TL;DR
- A Virginia school board adopted strict anti-transgender rules for students.
- The board also blocked an LGBTQ+ student club at a middle school.
- Students and parents warned the moves could worsen bullying and suicide risk.
- The policy mirrors guidance from outgoing Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
- Advocates say affirming schools save lives — and this does the opposite.
Just days before Virginia turns the page on its anti-LGBTQ+ leadership, one rural school board made sure to slam the door shut behind it.
The King George County School Board voted unanimously to adopt a sweeping policy restricting transgender students — while also continuing to block a proposed Gender and Sexualities Alliance at the district’s middle school. The timing was impossible to ignore: the vote came right before Democrat Abigail Spanberger is sworn in, replacing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his hardline stance on trans students.
The new rule, known as Policy JBB, requires staff to use only the name and pronouns listed on a student’s official records, regardless of a student’s gender identity. It restricts bathroom access, overnight accommodations, and participation in sex-segregated activities based strictly on sex assigned at birth. Any flexibility requires written parental permission — and even then, schools are barred from updating a student’s name or gender in records.
In plain terms: trans kids must misgender themselves, or be misgendered by adults, unless their parents formally intervene — and even that won’t fully protect them.
At the same time, the board refused to allow non-curricular clubs at the middle school level, effectively killing a proposed Gender and Sexualities Alliance. Parents and students say other clubs have existed in the past and that the sudden ban appears designed to stop LGBTQ+ kids from organizing.
Students begged them not to do this. The board did it anyway.
Middle schooler Artemis Park told officials that LGBTQ+ kids already face slurs, harassment, and physical violence. “I get a lot of slurs per day,” he said, describing a friend who had recently been punched in a bathroom. He warned that policies like this don’t create safety — they create silence and fear.
Parents echoed that message. Artemis’s mother, Susan Park, said using a student’s affirmed name and pronouns isn’t politics — it’s basic humanity. Blocking a GSA, she added, sends a clear signal to queer kids that they don’t belong.
Data backs them up. Research from The Trevor Project shows that LGBTQ+ youth in affirming school environments have significantly lower rates of suicide attempts. Conversely, even a single anti-LGBTQ+ school policy is linked to higher rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman called the board’s actions part of a national campaign to push trans youth out of public life. “Affirming schools save lives,” she said, warning that these decisions foster fear while ignoring real educational priorities like funding, staffing, and mental health resources.
Civil rights groups have also pointed out that the policy closely mirrors Youngkin-era “model policies” that were challenged in court for violating state law and endangering students. Many Virginia districts refused to adopt them. King George embraced them — just in time.
For LGBTQ+ families in the county, this isn’t a theoretical culture war. It’s daily life. It’s kids avoiding bathrooms. It’s students skipping school. It’s parents worrying whether their child will make it through the year.
As Virginia’s leadership changes in Richmond, King George County stands as a grim reminder: progress at the top doesn’t automatically protect kids on the ground. And when school boards choose ideology over evidence, it’s LGBTQ+ youth who pay the price.
For trans kids, being told they don’t exist isn’t policy. It’s trauma.