This guidance is long overdue for VA Dept of Ed, other departments and agencies in VA, plus the same in all other United States. My kids grew up in Fairfax County schools in VA. I have a transgender son who came out his sophomore year of high school. He was incredibly brave and resourceful in educating the school administrators how to make changes within the school systems in order to make him be more welcome and accepted as who he was, as the administrators had limited experience in such matters, plus had no guidelines from the county school board or the State DOE. The school administrators also were unprepared to anticipate and then handle discriminatory actions by faculty that included homophobic slurs, offensive attempts at gender humor, unsolicited and unacceptable personal questions, and, of course, no concrete approach to providing adequate bathroom allowances. A true effective learning environment for all students requires a diverse, accepting environment for all students, no matter who they are, what their differences are, who they love, or how they dress. Any religion I ever studied held a common theme that God loves all humans and accepts his diverse creation no matter what. All people deserve equal, human rights, no matter who they are.

Thank you for taking this very important step in VA, plus for your courage being one of the first state legislatures to pave the way for this country wide. This will greatly help countless students going forward who, like my trans son, just happen to be different than you, me, and many others.