Virginia
Student protesters in Fairfax County call for inclusivity
FCPS youth activists rally, speak to urge implementation of coed Family Life Education classes
Student activists and community supporters of the Pride Liberation Project rallied outside of Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church, Va., on Thursday ahead of a Fairfax County School Board meeting.
A group of about 50 students, teachers, and supporters gathered on the sidewalk along Glebe Road holding signs and chanting to call for the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to adopt a gender neutral or “coed” Family Life Education (FLE) program for certain subjects in the curriculum. FLE is the sex education program in Fairfax County.
The activists assert that a coed FLE program would be beneficial to students, particularly for transgender and nonbinary students. Activists agreed with the recommendations of the FLE Curriculum Advisory Committee.
The Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee (FLECAC) is comprised of members of the school board, representatives from the student body, representatives from the community and representatives from teachers and administrators in FCPS. FLECAC recommended that certain lessons be coed in its 2021-2022 Recommendations to the School Board report.
However, the Fairfax County School Board opted to postpone a vote on whether to introduce gender neutral FLE classes for certain subjects along with other changes to the curriculum proposed by the advisory committee at a work session in May.
“FLECAC recommended that we create gender neutral FLE unanimously,” Aarayn Rawal, a student activist with the Pride Liberation Project told the crowd. “But this school board will not choose to ratify that. What they chose to do instead is to kick the can down the road because they are too scared of queer children having rights in our school system.”
“We’re trying to ensure that all people are represented in the way they want to be seen in schools: one of the places they spend time the most,” said a student who identified herself as Natasha. “I think that we need coed FLE in order to promote equality and more importantly, equity among all students regardless of their gender, their sexual orientation, their race.”
“Today we’re fighting for the right for people to have bodily autonomy to make their own decisions about their own body,” the student organizer of the protest Rivka Vizcardo-Lichter told the Blade. “But specifically with the school board we’re fighting so that they adopt the FLE reforms that FLECAC has suggested, especially the one to adopt coed FLE into the curriculum. That is, that there is no gender separation within the classes. This is a step toward inclusivity for transgender and nonbinary students but moreover, if this was accepted, it would show that the board is willing to take a step further and — possibly in the future — broaden the FLE curriculum to include queer students. “
A smaller group of conservative adult demonstrators gathered on the sidewalk outside of the school board meeting. The group stood in front of a “Parents for Youngkin” yard sign and had a public address system with songs such as David Lee Roth’s “Just a Gigolo” blaring out to the assembled crowds: many in the opposing crowd down the sidewalk being underage students. The group held aloft signs calling for the resignation of members of the Fairfax County School Board including gay member Karl Frisch.
Following the protest outside, members of the Pride Liberation Project, Fairfax NAACP and FCPS Pride as well as adversaries from right-wing groups such as Mama Grizzly entered the auditorium of Luther Jackson Middle School to attend the Fairfax County School Board meeting.
Several speakers at the community participation segment of the meeting spoke in favor of gender neutral Family Life Education.
“The fact remains, queer students are struggling,” rising FCPS senior Inaayah Kahn addressed the board. “We have been struggling. We are fighting for our right to be heard, to be represented, to be able to feel safe. Almost constantly, I have friends who get called slurs regularly, I have friends who keep forgiving casual homophobia because the person just ‘didn’t know better.’ I shouldn’t have to say this, but this shouldn’t be happening.”
“I have sat through countless FLE classes throughout my years in FCPS,” Kahn continued. “We started out by being divided by gender: girls in one room, boys in the other, and there was a distinct lack of discussion of trans, nonbinary, and queer identities.”
“Queer students are not seeing themselves represented in our curriculums,” said Kahn. “Queer students are feeling dysphoric in these classrooms. And queer students need gender neutral FLE desperately.”
“Your FLECAC committee has recommended coed FLE classes, yet they still have not been established,” admonished Kahn. “Trans and non-binary students are living in a world that keeps growing more and more hostile toward their identities. And currently, the board is not helping them.”
FCPS student and organizer of the Pride Liberation Project Vizcardo-Lichter was recognized to speak at the podium. “If you’ve heard of the Pride Liberation Project, you’ve probably heard this statistic about a million times,” Vizcardo-Lichter said. “Fifty percent of students in FCPS are depressed. And, at this point, you are probably tired of hearing it but I’m here to tell you why it is essential that you don’t ignore this.”
Vixcardo-Lichter and other speakers referred to the Fairfax County government survey that found 50 percent of self-identified LGBTQ youth in Fairfax County Public Schools from the Fall semester of 2019 experienced depressive symptoms compared to 26 percent of their heterosexual classmates. Further, the survey found that 32 percent of self-reported LGBTQ students had contemplated suicide compared to 11 percent of their heterosexual peers.
“You have a choice: to continue to exclude queer students from their own FLE classes and further the statistic, or you can take a step toward inclusivity by adopting the reforms suggested by FLECAC,” concluded Vizcardo-Lichter.
“If you implemented the reforms suggested by FLECAC, you’ll be taking a small but meaningful step toward accepting queer students,” rising senior Cathy Le said, addressing the board. “If not, the status quo of hate and fear directed toward the queer community will never change. I hope that the decision to do what’s right is unanimous.”
Not all speakers during the community participation segment of the school board meeting were in support of FLE, coed or otherwise.
Kathleen Mallard, wearing a ‘Mama Grizzly’ T-shirt, denounced the Family Life Education program for a number of unsubstantiated claims when she spoke before the school board.
