As parents and community members begin to learn more about FCPS and BOE positions on gender identity, a groundswell of support is emerging against existing policies that restrict what parents are told about their child and the policy of allowing participation in interscholastic sports teams by a student’s self-identified gender, rather than a student’s biological sex. (Click here for a summarized list of our proposed policy changes versus the existing policy).

Over 100 people came to the April 19 BOE meeting, and the room was overwhelmingly in favor of making changes to the existing FCPS policy that defines how to be more inclusive and welcoming of gender non-conforming and transgender students. No one has stated the existing policy should be thrown out, but key provisions of the six-year-old policy are significantly out of date. Restrictions on parental notification, sports team participation, the damaging affirmation and reinforcement of what children are exposed to on social media, and a lack of consideration for the current policy’s impact on the forty-five thousand students who are not gender non-conforming or transgender should all be part of an overhaul.

Click below to hear from parents who expressed their positions to the board on 4/19/23.

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Dean Rose, Vice President of the FCPS Board of Education, in an admitted shift away from the science, stated at the meeting that he currently does not support “any changes to the current policy” due to the number of court cases whose rulings are supporting policies like the one in place in FCPS. Given past comments and positions, it appears that several other board members agree with Mr. Rose and will retain all the provisions in the current policy. But Mr. Rose’s recent conversion to focusing on only legal cases ( he is “putting aside the debate on the science around gender dysphoria and transgender persons, and looking at it from a legal perspective”) is exactly what the board shouldn’t do. Decisions on what’s best for our children at school should be based on what we think is right for all students. Our positions should consider the science, the history, the input of the medical community, and the impacts on all forty-five thousand students and their families, not court cases. And Mr. Rose is not thoroughly assessing the court cases and rulings and considering that many cases are not yet fully settled and will likely go on for some time. To hear Mr. Rose’s comments directly via video and get a fuller assessment of the BOE’s shift away from the science, see our article below titled “FCPS BOE is now focused on case law, not the science. This is the wrong approach.”