poverty.

All women and girls — including transgender women and girls — deserve the opportunity to participate in sports, make decisions about their own bodies, access public facilities, and live free from discrimination and targeted attacks such as those advanced by Petition 432.

Petition 432 is rooted in harmful misconceptions about transgender athletes. It reinforces inaccurate and outdated stereotypes about biology, athleticism, and gender. In reality, transgender athletes comprise a very small portion of competitors — less than 0.002% of NCAA athletes — and most do not dominate competition or win championships. The suggestion that trans inclusion undermines sports is not supported by evidence.

Participation in athletics plays a vital role in physical, mental, and social development. Sports teach valuable lessons about leadership, discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. Transgender Virginians, like all Virginians, should have the same opportunities to learn these lessons, participate in their communities, and find belonging. Efforts to exclude them mirror past discriminatory arguments once used to bar Black athletes — that they are inherently different, that their presence is a threat, that they don’t belong.

Discrimination against transgender individuals has no place in our Commonwealth. Every person thrives best when supported and affirmed — not when singled out for exclusion.

Petition 432 seeks to create a false crisis. It ignores the actual, well-documented challenges facing women’s sports: unequal funding, pay disparities, and abuse scandals. These serious issues often go unaddressed while more than $215 million has been spent on anti-trans rhetoric during national elections. Groups promoting these petitions rarely, if ever, advocate for true equity in women’s sports — because their agenda is not about protecting women, but about control and exclusion.

We must ask: Who benefits from the outrage Petition 432 is designed to provoke? And what happens when we refuse to play along?

There are real public health issues facing women and girls in Virginia, like domestic violence, maternal health, and poverty. Equality Virginia respectfully urges the Board of Health to reject Petition 432.