Ralph Shearer Northam (born September 13, 1959) is an American politician and physician serving as the 73rd Governor of Virginia since January 13, 2018. A pediatric neurologist by occupation, he was an officer in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1984 to 1992. Northam, a member of the Democratic Party, served as the 40th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 2014 to 2018 prior to winning the governorship against Republican nominee Ed Gillespie in the 2017 election.
A group of more than 200 activists gathered outside of Luther Jackson Middle School in Vienna on Thursday to object to the new “model policies” for transgender students proposed by Republican Gov.
Glenn Youngkin’s administration. Many activists have voiced support for the policies enacted by the General Assembly and former Gov.
Ralph Northam, which were intended to protect LGBTQ students in general, and trans and gender nonconforming students in particular.
However, the Youngkin administration released revisions on Sept. 16 that differ substantially from the policies passed into law in 2020.