A school board rejected a required policy Thursday from the Virginia Department of Education that in part mandates administrators to refer to students by their chosen gender pronouns instead of their biological pronouns.
The Russell County school board voted unanimously to reject mandatory rule changes after residents packed into a meeting hall and expressed their displeasure with the guidelines for transgender students.
“We do not hate transgender people. We do not hate homosexual people. We do not judge them," one resident said, prompting applause. "God will judge them. We hate the sin that they live, and that is the problem that we have in the community today, is that [it is] trying to be pushed on all of our children."
The Virginia Department of Education is set to require updated educational guidelines pertaining to transgender students following approval from the commonwealth's legislature in 2020. The policies, which begin at schools in the fall, mandate that administrators allow students to use the name and gender pronouns that align with their identity "without requiring any particular substantiating evidence," according to Virginia's model policies.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/school-board-rejects-virginia-pronoun-transgender-bathroom-policy
