22 Comments
Jul 24, 2023Liked by Erin Reed

Thank you for writing about the horrible “model policies” and highlighting the statement of our Arlington school superintendent. Many local advocates have been working with Arlington Public Schools for several years to make the school system more affirming and welcoming to transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive students. We are very pleased with the superintendent’s strong letter of support, and yet we’re heartbroken for students in less affirming school districts. Thank you for all your work, Erin!!

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Heck yeah, glad its reaching people who are actually there. Y'all are kicking butt.

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Jul 24, 2023Liked by Erin Reed

While Doctors are using decades of scientific research to keep children happy and healthy, Republican politicians are doing everything they can to cause children to end their own lives.

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Agreed. In approving these policies Gov. Youngkin is truly pushing forward an agenda not based in any type of science, and ultimately its very harmful to our kids.

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Jul 24, 2023Liked by Erin Reed

What a lovely sentence: "No." I love that it is expressing the underlying needs of choice, autonomy, and contribution.

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Jul 24, 2023Liked by Erin Reed

The model policies are a massive step backwards, and parents were not listened to when it was determined to move forward with them. I am hoping that Fairfax County, where I live and my trans child goes to school, follows Arlington County in rejecting the implementation of these inhumane and very uncaring policies.

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I hate that they were hijacked like this.

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You notice how it's so ridiculously handed down by an arbitrary statewide decision. Arlington likely sees this as unlikely to withstand the scrutiny of the constitution, because of the evidence they and other school districts possess.

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I would certainly anticipate Fairfax County should do that, along with the other northern VA jurisdictions in the metro area apart from Arlington.

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I agree that’s highly likely.

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Jul 24, 2023Liked by Erin Reed

I’m really glad to hear that Arlington public schools are resisting these very cruel policies. Trans kids need more people everywhere to stand up for them!

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Gotta love this! This school taking and making the time, and effort to school those nasty legislators. We celebrate every positive move forward. In the meantime, please stay as safe, and healthy as possible. Sending lots of Love from London, Ontario, Canada.

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This is what I’ve been saying for ages! More local governments and organizations need to just outright refuse to enforce, and actively resist, these outrageous and anti humanitarian legislations and mandates.

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I think non-compliance to these anti-trans laws states are enacting is a great start! Hopefully more organizations in moral states will join!

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Youngkin has not delivered on himself - being a bipartisan or otherwise centrist governor. This is a move by the right in VA to say that they don't have to be as up to date as the kids they purport to serve, as school administrators, they can misgender which bathroom a student uses, when unisex isn't an option. This is a really "punch in the face" kind of rule, for the governor to sign off on.

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I know he claimed, and claims, to be bipartisan, but did he ever claim to be a centrist? These are certainly not what I would call centrist policies.

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I watched his campaign for governor, he played up the idea that he was a comfortable Republican character. It was a lie.

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As a Virginia resident, I was horrified to see the model policies Governor Youngkin rolled out. They are hateful and heinously discriminatory in the worst way. I'm thrilled to see that Arlington County Schools refuses to adopt them. As a Fairfax County resident, I will contact the administration of our school district to strongly advise them to keep using non-discriminatory policies. We can't let Youngkin's radical agenda - and that of his party - control what happens to kids. It's not right. It's not just. Thank you for bringing us this critical reporting!

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We need more school districts to stand up against the bullying and harassment that the christofascist regime is attempting to impose upon secular schools. Following the imposed policies results in kids being forced to bully and abuse their own friends and be chastised for not being enough of a threat and bully for their religious views and preferences. Stand up against bullying and harassment of children

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Considering that theistic beliefs are so intertwined with transphobic thought, you really have a very valid point, there. An atheist could be a phobe, of course, but that doesn't discount the striking association, between religion and this discrimination (on kids of all people, as you point out).

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It's so aggravating to see this extreme behavior in supposedly secular and public schools. There's no place for religious indoctrination in public schools. Attend a religious school if you have the need to discriminate and bully children

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Living in a safe star (Colorado) only to have a local charter school pass a resolution with very similar positions.

https://www.monumentacademy.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/SKME9C1A323062720320.pdf

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