“I was very concerned when my daughter in 12th grade, no 7th grade, was going to learn about beastiality,” Mallard said at the podium. “You know, I didn’t know. Fisting. Whatever. I didn’t know what that was. So anyway, I joined this group.”
Virginia
Gay Va. State Sen. Ebbin resigns for role in Spanberger administration
Veteran lawmaker will step down in February
Alexandria Democrat Adam Ebbin, who has served as an openly gay member of the Virginia Legislature since 2004, announced on Jan. 7 that he is resigning from his seat in the State Senate to take a job in the administration of Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger.
Since 2012, Ebbin has been a member of the Virginia Senate for the 39th District representing parts of Alexandria, Arlington, and Fairfax counties. He served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Alexandria from 2004 to 2012, becoming the state’s first out gay lawmaker.
His announcement says he submitted his resignation from his Senate position effective Feb. 18 to join the Spanberger administration as a senior adviser at the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority.
“I’m grateful to have the benefit of Senator Ebbin’s policy expertise continuing to serve the people of Virginia, and I look forward to working with him to prioritize public safety and public health,” Spanberger said in Ebbin’s announcement statement.
She was referring to the lead role Ebbin has played in the Virginia Legislature’s approval in 2020 of legislation decriminalizing marijuana and the subsequent approval in 2021of a bill legalizing recreational use and possession of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older. But the Virginia Legislature has yet to pass legislation facilitating the retail sale of marijuana for recreational use and limits sales to purchases at licensed medical marijuana dispensaries.
“I share Governor-elect Spanberger’s goal that adults 21 and over who choose to use cannabis, and those who use it for medical treatment, have access to a well-tested, accurately labeled product, free from contamination,” Ebbin said in his statement. “2026 is the year we will move cannabis sales off the street corner and behind the age-verified counter,” he said.
Virginia
LGBTQ groups to join Spanberger inaugural parade
Virginia Pride among more than 25 orgs to march in Jan.17 event
Virginia Gov.-Elect Abigail Spanberger’s inaugural committee announced on Jan. 2 that at least two LGBTQ organizations will be among more than 25 state-based organizations, including marching bands, that will participate in her inaugural parade on Jan. 17.
A statement released by the inaugural committee says the parade will take place immediately after Spanberger is sworn in as Virginia’s 75th governor and delivers her inaugural address in Richmond.
The statement lists the LGBTQ groups Virginia Pride and Diversity Richmond as two groups participating in the parade, although the two groups merged in 2021, with Virginia Pride becoming a project of Diversity Richmond. Among other things, Virginia Pride organizes Richmond’s annual LGBTQ Pride events.
“A display of the impressive talent and beauty of every corner of Virginia, our inaugural parade will be a celebration of all that makes our Commonwealth strong,” Spanberger said in the Jan. 2 statement. “I’m excited for attendees in the stands on Capitol Square and families watching together at home to see this incredible showing of Virginia pride,” she said.
James Millner, who serves as director of Virginia Pride, told the Washington Blade about 75 people are expected to join the Virginia Pride-Diversity Richmond contingent in the parade. He said among them will be members of other Virginia LGBTQ organizations.
“We’re going to invite our staff, our board, our volunteers, and our community partners to join us,” Millner said.
“We are thrilled and honored to have been invited to participate in Abigail Spanberger’s inauguration festivities,” he added. “I think this represents a marked change from the previous administration and demonstrates what she campaigned on – which is she sees the diversity of the Commonwealth as a strength that needs to be celebrated,” he said. “And we are very happy that she has invited us to represent the diversity of the commonwealth.”
Millner appeared to reflect on the sentiment of the large majority of Virginia’s LGBTQ community in its support for Democrat Spanberger over Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears in the November 2025 Virginia election and the end of incumbent GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term in office on Jan. 17.
“After what we’ve been through with the Younkin administration, especially in its treatment of LGBTQ folks, especially transgender and nonconforming folks, I think we are all breathing easy and excited about what opportunities will exist in working with Abigail Spanberger,” he told the Blade.
Virginia
DOJ seeks to join lawsuit against Loudoun County over trans student in locker room
Three male high school students suspended after complaining about classmate
The Justice Department has asked to join a federal lawsuit against Loudoun County Public Schools over the way it handled the case of three male high school students who complained about a transgender student in a boys’ locker room.
The Washington Blade earlier this year reported Loudoun County public schools suspended the three boys and launched a Title IX investigation into whether they sexually harassed the student after they said they felt uncomfortable with their classmate in the locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn.
The parents of two of the boys filed a lawsuit against Loudoun County public schools in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria. The Richmond-based Founding Freedoms Law Center and America First Legal, which White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller co-founded, represent them.
The Justice Department in a Dec. 8 press release announced that “it filed legal action against the Loudoun County (Va.) School Board (Loudoun County) for its denial of equal protection based on religion.”
“The suit alleges that Loudoun County applied Policy 8040, which requires students and faculty to accept and promote gender ideology, to two Christian, male students in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” reads the press release.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in the press release said “students do not shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
“Loudoun County’s decision to advance and promote gender ideology tramples on the rights of religious students who cannot embrace ideas that deny biological reality,” said Dhillon.
Outgoing Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and outgoing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in May announced an investigation into the case.
The Virginia Department of Education in 2023 announced the new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Youngkin asked. Equality Virginia and other advocacy groups claim they, among other things, forcibly out trans and nonbinary students.
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in February launched an investigation into whether Loudoun County and four other Northern Virginia school districts’ policies in support of trans and nonbinary students violate Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order that prohibits federally funded educational institutions from promoting “gender ideology.”
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