Back to School Day in Arlington, VA Includes Gender-Neutral Sports Uniforms, Preferred Pronouns 

Children heading back to school in grades K through 12 in northern Virginia on Tuesday will now fall under sweeping transgender and “gender-nonconforming” policies pushed and put in place by groups such as the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) and the Arlington Gender Identity Allies (AGIA).

The University of Michigan reported on Arlington Public Schools’ new policy implementation procedure (PIP), which includes using “preferred pronouns” and gender-neutral sports uniforms. 

“The PIP affirming transgender and gender non-conforming students is essential for the safety and privacy of students,” Emily Vincent, a parent who likes the new policy, said in the Spartan Newsroom report. “Their gender identity does not pose a risk or danger to other students.”

“A year in the making, the PIP was introduced by Assistant Superintendent Dr. Tara Nattrass,” the Spartan Newsroom reported. “The PIP will include updates to facilities including gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms as well as a non-gender-specific dress code and preferred pronoun additions to student files.”

Here are some details of the PIP that were included in the university’s report:

Bathrooms and locker rooms: Access to facilities that correspond to a student’s gender identity will be available to all students. Single user, gender-neutral facilities will be made available to all users who seek privacy.

Co-curricular and extra-curricular activities and athletic team student participation: Student may participate in any co-curricular or extra-curricular activity consistent with their gender identity. Athletic participation regulated by the Virginia High School League (VHSL) and the Virginia Scholastic Rowing Association (VSRA), as well as Middle School athletes, shall be in compliance with the rules outlined by that organization. Any uniform required for a co-curricular and extra-curricular activity, including athletics, shall include options that are gender-neutral. Awards designated by Arlington Public Schools for participation in any such activity will also be gender-neutral. 

Dress code: All students must dress according to the constraints of the dress code as outlined within the school handbook. Information regarding appropriate attire for school-related activities shall be non-gender specific and enforced impartially regardless of a students gender identity or gender expression.

“As part of the PIP, all APS schools will follow the athletic guidelines of the high school varsity teams, but any student wishing to participate on a team opposite their biological sex can apply for approval,” the Spartan Newsroom reported.

And the groups pushing for the homosexual agenda to be integrated into the school curriculum are pleased with the new policies.

“Arlington Gender Identity Allies is pleased with the steps that Arlington Public Schools is taking to welcome and affirm transgender and gender-nonconforming students,” a representative of the group said in the Spartan Newsroom report.

“The AGIA was instrumental in the creation of the PIP for APS and showed up in force to support the PIP at the recent school board meeting,” the report noted. “The representative, who would only provide a first name, stated that the group wishes to focus solely on the advocacy for LGBTQ youth instead of seeking a public image.”

But parents have tried to push back on the policies.

“Our primary arguments have always concerned parents’ rights and girls’ protections,” Maria Keffler, co-founder of the Arlington Parent Coalition, said in the Spartan Newsroom report.“In the general population of students who do not express gender dysphoria, these new policies obliterate their right to privacy from opposite-sex people seeing them undressed—and vice versa—in bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas.”

Keffler also questioned how these policies would influence Title IX protections for female athletes.

Keffler said her organization would have liked to have been included in developing the PIP, but expressed appreciation that a “confidentiality component” that said staff did not have to share sexual orientation or gender identity information with parents, was removed.

“Nattrass left Arlington Public Schools at the beginning of July and could not be reached for a comment on the PIP,” the Spartan Newsroom reported.

The collaboration between groups working to advance the homosexual agenda in public schools is clear on social media, including on the AGIA’s Facebook page which links to an HRC article stating the five things needed at the start of the school year to “ensure your classrooms are fully inclusive of gender-expansive identities and help students understand the ways that gender stereotyping impacts everyone.” The five stated things are:

• Children’s books featuring transgender, non-binary and gender-expansive children, and one recommended is “The Boy & the Bindi,” to “teach children about gender identities and how to express their inner selves.”
• The HRC’s 2018 Gender-Expansive Youth Report
• “Resources for supporting transgender and non-binary students in school,” because everyone benefits when “educators encourage youth to be themselves without limitations based upon gender or their gender expression.”
• Curriculum to “help students understand gender and to support transgender and non-binary children” and for “expanding children’s ideas about gender and helping gender-expansive youth feel welcome in the classroom.”
• Hold an annual event to honor Jazz, a transgender girl, on February 27, 2020.

“Arlington Gender Identity Allies is a group of parents, students, staff and community members in Arlington, Virginia seeking inclusive policies and a welcoming environment for transgender, non-binary, gender-expansive and gender creative students and staff in Arlington Public Schools,” the AGIA Facebook page states.

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