ACLU Makes Huge Admission!
During the Joint Commission on Administrative Rules (JCAR) meeting Monday, the ACLU insisted that Governor Youngkin’s 2022 Revised Model Policies on the Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents “overreach their authorizing statute by focusing on parents’ rights.”
The Democrat majority on JCAR convened a meeting Monday to discuss Governor Glenn Youngkin’s revised model policies for transgender students, giving both the ACLU and Equality Virginia significant time to give a special, uninterrupted presentation to the commission on their opposition to the revised model policies, as well as time for Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera to offer a statement and answer questions. (The commission did allow public comment, but speakers were only given two minutes to speak.)
Before the presentation was given, Delegate Chris Head (R – Roanoke) questioned its legitimacy since these are not rules and regulations, but model policies developed by the Virginia Department of Education, and therefore fall outside the purview of JCAR. Head also questioned the fairness of the meeting since two non-governmental entities were being given a chance to present their position without an equal response from a parents’ rights or other non-governmental group.
Senator Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) questioned Secretary Guidera about what he considered to be a lack of stakeholders consulted in their development of the revised policies, but conveniently ignored the fact that zero medical professionals or family groups concerned about gender ideology were invited to work on the model policies published in 2021 (see pages 3 and 4) under the previous administration, or that many medical professionals and citizens offered written public comments in support of the policies.
But without a doubt the biggest moment of the meeting came when Geri Greenspan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Virginia, said this during her presentation: “These policies overreach their authorizing statute by focusing on parents’ rights — even though the words “parents’ rights” do not appear anywhere in the law.”
Thankfully, Delegate Head, when given the opportunity to question the presenters, pressed Ms. Greenspan on whether the model policies must comply with Virginia’s current law (Va. Code § 1-240.1), which provides that “a parent has a fundamental right to make decisions concerning the upbringing, education, and care of the parent's child,” making the point that the revised model policies correctly and legally deferred to the interests of parents.
Despite the one-sided presentation and a fair number of LGBTQ activists, a large number of allied citizens and groups joined us at the meeting, including Alliance Defending Freedom, Parental Rights Foundation, Virginia Catholic Conference, American Federation for Children, Moms for Liberty, pastors, and representatives from Speak Up! Chesterfield and Hanover – all of whom provided powerful testimony.
Will Estrada of the Parental Rights Foundation said “parents – not government employees – are a child’s first, best and most loving guide” and reminded the commissioner about the primacy of parental rights in schools.
Dr. Todd Gathje, our director of government relations at The Family Foundation, added that “there is a dangerous theme developing in Virginia that parents’ interests don’t matter,” and that recent laws passed by the progressive left “push away parents who know their child best and offer a one-sided view of gender ideology.”
At the conclusion of the five-hour long meeting, JCAR voted party line 5-4 to “object” to the revised model policies, but the commission’s limited authority made this a largely symbolic vote and does not prevent the policies from going into effect. Even so, this commission meeting should be viewed as a reminder of just how committed progressive liberals and LGBTQ activists are in pushing dangerous gender ideology on our children.
