Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears on Thursday announced she will run to succeed Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin in 2025.

“I could have never believed growing up that I could be asking Virginians for their faith and confidence in me to serve them as governor of our great commonwealth,” the Republican said in her announcement, according to the Washington Post. “Yes, this is an opportunity to make history, but our campaign is about making life better for every Virginian right here, right now.”

Earle-Sears, a former U.S. Marine who served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 2002-2004, in 2021 became the first woman elected Virginia’s lieutenant governor. Youngkin and Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares also won their respective races that year.

Activists have criticized Earle-Sears for her opposition to LGBTQ rights in Virginia.

Earle-Sears in 2023 spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Md. She sparked criticism in February when she misgendered state Sen. Danica Roem (D-Manassas) on the Virginia Senate floor.

Roem in 2018 became the first transgender person seated in a state legislature in the country when she assumed her seat in the House of Delegates. Voters in the 30th Senate District last November elected Roem to the state Senate, thus becoming the first trans person to be seated in the chamber.

The Washington Post reported Miyares is likely to run against Earle-Sears in the Republican primary. The winner would likely face U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), who is the only Democrat who has thus far declared themselves a gubernatorial candidate.

Earle-Sears would become Virginia’s first female governor if she wins. She would also become the first Black woman elected governor of any state.

A federal judge has ruled in favor of a transgender student in Hanover County who was prevented from playing on her school’s girls’ tennis team because of her gender identity.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of the 11-year-old middle school student who is identified as “Janie Doe,” notes on its website that U.S. District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck issued her ruling on Aug. 16.

Lauck, according to the ACLU of Virginia, found the Hanover County School Board “likely violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution” when it prevented the student from joining her school’s tennis team in 2023.

“Janie has established that the board excluded her, on the basis of sex, from participating in an education program when it denied her application to try out for (and if selected, to participate on) her school’s girls’ tennis team,” wrote Lauck.

The ACLU of Virginia notes Lauck added the school board’s actions “contravene the strong public interest in educational institutions being free of discrimination of all kinds.”

The lawsuit that the ACLU of Virginia and WilmerHale, a Washington-based law firm, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Richmond notes the school board voted not to allow Doe to “participate in” the girls’ tennis team, even though “she successfully qualified during tryouts, and her parents provided documentation requested by the school board to establish her eligibility.”

“At the heart of this case is an 11-year-old who loves tennis and just wants to try out with her friends for the team she already made last year,” said ACLU of Virginia Senior Transgender Rights Attorney Wyatt Rolla on Monday in a press release. “By singling out a transgender student in their district, the adults on the Hanover County School Board bullied Janie and violated nondiscrimination protections that are there to make sure public schools include all students.”

The Biden-Harris administration earlier this year released its final Title IX rules that specifically protect discrimination against LGBTQ students based on their gender identity and sexual orientation. The new regulations took effect on Aug. 1. (The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 16 in a 5-4 ruling said the new regulations cannot take effect in states that have challenged them in federal court.)

Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares is among the state attorneys general who pledged to block the new Title IX rules from taking effect.

“We are happy that the Supreme Court rejected the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to narrow the district court’s ruling which prevented the administration’s Title IX rewrite from going into effect in Virginia,” said Miyares in a statement to Virginia Public Radio.

The Virginia Department of Education in July 2023 announced new guidelines for trans and nonbinary students for which Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked. 

Advocacy groups maintain the guidelines, among other things would forcibly out trans and nonbinary students. Arlington County Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, and Prince William County Schools are among the school districts that have refused to implement them. 

“This ruling should make every school board — not just Hanover — think twice before using VDOE’s model policies to justify discrimination against its students,” said Rolla.

A gay couple from Virginia died on July 22 when their small plane crashed shortly after it took off from an airport on New York’s Long Island.

The Associated Press reported Christopher Kucera, 46, of Fredericksburg and Zachary Hatcher, 43, of King George, died when their single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza A36 crashed around 6:15 p.m. shortly after it took off from MacArthur Airport in Suffolk County.

The AP noted the Suffolk County Police Department in a press release said Kucera was piloting the plane. It crashed as Kucera tried to return it to the runway.

The Fredericksburg Free Press reported Hatcher was to become the new CEO of the Community Foundation of the Rappahannock River Region, a Fredericksburg-based philanthropic organization, on Aug. 5. The newspaper said Kucera was an air and space engineer and an experienced pilot.

NBC New York reported Kucera and Hatcher were visiting friends on Long Island before the crash.

 “They were dear friends and integral to our community,” said the Community Foundation in a statement.

Mike Kucera told the Fredericksburg Free Press his brother “died doing what he loved most and with the man he loved most. We are grateful for that.” 

“Considering the loss of power so soon after takeoff, Chris is a hero for avoiding casualties on the ground,” added Mike Kucera.