An elderly woman who made waves online Thursday for holding a sign that some have deemed racially insensitive outside a school board meeting where Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Winsome Earle-Sears, who is black, was at a left-wing protest organized by a prominent dark money-funded activist organization.
“Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain,” the sign read. In addition to sparking a firestorm on social media, the sign drew bipartisan condemnation from Virginia leaders.
The protest where the sign appeared was organized in part by We of Action Virginia, an organization that states on its website that it is an affiliate of the activist group Indivisible. The group organized the protest outside Sears’s speech against policies that allow biological males to use female restrooms.
Indivisible is an organization that receives considerable funding from anonymous donors via left-of-center dark money groups and has been responsible for helping to organize a number of high-profile demonstrations in recent months. Among these have been disruptions of town hall events held by Republican members of Congress, protests outside of Tesla dealerships critical of Elon Musk, and the No Kings day of action, where President Donald Trump was branded as a tyrant.
Virginia Republican nominee for Governor @WinsomeSears is speaking out tonight at the Arlington County School Board meeting about boys being able to use the girl’s bathroom.
This is a sign being held by a white liberal outside the meeting (Sears is a black woman).… pic.twitter.com/1ik4JBMbcY
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 21, 2025
A Washington Examiner review of tax records found that Indivisible received considerable financial support from the Arabella Advisors and Tides dark money networks. Dark money is a term describing the process by which contributions from large-dollar donors filter into politics anonymously. Transparency advocates have long argued that the prominence of dark money obscures key information from the public.
The Tides network, a financial nexus wealthy liberal donors use to anonymously inject funds into a wide range of causes, has given Indivisible $4 million in recent years. Fund for a Better Future, another anonymously funded political advocacy group, has transferred over $3 million to Indivisible. Tides has funded mass protest movements across the country, including the pro-Palestinian protests that swept the United States following Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
Nonprofit organizations administered by the Arabella Advisors consulting firm, a network that conservatives have long pointed to as one of the primary sources of dark money to Democrat-aligned causes, also provided Indivisible with over $100,000 in funding. Arabella Advisors’ network is an integral part of the Democratic financial machine, churning out tens of millions of dollars each election cycle to fund liberal ballot measures, super PACs, and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Anonymous dark money aside, the network of liberal billionaire George Soros has also provided millions of dollars in support to Indivisible since 2017.
The woman holding the controversial sign even appeared to be wearing a WOFA Virginia shirt, a detail reported by independent journalist Asra Nomani that has been confirmed by photographs of the event.
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WOFA Virginia told the Washington Examiner that the woman is not affiliated with its organization.
“We were made aware of an unacceptable, racist sign present at a rally prior to tonight’s [Arlington Public Schools] meeting,” a statement from WOFA Virginia reads. “We want to be clear: discrimination of any kind is always wrong. No one should be discriminated against based on race, ability, age, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion.”
Nomani, the independent journalist, also reported that WOFA Virginia has frequently appeared alongside other Indivisible groups at protests since 2017.
The Virginia gubernatorial election has emerged as one of the most closely watched statewide elections of the 2026 cycle. Popular incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) is barred from running for a second consecutive term, and a recent poll shows Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor, closing in on Democratic nominee former Rep. Abigail Spanberger.