This Week In Trans News: Virginia, Ohio, Montana, and WPATH 8

Virginia proposes anti-transgender model school board policies, Ohio considers banning students from restrooms and pronouns, WPATH 8 is out, and Montana finally allows birth certificate changes.

Virginia Proposes Transphobic Model School Policies

The state of Virginia shocked activists around the country when it quietly released new model school board policies that heavily restrict transgender rights of students. Virginia is the first blue state to propose anti-trans policies that may actually go into effect. This is because Virginia elected a Republican governor in 2021, Glenn Youngkin, who ran in part on transphobic policies. However, after taking office, Glenn Youngkin did not push those policies very hard leading many to believe that he recognized that they would be enormously unpopular. Unfortunately, that changed on Friday.

These policies have several extremely negative effects. The model policy document states that teachers will have to seek parental permission to use a transgender kid’s name and pronouns. If they do not get that permission, the teacher has to deadname and misgender their student. This is atrocious and would seek to enlist teachers to carry out transphobic bigotry in the open. Furthermore, the model policies ban transgender students from restrooms even if they have parental consent. This directly violates the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal decision GRIMM V. GLOUCESTER COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD which stated that transgender people in Virginia and elsewhere have the right to use the bathroom of their gender identity.

Virginia is claiming that schools are mandated to follow these policies. We expect many schools to fight back, however, and it is certain that there will be strong legal challenges to this new regulation.

Ohio Board Of Education Considers Bathroom Bans And Pronoun Bans

A board member in Ohio is attempting to pass an anti-transgender resolution that would apply to all schools in the state of Ohio. This policy, titled “Resolution to Support Parents, Schools, and Districts in Rejecting Harmful, Coercive, and Burdensome Gender Identity Policies,'' would ban transgender people from bathrooms and would mandate that transgender people be outed to their parents if the teacher has reason to believe they are transgender. These policies have trouble passing even in very red states, so seeing Ohio take this policy up is extremely troubling.

The board meets on Tuesday, September 20th at 8:00 AM. Although it is too late to submit comment, you can still attend. The State Board of Education meeting will be at 25 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio. Although the meeting is at 8:00 AM, I suggest showing up as much as 30 minutes early - these meetings tend to pack up very quickly and if you show up late, you often get denied entry or put into an overflow room. We want the Board of Education to be aware of how much opposition there is to this measure. You can learn more at Honesty For Ohio Education.

Montana Finally Allows Birth Certificate Changes

The story about the availability, or lack thereof, of gender marker changes on Montana’s birth certificates could give you whiplash. That is because the policy around changing your gender marker there has been the subject of many rule changes and court actions. First, some background: Montana used to allow you to change your birth certificate only if you had gender reassignment surgery. Plaintiffs took Montana to court and won - the state demanded that they be allowed to change their gender marker without surgery. The state responded by violating the court order. In a second hearing, a judge again ruled for the plaintiffs, and Montana again violated the court order by not allowing them to change their birth certificates. Today, the judge finally said enough is enough…

Judge Moses of Montana threatened those who are blocking the rule change with contempt of court - a charge that could result in jail time for those responsible. Within hours, Montana finally relented and announced that it would allow the changes to go through. I need to note that this status quo is temporary while final judgment is considered, and it is likely that Montana will appeal this judgment. If you live in Montana or are from Montana and want to change your birth certificate, now is the time to do so.

WPATH 8 Is Out

The World Professional Association For Transgender Health released its newest Standards Of Care. The previous Standards Of Care were written over a decade ago. Transgender health research and policy has advanced heavily since the previous Standards Of Care, and many were waiting to see what would be included in this version. There were strong fears that doctors connected to anti-trans organizations were inserting anti-trans policies. Ultimately though, these fears turned out to be unfounded.

Here are the biggest changes from SOC 7 to SOC 8:

• Surgery wait times have been reduced from 1 year to 6 months.

• Trans people only need one mental health letter instead of two.

• “Watchful waiting,” a form of conversion therapy that is not what it sounds like, is not included.

• Hormone therapy initiation is lowered to 14 from 16 years old.

• “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” is debunked.

• Nonbinary patients do not have a minimum HRT time before surgical approval.

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