Thousands of Students Walk Out in Virginia to Oppose Anti-Trans Policies
HAVANA TIMES – In Virginia, thousands of students walked out of middle and high schools Tuesday to protest Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s plan to roll back the rights of trans students. Walkouts were reported in over 100 schools, with many students chanting “Trans rights are human rights” and ”DOE, let us be.” Under Governor Youngkin’s plan, schools would be required to categorize students based on their assigned sex at birth and bar students from changing their name or pronouns at school without a court order. Walkout participants included 17-year-old Casey Calabia, a nonbinary senior in high school who criticized Governor Youngkin’s policies.
Casey Calabia: “I would tell him he is not protecting anyone. He’s not protecting parents’ rights. He’s not protecting trans students. All his talk of, ‘Oh, these big progressives in Fairfax,’ are progressives that are standing up for kids like me. I am scared of this man. My friends are scared of this man. How can he stand there and say that he loves this country and this state if he wants to hurt us?”