The Virginia General Assembly has ended its session for the year, with several bills passing through the legislature that would improve the lives and livelihoods of LGBTQ+ people. Yet, Gov. Glenn Youngkin has yet to take action on many of these pieces of legislation.
This month, Youngkin signed into law a bill that codifies marriage equality — a bill passed by a bipartisan coalition — that extends marriage rights to same-sex couples and interracial couples via an update to the outdated Virginia Code. As we await action from the governor on several bills — including bills that would enumerate anti-bullying protections in schools and require mental health awareness training for teachers — it’s vital that Youngkin listens to the will of the voters who sent pro-equality majorities to the General Assembly and that he takes action to protect LGBTQ+ Virginians.
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Much like the marriage bill, these outstanding bills are pro-LGBTQ+, broadly popular and they’ve received bipartisan support. There should be no question: these bills would improve the lives and livelihoods of LGBTQ+ Virginians, and Youngkin should sign them into law.
Those two bills are House Bill 224 and House Bill 536. The first would “require each teacher and other relevant personnel … to complete mental health awareness training that addresses the needs of youth populations that are at a high risk of experiencing mental health challenges and disorders.” The other would “adjust the definition of 'bullying' in the context of public education to specify that the real or perceived power imbalance … includes such a power imbalance on the basis of the membership of the victim in a group that is protected from discrimination pursuant to the Virginia Human Rights Act.”
Both of these bills are aimed at improving mental health outcomes for students in Virginia — mental health outcomes that are demonstrably worse for LGBTQ+ youth. According to recent reporting from The Washington Post, newly released FBI statistics have shown that hate crimes have quadrupled in schools in states that have recently passed anti-LGBTQ+ laws.
This year, lawmakers in the General Assembly introduced 11 anti-LGBTQ+ bills. Thankfully, these bills were defeated by the pro-equality majorities in both chambers, but clearly the anti-LGBTQ+ culture war is alive and well in Virginia.
This culture war is a blaze to which anti-LGBTQ+ voices in Virginia have added fuel, especially for LGBTQ+ youth. In 2023, the administration finalized model policies that singled out transgender students for discrimination, rolling back the policies of the former administration without consulting experts or taking into consideration the tens of thousands of public comments made against the proposal.
Given these troubling statistics released by the FBI and the politically charged environment LGBTQ+ youth face in Virginia, these bills are a positive step toward recognizing and rectifying these daunting challenges. And these pieces of legislation were passed in a bipartisan fashion, with support from members of Youngkin’s own party, much like the marriage bill he has already signed into law. It would only make sense for him to treat these bills with a similar level of consideration.
Voters support LGBTQ+ equality in Virginia. Marriage equality has a greater than 70% approval rating in the commonwealth. Voters elected pro-equality members to the General Assembly in November of 2023. In those same elections, voters rejected anti-LGBTQ+ school board incumbents and candidates, electing new members who pledged their support to LGBTQ+ students, parents, educators and their allies.
School boards in places such as Spotsylvania County saw members lose elections after they voted to adopt the aforementioned anti-trans student guidance from the Department of Education, with new, pro-LGBTQ+ members taking their seats.
These bills can help LGBTQ+ youth. This session, with pro-equality majorities in both chambers, the General Assembly showed the type of systemic changes that we can pass and implement to better the lives and livelihoods of LGBTQ+ Virginians. It’s why voters elected them in the first place.
At the same time, pro-LGBTQ+ bills still garnered support from across the ideological spectrum — not just from one party. And Youngkin has signed similar legislation before, including Senate Bill 1044, which was enacted in March 2023 mandating that student ID cards include the 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline.
Youngkin must listen to the will of the voters and to the lawmakers they elected. He has a chance to reach across the aisle, reach out to LGBTQ+ Virginians and reach toward a more equal commonwealth.
Narissa Rahaman is the executive director of Equality Virginia, the commonwealth’s leading advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ+) equality. Contact her at nrahaman@equalityvirginia.org.