The transgender agenda is resuming its advances onto your local schools, without any regard as to how you feel about it. The Fairfax County School Board of Virginia is meeting Thursday May 7th to vote on what may seem to be a small change to the language in their discrimination policy. But it could change everything about American childhood.
This change is being proposed by board member Ryan McElveen, who has previously worked for the Clinton Foundation as well as former Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D). He wants to include “gender identity” into Fairfax’s nondiscrimination policy. He states that the policy is about “supporting everyone in our community no matter their race, religion, ethnicity, background, sexual orientation or gender identity. I think it’s critical that we teach kids at a young age that they should be accepting of everyone.”
McElveen says that he made the decision to pursue this change after Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring (D) wrote that school boards have the authority to include sexual orientation and “gender identity” in nondiscrimination policies. Though Herring’s opinion contradicts eight other Virginia Attorney General Opinions – including both Democrats and Republicans – from 1982 to 2010 that all sated that on the Virginia General Assembly is the only body with the authority to define the classes of individuals protected by nondiscrimination policies.
Another Board member, Elizabeth Schultz, fears that it is too soon to vote on this change as there is currently no written draft of the regulations imposed by the policy. She says, “I move to defer this matter until the second School Board meeting in October, 2015, so that the Board can be provided the commensurate draft regulation and handbook language and determine the overall impact of this change.”
So, this vote is being proposed before a draft has been written, and these Board members are being forced to vote blind. It’s akin to a localized version of Obamacare where those voting won’t know what’s in the policy until months after it is voted on. According to the Traditional Values Coalition, the Fairfax County Superintendent only intends to hire a consultant to set the regulations and accommodations AFTER the vote is passed.
Even worse, Fairfax could be in danger of being denied federal funding if they don’t vote yes on this update to their policy. They could be accused of failure to comply with Title IX of the Education Amendments that are enforce by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. That would be $42 million, 1.7 percent of the county’s annual budget, denied to them simply because it doesn’t fit the federal definition.
“It is being done for no apparent reason,” said former Fairfax County School Board member Mychele Brickner, “The current FCPS Nondiscrimination Policy already prohibits discrimination based on sex, thus it already protects transgendered youth from harassment. The School Board does not need to add more categories to an already sound policy. They certainly do not need to allow students who are biologically male to use female facilities, or vice versa, under the guise of preventing bullying. This is a violation of student and staff privacy and could be a safety concern.”
She also says that this change could contradict Fairfax County’s school dress code policy which says “Any clothing that interferes with or disrupts the educational environment is unacceptable.” She urges schools to instead focus on education in a safe and orderly environment.
One father, Keith Appell, worries that his daughters may be subject to the complex issue of gender dysphoria. Something that even adults find difficult to comprehend, let alone children. He told the Washington Post that “If a transgender teacher is placed in my kid’s class, I have no recourse. If I would like to remove my child from that class and put her in a class with a different teacher, I cannot do that because it would be akin to asking to have her moved from a teacher because they are African American or Hispanic. That’s scary. . . . It’s tough enough for a kid to process subtraction at six years old much less ‘Oh my teacher used to be a man and now she’s a woman.’ ”
But the worries don’t end there. The Traditional Values Coalition believes that there could also be a domino effect that spills into out-of-school activities such as community sports leagues and clubs. If this is the case, what other sorts of community youth programs can be affected by these changes? Even without the social ramifications, is it fair to allow a boy to play in a girl’s league if he identifies as a female? Or is it safe to allow a girl to play contact sports with boys because she identifies as a male? Is transgenderism an issue that schools should be tackling? When is a child too young to have a full grasp on what their identity truly is?
This policy change seems to generate more questions than it does solutions.
The Traditional Values Coalition has published a flyer pertaining to this issue, including more information and contact information for the school board members.