Campaign urges Virginia High School League to reverse stance on trans athletes

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

Campaign urges Virginia High School League to reverse stance on trans athletes

https://www.washingtonblade.com/2026/10/08/campaign-urges-virginia-high-school-league-to-reverse-stance-on-trans-athletes/ 🔗

Alexis McLean (8 Oct 2026)

Virginia advocacy groups have launched a campaign that urges the Virginia High School League to once again allow student athletes to compete on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity.

Equality Arlington on Sept. 16 published an article about the "Right 2 Play VA" campaign. Amy, a group representative, spoke about the initiative with the Washington Blade.

"The primary goal is to reverse the Virginia High School League's discriminatory ban on allowing transgender girls to play on girls' sports and replace it with a policy that is fair for all students." she said.

The Virginia High School League in 2025 announced the policy, which reversed a previous position in support of transgender and nonbinary athletes. The 2025 policy coincided with President Donald Trump's executive order — "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" — that threatened to "rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls."

The Arlington Gender Identity Alliance, Equality Virginia, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia have also joined the "Right 2 Play VA" campaign.

"We had a policy in Virginia for 12 years that allowed transgender girls to play on girls' sports teams, and we had not one instance — not one instance — that was brought forward demonstrating an unfair advantage or any type of safety concern," said Amy.
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@Sarah B

[Finally Anna]

We had a policy in Virginia for 12 years that allowed transgender girls to play on girls' sports teams, and we had not one instance — not one instance — that was brought forward demonstrating an unfair advantage or any type of safety concern

This is telling and it is a very valid argument. I hope they are successful in their campaign.

However, the anti-trans lobby aren't relying on facts. They're relying on intuition, and on triggering intuition, about trans people.

So, if the goal is not only to change legislation but also to change (some) anti-trans peoples' views then there is also a need for arguments that apply to, and hopefully change, their intuition about trans people.