In February 2025, the Virginia High School League caved to pressure from the federal government and Youngkin Administration and instituted a blanket ban prohibiting transgender girls from playing on girls high school sports teams. This policy violates the Virginia Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and ensures that students can fully participate in school activities. Equality Arlington and the Arlington Gender Identity Alliance (AGIA), in coalition with community partners, has a launched Right 2 Play VA campaign calling on VHSL to rescind this discriminatory policy and engage in a transparent process to enact a policy that makes sense for all students. Filling out the form below will add your name to a letter that Equality Arlington and AGIA send to the VHSL Executive Committee in support of our efforts to remove the current discriminatory policy.
Letter Text:
To: Virginia High School Executive Committee
The signatories to this letter respectfully request that VHSL rescind its discriminatory ban on transgender girls' participation on girls sports teams. This policy violates the Virginia Human Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and ensures that students can fully participate in school activities.
Sports participation leads to better health outcomes, supports academic achievement, and engenders a sense of belonging. Transgender youth deserve to access the same benefits that come with youth sport participation as their cisgender peers.
VHSL should remove the ban and replace it with a commonsense policy that is fair for all students.
Sincerely,
Note: We will only submit a first and last name on the letter. We will only use email addresses if someone has opted into be added to AGIA or Equality Arlington email lists.
