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Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican nominee for governor in November, called transgender bathroom policy “nonsense” outside a Fairfax County Public Schools board meeting on Thursday.
Fairfax, much like neighboring Loudoun, has been embroiled in disputes over administrators’ handling of complaints about transgender students sharing locker rooms.
“Look at all of our wonderful parents who are saying that ‘we’re not for nonsense’,” Earle-Sears said outside the board meeting with a cheering crowd behind her.
Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) policy, as described on its website, requires speakers to be Fairfax County or Fairfax city residents or out-of-county residents with FCPS students in the household. Earle-Sears does not live in Fairfax, which is a Washington, D.C. suburb.
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Earlier this month, FCPS faced criticism over a male student with facial hair being allowed to use the girls’ room at West Springfield High School in Springfield, Virginia. The boy allegedly would also “stand there and watch [the girls],” according to a civil rights complaint reported by the New York Post.
FCPS staff on Monday addressed the situation by shortening the time girls could use the locker room to allow the boy to use it “without them being in their presence,” according to the Post.
Earle-Sears said that politicians may say they agree with her on the issue, but that not enough show it.
“Because, if you love me, you will make sure that my girl children are safe in the locker rooms and not having to undress in front of men,” she said.
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“And we have our boys who want to maintain their own respect and dignity. They, too, do not want to have to be forced to undress in locker rooms with transgendered males.”
Earle-Sears called Title IX – which critics of such restroom policies say they violate – is what gives young girls a “launch pad” when it comes to women’s rights.
She also urged reporters to press her opponent, former Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., to spell out her position, arguing that the Democrat backed “unsafe measures” that force girls “to change in front of men nude” and vote accordingly.
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“You have allowed her to get away with a word salad where she says a whole bunch of nothing and nobody understands,” Earle-Sears said, noting that Spanberger voted against the Parents Bill of Rights in Congress in 2023.
Earle-Sears said the bill also would have required parents to be notified if their child expressed a desire to transition or was in the process of doing so.
“[The bill] also said, if my child is transitioning, and you’re helping, I need to know that. It also says if violence is happening in the schools, I need to know that as a parent it says so many other things.”
All Democrats and five Republicans voted against the bill, which passed the House but not the Senate.
Asked about her current view on transgender bathroom and sports policies, Spanberger said she wants to see legislation that would allow for individualization for each student affected based on age, type of sport and competitiveness.
“I’m the mom of three daughters in Virginia public schools, and they participate in all activities across the board. I recognize the concern that families and community members might have about the safety of their own kids, about competitiveness, about fairness,” she told reporters in Roanoke.
“And I think the process that was in place for 10 years was one that was working. It was one that took individual circumstances and individual communities into account, and I think that is the process that Virginia should continue to utilize,” she said, according to Roanoke’s ABC affiliate.
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In turn, Spanberger criticized Earle-Sears and said Virginia was last in the nation in math recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic while she was lieutenant governor.
“While I recognize all issues are important to all Virginians, I find it questionable that my opponent isn’t talking about the issue that I know is number one that everywhere I go people are talking about,” Spanberger said.
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