Usually when public comment is opened for a new policy, the most responses one will expect is near 1,ooo. this time however, more than 20,000 responses were submitted in merely 2 days of opening.

Early last month, Governor Youngkin’s administration rewrote Virginia’s policies for the treatment of transgender students, mandating that all students must use school facilities–including bathrooms and locker rooms– according to the sex they were assigned at birth.

This policy also includes that students who identify with a different name then given or pronouns then assigned will need to be outed to their parents by teachers or administration. This is extremely dangerous as not many parent’s are accepting of this. Outing somebody before they are ready can have deadly consequences, worst cases leading to suicide.

Students of Virginia have realized this and resorted to planning walkouts in their school, to protest this policy and educate people who don’t understand this issue. Almost 100 school in Virginia participated in these walkouts, meaning thousands of students were out of their school supporting their peers.

Many counties have rejected this policy, stating that they will not support this, and they will shield their transgender students from harm. This has sparked more schools and districts to reject this policy.

Although at the time of publishing, Youngkin’s administration has not responded to these walkouts. So, be sure to watch for further news coming up very soon.