This story was reported and written by Radio IQ.
Virginia Republicans threw their weight behind an effort that would limit transgender girls from participating in school sports Wednesday morning. But Democrats in the majority think existing policy covers their complaints.
Front Royal Republican Delegate Delores Oates is worried transgender student athletes are robbing cisgender women of opportunities. That’s why she filed a bill that would ban the latter from playing with the former.
“We must ensure women and girls have protected spaces where they feel they are protected and supported,” Oates said, flanked by Governor Glenn Youngkin, Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears and Attorney General Jason Miyares.
All three members of the executive branch were there to show support for the effort that they said would help keep young girls safe.
Miyares, who recently claimed a win after the Biden administration abandoned its defense of a federal policy that said trans students could play on teams with the gender they identify said he was shocked to have to address the issue.
“If I was to tell you even ten years ago that it would be necessary to legislate that biological males should not be playing on women’s sports teams, almost nobody in this room would believe this is necessary,” he said.
But back in 2014 the Virginia High School League, which governs interscholastic athletics across the Commonwealth, adopted a policy for transgender students to participate in the state's more than 300 covered schools. There’s an appeals process for trans students to apply to play on teams as needed, but they can be denied if “the gender identity is not bona fide or is for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage in competitive athletics.”
Under that policy three students were denied access to teams out of 28 transgender admission appeals since 2021.
For Democratic Delegate Laura Jane Cohen, who has a transgender child, that sounds like a policy that’s working.
“We look at the people who know best about how to run amazing sports programs,” the Fairfax delegate told Radio IQ. “I think VHSL is certainly doing their job in figuring out who are students who are really contributing to our teams, and I feel really comfortable with that.”
Cohen’s child doesn’t play sports, but Central Virginia mom Hollie’s 10-year-old trans daughter does. We’re only using Hollie’s first name after similar families have faced waves of harassment for coming forward.
Hollie’s daughter plays basketball and soccer. Those activities helped her overcome other obstacles in her life, including building confidence and fitting in. But when Hollie heard legislators were saying people like her child were making things unsafe for other children, she was skeptical to say the least.
“The language of protection is a way of covering what is clearly hateful, anti-trans belief and speech,” she said.
She also said she’s had no incidents with other parents or sports administrators.
“We’ve been accepted,” she said. “There’s a lot of key people, parents, who are aware of my daughter’s gender, and we’ve been lucky in this regard.”
Hollie thinks there are some questions that should be asked about transgender athletes, and she’s not sure if she’s got the answers. But she does think those questions are overblown in the face of her daughter’s desire to play with her female friends.
“Those questions should be off the table at elementary, middle and high school levels of play,” she said.
But Victoria Cobb, president of the conservative group the Family Foundation of Virginia, thinks the problem is urgent and ongoing.
“There’s still girls being denied opportunities,” she told Radio IQ. “We want to protect the future of every girl that wants to play their sport.”
To that end she aims to see the issue be front and center for the 2025 House of Delegates election, along with elections for the executive posts in Richmond.
“The polling continues on the trajectory of protecting girls,” she said.
Senate Democratic Majority leader Scott Surovell disagrees.
“Given what happened nationally I think Republicans think picking on people, dividing people, is something that helps their politics,” he said. “I think most Americans would rather talk about other issues.”
Cohen sees things similarly.
“Paid sick leave, gun violence prevention, making sure our teachers are paid what they deserve,” she said of issues she thinks impacts more Virginians than a trans student’s sports team. “This just feels like noise, it's nonsense.”
And in the eyes of Prince William County Democrat Danica Roem, Virginia’s first and only openly trans elected official, she’s proof there’s more important issues before the Commonwealth.
“Would I be here if it was?” she said of her 2023 opponent's use of her gender as a political cudgel.
Still, folks like Cobb think President-elect Donald Trump’s win and the hundreds of millions he spent attacking trans folks in campaign ads means the issue will be handled at the federal level if the state doesn't address it first.
“Pretty soon Virginia is going to be far out of step with what the federal government is going to do,” Cobb said. “We’re going to see it happen nationally; it’s sad to see it happen there before it happens in the Commonwealth.”
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
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