With no news release and little ceremony, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration has killed an anti-transgender regulatory effort launched during the waning months of former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term.
The proposal would have used the Virginia Board of Health to bar transgender women and girls from women’s-only athletic teams and competitions, bathrooms, locker rooms, and other spaces where people may be undressed. The state’s regulatory docket records the outcome in bureaucratic language: “Withdrawn.” The action was terminated July 30, after its public comment period had ended and 321 comments had been submitted. No preliminary regulation was ever drafted.
I heard The Professional Left say something that summed up things about trans issues, how they are being talked about and how some people are threatening to sit out based on certain Democrats and it was this:
Even a rather mid Democrat can be pushed in the right direction, even after being in office. Republicans will actively come for you if you are trans. If they gain enough power, they are likely to do even worse than what they are doing right now. And probably come for gay rights nearly right after. That mid Democrat may need to be moved on the “men in women’s sports” issue, but at least it’s within the realm of possibility.
As a nearly perfect example, they talked about how Obama was not giving support to gay marriage either, and look at how that turned out.