Virginia school board adopts anti-transgender policy and blocks LGBTQ+ clubhttps://www.advocate.com/politics/states/king-george-virginia-transphobic-schools 🔗Christopher Wiggins (15 Jan 2026)
Just days before LGBTQ+ ally, Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, is set to replace Virginia's anti-trans Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, when she is sworn in on Saturday, a rural school board has adopted a sweeping new policy restricting transgender students, while simultaneously continuing to block a proposed middle school Gender and Sexualities Alliance.
The board's moves prompted emotional warnings from students, parents, and educators who say the decisions could deepen bullying, isolation, and suicide risk for LGBTQ+ youth.
On January 7, the King George County School Board unanimously adopted Policy JBB, which requires school staff to refer to students only by the name and pronouns on the student's record, without discussing the matter. The policy bars recognition of a student's affirmed name or gender identity in official records, restricts bathroom access, overnight travel accommodations, and participation in sex-segregated activities based on sex assigned at birth, and limits any deviation from those rules to cases in which parents provide written permission, while still prohibiting any changes to a student's legal sex or name in school records.
Eighth-grader Artemis Park told board members that queer youth face sharply elevated risks of suicide, citing federal data and research from The Trevor Project, a national LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention organization.
"If the school doesn't care about that," Artemis said, "then they shouldn't be in charge of what they are in charge of — children."
