Showing Up for Trans Students in Virginia - ACLU

Over the last few years, states across the country have advanced a record number of bills attacking LGBTQ rights and targeting transgender youth in particular. In addition to restricting access to gender-affirming care, state lawmakers and school boards nationwide are trying to prevent trans students from participating in school activities like sports, censoring in-school discussions of LGBTQ people and issues, and preventing trans students from having an inclusive and safe learning environment.

Through advocacy, litigation, and lobbying, we’re working alongside our partners to push back against these discriminatory policies and all out attacks on transgender youth. In this video, Kelly Carter Merrill, Breanna Diaz, Pat Jordan, and Baz Rawat discuss their experience working alongside the ACLU and community partners to fight back against a school board policy that discriminates against transgender students in Hanover County, Virginia, and why we must keep showing up to defend trans rights.

To learn more about the attacks on LGBTQ rights in states across the country, visit our state tracker:

[soulfoodie]

You have enabled and fully support putting rapist murderers being put in women's jails and simped for a child rapist and murderer on twitter.

[Louisiananews]

You are the cause of your child not knowing what they are. Shame on you and the school board

[Lisa-lrxf]

Quit encouraging this outrageous disgusting behavior

[animosityu]

You should see the story of Chloe Cole. You need help, probably more than your child!

[alex]

If you allow your child to come out of trans then you must be a crazy parent. It’s the parents fault. Does your daughter still have her breast? One day you will be held accountable for destroying your children!

[wrensmith]

ROCKET MAN

What is a man? What is a woman? What is a liberal? What is a conservative? What is a person of faith? What is a person of reason? We are all a mix of these things and so much more. There is everything a human being must be, there is everything a human being must know, there is everything a human being must do.

I am proud to see so many being, knowing, doing what a human being must be about.
Let us all celebrate our independence day every day.

There are of course those living in ego and denial. Many like a baby, all they know about is to cry and complain when they are uncomfortable. Fear, anger and hate are what they know best, all they seek to know. It's the blame game so many poets and Presidents have warned us about. Freedom for some is freedom from responsibility, to sustain life and lies on the backs of those doing the work of faith, hope and charity.

It is understood to sometimes seek to hide from the world; but, to never engage the wider world is to never live.

Social media, like the human condition or human society, has it's problems. It is also a medium through which the human spirit can shine, climb higher, share more. The amazing stories once shared thorough the printing press now expressed near the speed of light. What percentage of humanity must be successful for the rest of us to go about our day, some clueless, some engaged? All experiencing life, liberty and happiness in their own way.

Many will want to sit at the back of the bus while others want to sit up front. What if God was one of us, just a stranger on a bus?

Listen, share a verse, ye kings and queens of this blue marble we all live on.

[Bill_Cooper]

Thank you ACLU, for supporting Duane Owen's transition in Florida. She tragically died recently, but the family wants to thank you for supporting her transition.

[spaceangel]

I know who I am, despite having loving but judgmental parents; I knew this when I was very young. What I am is

a human being; a mix of male and female, with both conservative and liberal values, and so much more. I was

given good values growing up, and some bad ones too. I overcame my own prejudices thanks to engaging the

wider world, being a public servant, standing against the Soviet Union knowing it would not last, bringing down a

wall, and not being afraid of change. My life is good and it started when I was at least 10 and knowing I had the right, even it my parents judged me, to make my own choices about who and what I was. My mother sees now that a person needs to be allowed to be who they are, but she is just too old now to change herself. It is a shame some parents would rather have hate and bullying in schools than children who confuse them. Dumbing it down for the adults, not every blue brain comes in a blue body, and not every pink brain comes in a pink body. Many adults would rather play politics than care for the children. The kids are not stupid they know what's up.

If the adults only had a brain

[angstony]

Thank you ACLU. Keep up the good fight. We the people appreciate it!