Youngkin Continues to Try To Drag Virginia Backward in Time

During Virginia's last gubernatorial election Glenn Younkin masqueraded as a moderate and sadly duped many suburban voters, especially women, into voting against their own best interests.   Once sworn into office, Youngkin immediatelty declared war on teaching accurate Virginia and American history and  against LGBT Virginians as he sought to erase anything disturbing to the Christofascists/white supremacist base of the Republican Party of Virginia.  Then in June following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Youngkin announced he wanted to greatly restrict access to abortion in Virginia.  Next, in September, Youngkin announced proposed changes to the treatment of LGBT students in Virginia's public schools that will have severe negative impacts on LGBT students and increase suicide risks as noted in a piece in Teen Vogue:

School has always provided a safe place for them. But that could all change—at the drop of a hat. This September, Governor Glenn Youngkin moved to restrict the rights of trans and nonbinary students in Virginia. The Governor announced model policies that, if enacted, would prohibit students from changing their name or gender on school records unless their family submits legal documentation and would forbid school staff from calling students by their preferred name or pronouns—unless a parent writes an official request.

But there’s something less obvious—and more urgent—that we need to talk about: With these model policies, Gov. Youngkin is not only restricting students’ rights, but potentially putting their lives in danger. As a 2022 Trevor Project survey found, LGBTQ teens already consider attempting suicide at high rates. And those rates can depend, in part, on a school’s environment: “LGBTQ youth who found their school to be LGBTQ-affirming reported lower rates of attempting suicide.” 

In other words, the less affirming the school, the more mental pain experienced by LGBTQ students. Youngkin’s policies are the perfect example. They’re already harming students’ mental well-being, and they haven’t even taken effect yet.

What this policy and others like it fail to understand is that trans students aren’t hiding their identities for fun. Gender identity isn’t like choosing a favorite color or deciding on what to have for dinner. Gender identity is a part of who you are, and even though we are in the 21st century, parents can still be racist, homophobic, and transphobic. And so, their kids may not tell them everything—for good reason.

Many LGBTQ youth live in unaccepting homes, meaning that if they’re outed, they could be rejected or kicked out and disowned—all of which very obviously compromise a child’s safety. . . . . If a transphobic parent is “engaged in a child’s life” as Youngkin wants, it’s not a promise of care; it might mean harm.

On the abortion front, a special election for a Virginia state Senate seat is bring new focus on Youngkin's desire to greatly restrict access to abortion as he prostitutes himself to the Christofascist in Virginia - think The Family Foundation - and nationwide as he contemplates a run for the presidency.  Politico looks at the special election and Youngkin's desire to restrict women's control over their own bodies.  Here are article excerpts:

A special election for the Virginia state Senate is drawing big dollars and national attention in the latest sign of how the abortion issue is driving every level of politics in the post-Roe era.

The January contest to fill the Senate seat vacated by Republican Jen Kiggans, who was elected to Congress in November, does not threaten Democrats’ majority in the chamber. But pro- and anti-abortion rights groups, who are spending tens of thousands of dollars, believe the race could significantly impact people’s ability to access the procedure in the purple state.

Abortion is legal in Virginia until the third trimester, but Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has proposed prohibiting the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy in his recently released budget.

Youngkin doesn’t yet have the votes to enact that ban — but Democrats’ narrow majority in the state Senate has put this special election between Virginia Beach City Councilman and former NFL safety Aaron Rouse, a Democrat, and Navy veteran Kevin Adams, a Republican, in the national spotlight.

While groups on both sides of the abortion debate often invest in state legislative races, this special election has attracted unusually high sums of money for a single legislative special election, groups on the ground say.

Rouse, the Democratic candidate, is betting an abortion-focused message will carry him to victory in the state Senate race — mimicking a strategy that propelled other Democrats to victory in close contests during the midterm election.

“Listen, I’m not getting into the weeds of what a woman should be discussing with her health care professional. I support the current law of Virginia as it is and will fiercely defend against any legislation that will ban abortion in our state, our commonwealth,” Rouse said in an interview. “This seat is critical to ensure that we can protect the rights of women’s reproductive health care.”

Democrats, meanwhile, contend the future of abortion access is at stake — and say the race is all the more critical after Virginia state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, a staunch abortion-rights advocate, won the Democratic nomination to fill the seat left vacant after the death of Rep. Donald McEachin (D-Va.).

McClellan’s primary victory all but guarantees she will win McEachin’s overwhelmingly Democratic district come February — thereby reducing Democrats’ margin in the state Senate from three seats to two, and possibly positioning state Sen. Joe Morrissey, an anti-abortion Democrat, as a crucial swing vote.

If Democrats win the special state Senate election in January, then even after McClellan leaves they will hold a 21-18 majority and Morrissey becomes a non-issue for the pro-abortion-rights side; but if Republicans win — and Democrats hold a 20-19 majority — abortion rights groups worry Youngkin could use creative legislative maneuvering to get an anti-abortion bill to the floor of the Senate, where Morrissey could be the deciding vote.

“If Aaron Rouse wins — and we know we have an abortion-rights champion there — that flip of that seat is enough to safeguard our rights and ensure there’s not an abortion ban that gets to the governor’s desk.”

Youngkin is a menace who puts his own political ambitions ahead of the lives, rights and safety of countless Virginians.  One way to say do to his backward agenda is to defeat the GOP candidate in this special election.