Virginia public school transgender controversies could scramble governor’s race

Transgender bathroom policies — and their precipitating controversies — at two Virginia public school districts are taking center stage in the contentious gubernatorial face-off between GOP Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger.

The school policy in Arlington County, an affluent Northern Virginia area, allowed a serial sex offender, who identifies as transgender, to access the girls’ locker rooms repeatedly and allegedly expose himself to children.

In neighboring Loudoun County, the school district’s transgender policy led to a female student secretly filming three male classmates inside the boys’ locker room. The school initiated Title IX proceedings against the boys for privately expressing discomfort with her presence in their locker room.

Amid recent outcry over both incidents, Earle-Sears appeared at protests last week in support of concerned parents opposing the counties’ transgender policies, a move that could shake up the governor’s race as this crucial issue captures attention from all corners of the commonwealth.

Arlington County

58-year-old Richard Kenneth Cox, a transgender felon from Alexandria, Virginia, was charged with exposing his genitals inside the girls’ locker rooms at Washington-Liberty High School and Wakefield High School, both of which house publicly accessible pools managed by Arlington Public Schools.

APS’s non-discrimination policy permits open usage of sex-segregated school facilities depending on self-declared gender identity. Pool patrols are thereby able to access restrooms and changing areas of their choosing, regardless of biological sex.

In a string of offenses from June to December 2024, Cox allegedly flashed women and children on multiple occasions in the high school girls’ locker rooms. According to court documents, in one instance, a mother and her five-year-old child had seen Cox standing in a shower stall with his erect penis out at the Washington-Liberty aquatics center.

A parent told WJLA-TV that she previously warned the Washington-Liberty pool director about Cox after her nine-year-old daughter had witnessed him fully naked in the girls’ locker room on Sept. 9. The mother said she received no response, and the manager on duty “casually mentioned that this had been going on since [the] summer.” Another woman reportedly pressed the Arlington School Board on the situation in September but the board did not respond, either.

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Despite the community complaints, Cox continued to use the girls’ locker room over a six-month period until his eventual arrest.

According to Arlington County Sheriff’s Office inmate records, Cox faces a slew of charges, including indecent exposure and loitering around a school as a registered sex offender.

The state registry says Cox is a Tier III sex offender, the most serious class of sex offenders requiring a lifetime registration. Cox, who was once on the state’s most wanted list, has a lengthy criminal history of preying upon children. In 1992, Cox masturbated in front of minors at an Arlington gym. In 2007, Cox was convicted on child pornography charges for possessing obscene material depicting the sexual abuse of children.

APS has since updated the district’s pool admission procedures to include cross-checking ID against the sex offender database. In a districtwide message addressing the Cox case, Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán said, “Arlington Public Schools will continue to foster an inclusive community for all, including those who identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community.”

At a monthly APS school board meeting on Thursday, one mother lamented her young daughter having to change next to a naked Cox. “APS is responsible for ignoring verbal complaints [about Cox],” the mother said. “Women and girls in our community deserve an apology.”

Earle-Sears also spoke during the public comment portion of the evening. “Here’s the truth: There are two sexes, boys and girls, and for generations, we’ve understood this, that they deserve their own sports teams, their own locker rooms, their own bathrooms,” Earle-Sears said. “That’s not discrimination. It is common sense.”

Loudoun County

This month, Loudoun County Public Schools suspended two boys on Title IX sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination charges after a female student illicitly filmed them changing clothes while discussing among themselves being uncomfortable with her using the boys’ locker room.

The parents of the Stone Bridge High School boys, who are appealing the decision, say they fear the Title IX convictions appearing on their children’s academic records. Both boys will be high school juniors this fall, which is when students that age typically start applying for colleges.

“Sixteen-year-olds are now branded for life simply because they spoke up about the truth,” Seth Wolfe, father to one of the suspended students, told reporters following the suspension announcement. “His privacy was violated in the locker room. He was secretly videotaped. This is a gross abuse of authority.”

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A state-level investigation scrutinizing how the school system handled the case found “troubling evidence” of Title IX abuses, unlawful retaliation, viewpoint discrimination, and suppression of student expression.

