Fairfax County School Board to Vote on Gender Identity Issue

Members of the Fairfax County School Board are set to vote on a proposal to add “gender identity” to its nondiscrimination policies.

Member Ryan McElveen requested a vote on the matter last month based on a recent Virginia Attorney General opinion stating that Virginia school boards could expand their anti-discrimination policies to include gender identity. On March 4, Attorney General Mark Herring released an opinion stating that school boards in Virginia have the authority to expand their anti-discrimination policies to encompass both sexual orientation and gender identity.

When the board adopted a new nondiscrimination policy last year, on Nov. 6, to protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation, it failed to offer protection based on “gender identity,” McElveen noted.

NBC-4 reported last week that a “gender-fluid teen” at Reston’s South Lakes High School said she feels accepted at that school and hopes to see the proposal to add “gender identity” to its nondiscrimination policies pass.

Transgender and gender-fluid students “would take that as complete support from the adults in their community,” said the student’s mother, Tara Cranford Teague, in an interview with the TV station. “They need that support.”

The school board members also heard opposition, from parent Andrea Lafferty, who serves as president of the Traditional Values Coalition; she worries about problems related to bathrooms at schools. It endangers children and violates the rights of both students and parents,” WJLA reported her as saying.

If the “gender identity” measure is adopted, the county would bring in a consultant to ensure that it’s implemented correctly, according to the report by WJLA. A vote on the issue is set for May 7.