Fairfax County Schools Reject Anti-Trans “Model Policies”

metroweekly.com:

barring transgender students from gender-affirming facilities is discriminatory and unconstitutional. It remains unclear what will happen if a district’s school restroom access policies are found to violate existing legal precedent.When the policies were first introduced last year, thousands of high school and middle school-aged students across the state held walkouts in protest.While no school district is required to fully adopt the “model policies” guidance — just as many conservative districts refused to adopt transgender-friendly policies in 2021 under former Democratic Gov.

Ralph Northam — districts are strongly encouraged to do so.As a result, the commonwealth’s more liberal environs oppose the Youngkin administration’s preferred rules.

But state law allows districts to adopt policies loosely based on the “model policies,” while also allowing them to add enhanced protections for transgender students if they see fit.Fairfax County Public Schools made the announcement by email on Tuesday, to the delight of LGBTQ advocates and students who feared that the policies would erase transgender identity from schools and exacerbate youths’ feelings of incongruity between their assigned sex at birth and gender identity.“It was a relief,” Ranger Belleisen, of the LGBTQ student-led group Pride Liberation Project, told WRC-TV. “I know so many people still in FCPS who would’ve been impacted by these policies, tons and tons.

It was honestly a relief when I saw the email.”A Tuesday rally planned by opponents of Youngkin’s “model policies” before knowing the school district’s decision turned into a celebration for students and LGBTQ-affirming parents.Fairfax joins liberal-leaning Arlington County in rejecting the proposed model.