Virginia Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger stops previous Republican-led anti-trans policies

With no news release and little ceremony, Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration has killed an anti-transgender regulatory effort launched during the waning months of former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term.

The proposal would have used the Virginia Board of Health to bar transgender women and girls from women’s-only athletic teams and competitions, bathrooms, locker rooms, and other spaces where people may be undressed. The state’s regulatory docket records the outcome in bureaucratic language: “Withdrawn.” The action was terminated July 30, after its public comment period had ended and 321 comments had been submitted. No preliminary regulation was ever drafted.

WHRO radio first reported the withdrawal Monday, two days after Spanberger appeared before thousands of LGBTQ+ people and allies at Virginia PrideFest in Richmond.

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“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 told the outlet following her PrideFest appearance. People familiar with the administration’s decision told WHRO that Spanberger consulted with Democratic Attorney General Jay Jones’ office, which determined that the Board of Health did not have the authority to impose the restrictions.

The rulemaking effort began after the board unanimously approved a petition in August 2025 seeking to exclude transgender people from women’s sports and certain sex-separated facilities. Youngkin directed the board to proceed that October, casting the restrictions as a public health measure intended to protect “women and girls.”

The proposal offered Youngkin another route for pursuing a political project that had already defined much of his administration: turning the machinery of state government against transgender Virginians, particularly children.

Related: Virginia school board adopts anti-transgender policy and blocks LGBTQ+ club

Youngkin’s administration spent years dismantling protections for transgender students. Its 2023 model school policies restrict which names and pronouns school employees may use for students and direct schools to assign restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-separated activities according to sex assigned at birth.

The policies replaced affirming guidance issued under Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam. They prompted student walkouts across Virginia and resistance from several large school divisions. Arlington’s superintendent, for example, refused to implement what he called discriminatory rules, saying transgender, nonbinary, and gender fluid students belonged in the district.

Spanberger’s latest action does not rescind those education policies. The Virginia Department of Education still identifies the 2023 guidance as the state’s current model policy, leaving local school boards to determine how aggressively to apply it.

The consequences have continued into Spanberger’s administration.

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Days before she took office in January, the King George County School Board, southeast of Washington, D.C., adopted a sweeping policy targeting transgender students. It restricts the names and pronouns staff may use, bathroom access, overnight accommodations, and participation in sex-separated activities. The board also blocked middle school students from forming a Gay-Straight Alliance after conservative backlash erupted online.

Two students and their families sued in federal court. On September 11, as the case approached trial, the board reversed its club restrictions and restored middle school students’ ability to organize noncurricular groups. Its separate anti-transgender policy remains in place.

Equality Virginia Executive Director Narissa Rahaman welcomed Spanberger’s withdrawal of the health regulations, telling WHRO that transgender Virginians deserve to use public facilities without fear or discrimination.