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
Va. court allows conversion therapy despite law banning it
Judge in June 30 ruling cited religious freedom.
In 2020, the state of Virginia had banned the practice of conversion therapy, but on Monday, a county judge ruled the ban violates the Virginia Constitution and Religious Freedom Restoration Act, allowing the therapy to start once more.
The conversion therapy ban, which can be seen in Va. Code § 54.1-2409.5 and 18VAC115-20-130.14, was overturned on June 30 as a result of two Christian counselors who argued that their — and all Virginia parents’ — constitutional right to freedom of religion had been encroached upon when the state legislature passed the ban.
A Henrico County Circuit Court judge sided with John and Janet Raymond, two Christian counselors represented by the Founding Freedoms Law Center, a conservative organization founded in 2020 following Virginia’s conversion therapy ban. Virginia’s Office of the Attorney General entered a consent decree with FFLC, saying state officials will not discipline counselors who engage in talk conversion therapy.
Conversion therapy, as the legislation described it, is considered to be “any practice or treatment that seeks to change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity, including efforts to change behaviors or gender expressions or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or feelings toward individuals of the same gender.” The ban’s reversal will now allow parents to subject their children to these practices to make them align better with their religion.
This decision comes despite advice and concern from many medical and pediatric organizations — including the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and the American Counseling Association, to name a few — all of which denounce conversion therapy as dangerous and harmful to those subjected to it.
The American Medical Association, the largest and only national association that convenes more than 190 state and specialty medical societies, says that “these techniques are the assumption that any non-heterosexual, non-cisgender identities are mental disorders, and that sexual orientation and gender identity can and should be changed. This assumption is not based on medical and scientific evidence,” with attached data indicating people subjected to conversion therapy are more likely to develop “significant long-term harm” as a result of the therapy.
The AMA goes as far as to say that they outright “oppose the use of reparative or conversion therapy for sexual orientation or gender identity.”
FFLC has a clear goal of promoting — if not requiring — conservative ideology under the guise of religious freedom in the Virginia General Assembly. On their website, the FFLC argues that some progressive policies passed by the Assembly, like that of freedom from conversion therapy, are a violation of some Virginians’ “God-given foundational freedoms.”
The FFLC has argued that when conservative notions are not abided by in state law — especially when it involves “God’s design for male and female, the nuclear family, and parental rights” — that the law violates Virginians’ religious freedom.
A statement on the FFLC’s website calls gender dysphoria among children a “contagion” and upholds “faith-based insights” from counselors as equal — in the eyes of the law — to those who use medical-based insights. This, once again, is despite overwhelming medical evidence that indicates conversion therapy is harmful.
One study showed that 77 percent of those who received “sexual orientation change efforts,” or conversion therapy, experienced “significant harm.” This harm includes depression, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and internalized homophobia. In addition, the study found that young LGBTQ adults with high levels of parental or caregiver rejection are “8.4 times more likely to report having attempted suicide,” with another study finding that “nearly 30 percent of individuals who underwent SOCE reported suicidal attempts.”
Virginia Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell, a Democrat representing Fairfax, said that the overturning of the ban on religious merit disregards the entire concept of having professionally licensed counselors.
“I have no problem if somebody wants to go look at religious counseling from their priest or their minister, their rabbi, their imam — that’s perfectly fine,” Surovell told the Virginia Mercury. “When somebody goes to get therapy from somebody licensed by the commonwealth of Virginia, there’s a different set of rules applied. You can’t just say whatever you want because you have a license. That’s why we have professional standards, that’s why we have statutes.”
Virginia
Walkinshaw wins Democratic primary in Va. 11th Congressional District
Special election winner will succeed Gerry Connolly
On Saturday, Fairfax County Supervisor James Walkinshaw won the Democratic primary for the special election that will determine who will represent Virginia’s 11th Congressional District.
The special election is being held following the death of the late Congressman Gerry Connolly, who represented the district from 2008 until 2024, when he announced his retirement, and subsequently passed away from cancer in May.
Walkinshaw is not unknown to Virginia’s 11th District — he has served on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors since 2020 and had served as Connolly’s chief of staff from 2009 to 2019. Before he passed away, Connolly had endorsed Walkinshaw to take his place, claiming that choosing Walkinshaw to be his chief of staff was “one of the best decisions I ever made.”
The Democratic nominee has run his campaign on mitigating Trump’s “dangerous” agenda of dismantling the federal bureaucracy, which in the district is a major issue as many of the district’s residents are federal employees and contractors.
“I’m honored and humbled to have earned the Democratic nomination for the district I’ve spent my career serving,” Walkinshaw said on X. “This victory was powered by neighbors, volunteers, and supporters who believe in protecting our democracy, defending our freedoms, and delivering for working families.”
