Youngkin administration rebuffs media request for emails on transgender policy

The Virginia Department of Education, which has sparred with the left-wing media and transgender activists, declined to release emails and documents about Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposals about transgender student policies.

Youngkin, much to the chagrin of the Left, announced that the state of Virginia will empower parents and limit teacher or administrator control over students. The policies require a student’s guardian to grant permission for the use of different gender pronouns from those assigned at birth, students can only use bathrooms, participate in athletic programs and extracurricular activities which align with the student’s biological sex.

In other words, a transgender male student cannot participate in female sports and vice versa.

VPM requested 300 pages of documents and emails about how the governor’s proposed policies were created and any correspondence related to the policies. The organization also requested files sent to or received by the state’s superintendent of public instruction, Jillian Barlow, which files contained the word “transgender” from August 1-September 19, 2022.

The organization said that the state’s response was, “87 out of the 90 relevant records were fully excluded under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, which exempts working papers of the governor from public release. That exemption allows officials to release the records at their discretion.”

VPM, which claims to be nonpartisan, expressed its opinion that “the rejection is the latest instance of the Youngkin administration shielding records of its work from public scrutiny.”

VPM claims that it is a nonpartisan, non-profit news organization, but its affiliation with PBS also questions its political neutrality in question because PBS is notorious for pushing left-wing, anti-conservative narratives and has employed left-leaning journalists for years, such as anti-Trump critic Yamiche Alcindor.

Related Topics