Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) said this past weekend that an attempt by her Republican predecessor to restrict trans kids’ ability to participate in school sports is now dead, and she got emotional during her announcement.
She was speaking at Virginia Pridefest this past Saturday in Richmond when she brought up how she was moved by the story of a trans girl and the discrimination she faced.
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“And I tell you I burst into tears because of the fact that I want to make members of the LGBTQ+ community know that you have a governor that values your community,” she told the crowd, WVTF reports.
During her comments at the Pridefest, she explained that she ended an attempt by former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) administration to block trans kids from playing school sports. The Virginia Board of Health in October 2025 introduced a rule to make it hard for trans girls to play sports or use the correct facilities at school to “protect and preserve the… public health of women and girls.” There is no evidence that allowing trans girls to use girls’ facilities puts cis girls in harm’s way.
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WVTF says they spoke with officials close to the matter who said that Spanberger consulted with Attorney General Jay Jones (D), who determined that the state Board of Health did not have the authority to make such a rule. The state legislature never passed a trans sports ban.
“There’s no legal authority to move forward with rulemaking, and prior administrations may have tried to create lanes, and we’re not doing that,” Spanberger said when asked later about the rule.
“It’s important for our community, families with transgender and nonbinary youth and adults, to see and know our elected officials are publicly and proudly standing up for them,” said Shannon McKay, executive director of the trans organization He She Ze and We.
Spanberger was elected governor last year after facing former Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears (R) in the general election. Earle-Sears’ campaign focused heavily on Spanberger’s support for LGBTQ+ rights. One of Earle-Sears’ adsexplicitly echoedanti-trans ads released by the 2024 GOP presidential campaign,which said, “Kamala Harris is for they/them.”
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