In addition to protecting federal workers, Walkinshaw has a long list of progressive priorities — some of which include creating affordable housing, reducing gun violence, expanding immigrant protections, and “advancing equality for all” by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the Fair Housing Act.
Various democratic PACs contributed more than $2 million to Walkinshaw’s ad campaigns, much of which touted his connection to Connolly.
Walkinshaw will face Republican Stewart Whitson in the special election in September, where he is the likely favorite to win.
Virginia
Spanberger touts equality, reproductive rights in Arlington
Democratic Va. gubernatorial nominee made campaign stop at Freddie’s Beach Bar
With the general election heating up and LGBTQ rights under increasing threat nationwide, Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger brought her “Span Virginia Bus Tour” to Arlington’s Freddie’s Beach Bar for a campaign stop filled with cheers, policy pledges, and community spirit.
Spanberger, who served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019 through early 2025 for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District, also served as a federal law enforcement officer specializing in narcotics and money laundering cases, and as a CIA case officer working on counterterrorism and nuclear counterproliferation.
Spanberger is running against Republican nominee Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor of Virginia, who said she was “morally opposed” to a bill protecting marriage equality in the commonwealth.
She was joined by other Democratic candidates and supporters: lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Ghazala Hashmi, attorney general candidate Jay Jones, Virginia state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria), and Congressman Don Beyer.
Freddie’s was packed wall-to-wall with supporters, many of whom wore “Spanberger for Virginia” shirts in the progressive Pride flag colors. In her speech, she made it clear that LGBTQ Virginians’ rights are on the ballot this year.
“I’m so excited to be here, and I am so grateful to the entire staff of Freddy’s for letting us overtake this incredible venue that is not just an awesome place to come together in community, but is a symbol to so many people of joy, of happiness, of community and of celebrating our friends and our neighbors,” Spanberger told the packed restaurant. “It is exciting to be here, and particularly during this Pride month, and particularly as we reflect on the 10-year anniversary of Obergefell and the reality that we still have so much work to do.”
“The reality is there are so many people who still would be inclined to take us backwards,” she said. “In this moment when we see attacks on people’s rights, on people’s humanity, on Virginia, on our economy, on research, on public education, on food security, on health care, on Virginians, on their jobs, on public service and on people — it can get heavy.”
“What it does for me is it makes me want to double down, because once upon a time, when I was talking to my mother about some horror show or sequence of activities coming out of a particular administration, she did not really have the patience to listen to me and said ‘Abigail, let your rage fuel you’ — and the conversation was over. And so I reflect on that, because, in fact, every day there is so much fuel to be had in this world and in this moment.”
One of the points Spanberger continued to emphasize was the importance of steadfast state government officials following the election of President Donald Trump, which has led to rollbacks of LGBTQ and bodily autonomy rights as a result of the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court.
“What the past few years have shown us is that a Supreme Court decision, no matter how many years we have celebrated its existence, does not protect us in the long term. And so as governor, I will work to make sure that every protection we can put in place for the dignity, the value, and the equal rights of all Virginians is a priority.”
During her speech, Spanberger highlighted several of the key values driving her campaign — protecting reproductive freedom and human rights, lowering healthcare costs, safeguarding Virginia’s environment, and ensuring that public education is affordable, accessible, and rooted in truth, not politics.
Spanberger went as far as to say that she wants to amend the state’s constitution to remove Section 15-A. “The reality is that in Virginia, we still have a ban in our state constitution on marriage equality. It is of the utmost urgency that we move forward with our constitutional amendment.”
“We will work to ensure that that terrible constitutional amendment, that was put in years ago, is taken out and updated and ensuring that Virginia is reflective in our most essential documents of who we are as a commonwealth, which is an accepting place that celebrates the vibrancy of every single person and recognizes that all Virginians have a place, both in that constitution and in law,” she added.
Following the event, two supporters spoke to the Washington Blade about why they had come out to support Spanberger.
“I came out because I needed to show support for this ticket, because it has been a particularly rough week, but a long few years for our rights in this country, in this state, with this governor, and it’s — we need to flip it around, because queer people need protection,” said Samantha Perez, who lives in Ballston. “Trans people need protection. Trans kids need protection. And it’s not gonna happen with who’s in Richmond right now, and we just need to get it turned around.”
“The whole neighborhood’s here. All our friends are here,” said Annie Styles of Pentagon City. “It means the world to me to take care of each other. That’s what a good community does. That’s not what we’ve had with the Republicans here or across the nation for a really long time. It’s time to show that care. It’s time to make sure that good people are in a position to do good things.”
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