Virginia's Youngkin defends trans youth policies: Kids ‘don’t belong to the state'
Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin joined CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday and defended new policies in the state that will require public school students to use bathrooms and join sports teams based on their biological sex, not gender identity. "Let me begin with these basic principles, which is first, parents have a fundamental right to be engaged in their children's lives.
And oh, by the way, children have a right to have parents engaged in their lives. We needed to fix a wrong.The previous administration had had a policy that excluded parents and in fact, particularly didn't require the involvement of parents.
And let's be clear, parents have this right and children don't belong to the state, they belong to families," Youngkin told Tapper during CNN’s "State of the Union." Youngkin’s administration rewrote the state’s policies on transgender youths at public schools in September, requiring students to use bathrooms, locker rooms and join sports teams based on their sex at birth, not their gender identity.The policy updates also include forbidding students from changing their names and preferred pronouns at public schools without the consent of their parents. "We empower parents to make decisions with regards to masking in Virginia.
We've empowered parents to make decisions with regards to curriculum that fits their family's decision. So we're empowering parents here to be engaged in these most important decisions," Youngkin continued on Sunday.
