The Virginia State Board of Health has accepted a petition to begin working on regulations that would ban transgender girls and women from competing in girls’ and women’s sports. Supporters say the petition will protect athletes.
“We want to continue to garner support and protect women in their private spaces, and support fair competition.”
Carter Satterfield, Roanoke College student
Those against say the petition goes beyond the board’s scope of power and demeans the transgender community.
“In addition to inviting legal challenge, the proposed regulations would be detrimental to all women’s health. They would require athletic governing bodies and schools to engage in dangerous gender policing and sex testing for enforcement.”
Wyatt Rolla, senior transgender rights attorney at ACLU
This vote was only the state health board accepting the petition to create regulations on this issue. That will be a multi-step process that officials say could take years.