(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) At a town hall hosted by CNN, Gov. Glenn Youngkin, R-Va., announced the need for gender neutral bathrooms in his state and pushed the idea of “accommodation” for students who believe they are transgender.
An audience member, Nico, who identifies as a transgender man, asked the governor if he believed women would be comfortable with masculine-presenting females using the women’s restroom.
“Look at me,” Nico said. “I am a transgender man. Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?”
Youngkin started his response by thanking Nico for coming and speaking on the issue, and praising the child’s dad for supporting the transition.
The governor then stated that making everyone comfortable would simply require providing additional gender neutral bathrooms.
“There are lots of students involved in this decision,” he added. “What’s most important is that we try very hard to accommodate students. That’s why I have said many, many times—we just need extra bathrooms in schools. We need gender neutral bathrooms so people can use a bathroom that they, in fact, are comfortable with.”
Historically, Youngkin ran on a platform of parental rights and fought against gender ideology and critical race theory’s invasion into the school system.
Youngkin’s primary point of concern has been parental notification if their children are considering transitioning. He constantly emphasizes the importance of family decision making, and approved several legal measures in that vein.
“[P]arents have a fundamental right to be engaged in their children’s lives,” Youngkin said. “And, oh, by the way, children have a right to have parents engaged in their life. And we needed to fix a wrong… children don’t belong to the state. They belong to families.”
Twitter users seemed surprised at the governor’s seeming departure from this pattern, calling him a “republican in democrat drag.”
