This story was reported and written by VPM News.
A York County Circuit Court judge on Monday dismissed one of the ACLU of Virginia’s legal challenges to the state’s 2023 model policies for transgender students. The decision was based on procedural grounds, not the substance of the policies.
The case was filed against the Virginia Department of Education on behalf of a York County public school student whose teacher declined to use her preferred name and pronouns.
“VDOE’s 2023 model policies harm the very students they’re supposed to protect,” said Wyatt Rolla, ACLU-VA’s senior transgender rights attorney, in a statement Monday. “They contradict both their legal mandate and the evidence-based best practices they’re supposed to reflect, and they have already resulted in discrimination that violates state and federal law.”
A 2020 state law required VDOE to develop model policies for local school districts to adopt concerning the treatment of transgender students “in accordance with evidence-based best practices.”
Attorneys for the department did not defend the policies in Monday’s hearing. They argued that Virginia’s sovereign immunity law shields government agencies from lawsuits in most cases, and that the ACLU’s complaint didn’t comply with Virginia’s Administrative Procedure Act.
The 2023 guidance, implemented by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, says a parent may request a name and/or pronoun change for their child, but school districts can’t compel school personnel to use them.
The ACLU filed a second lawsuit in Hanover County challenging the policies. The state is also expected to argue sovereign immunity in that case, which goes before a circuit court judge Aug. 20.
A federal lawsuit challenging Hanover schools’ adoption of the policies and alleged discrimination against a transgender middle school student is scheduled to be heard Aug. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond.
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