According to the Virginia attorney general’s office, the boys, who are Christian and Muslim, raised religious objections to LCPS Policy 8040, which allows students to access school facilities corresponding with their “consistently asserted gender identity.”

When the Washington Examiner asked why LCPS decided to proceed with disciplinary action against the boys in spite of the state’s findings, a spokesperson said the school district has “a comprehensive and objective process for Title IX investigations.”

“At no time would LCPS suspend a student simply because they express discomfort,” an LPS public information officer told the Washington Examiner in a follow-up statement. “A reading of our Title IX resources should make it clear that there is a high bar to launch a Title IX investigation and an even higher bar to determine a student is in violation of Title IX.”

Earle-Sears joined the families of the suspended boys at a press conference on Wednesday outside of Stone Bridge High School.

There, she said schools should not be weaponizing Title IX against students who don’t want to share private spaces with members of the opposite sex.

“I cannot believe that this is what we’re finding in America,” said Earle-Sears. “And with me as governor, it’s not going to continue. I will ensure that. I stand with you.”

APS and LCPS are two of five Northern Virginia school districts refusing to scrap their respective transgender policies, which permit access to school facilities on the basis of gender identity, not biology.

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In July, the U.S. Department of Education determined that LCPS, APS, Fairfax County Public Schools, Prince William County Public Schools, and Alexandria City Public Schools are all violating Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs.

“By refusing to reverse your reckless policies, you are failing our daughters and risking losing millions of dollars in funding our children,” Earle-Sears told the APS school board Thursday.

Earlier in August, Earle-Sears egged on a noticeably silent Spanberger to speak out on the transgender policy standoff.

That week, Earle-Sears also aired an ad targeting Spanberger’s past pro-transgender stance. “Think Spanberger’s a centrist? Think again,” the ad said. “She’s all-in on boys in girls’ sports and men in women’s locker rooms.”

Electoral impact

The off-year fight for Virginia’s governorship is, so far, shaping up to be a backlash election that could return state power to Democrats after Republicans secured control of Congress and the presidency in 2024. However, the cultural flashpoint concerning transgender inclusion policies could potentially change the trajectory of the race.

Earle-Sears campaigning on the transgender issue may tilt the political landscape the way in which the critical race theory debate had helped Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) win in 2021, several Virginia-based parental rights advocates told the Washington Examiner.

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“Governor Youngkin won in 2021 because Democrats deluded themselves into believing they could ignore parents while pushing radical leftist identity politics,” said Virginia parent Jessica Anderson, president of the Sentinel Action Fund, a right-wing super PAC aimed at growing the Republican majority.

Anderson said she expects Democrats to similarly suffer at the ballot box in Virginia and into the 2026 midterms should they continue to push gender ideology.

“It doesn’t seem like they’ve learned any lessons since then. Democrats have doubled down on indoctrinating children in classrooms and refusing to protect private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms,” Anderson told the Washington Examiner. “Virginia parents want leaders who will keep fighting the insanity they see in schools, and Winsome Sears has demonstrated she will be that champion.”[‘;p

On the 2021 campaign trail, Youngkin garnered widespread support from parents, a key voting bloc, who opposed critical race theory teachings in Virginia classrooms. A poll of Virginia voters found that Youngkin promising to ban CRT curriculum in the state’s schools was “the most effective pro-Youngkin message among all voters and undecided voters.”

“Virginia parents have made clear before that the school systems are a top priority in their voting decisions, and the recent protests show that parents are once again hungry to be heard,” Alleigh Marre, executive director of the American Parents Coalition, told the Washington Examiner. “Parents are tired of schools prioritizing gender ideology in policy decisions over student safety, privacy, and parental involvement.”

Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, noted that gender ideology has become a lightning rod in schools across the country.

“Recent protests in Arlington and Loudoun counties have brought scrutiny to local politics, and in fact, to the perspectives of trans evangelists themselves,” Perry said, citing a sign brandished by a liberal protester at the APS school board meeting.

The sign, directed at Earle-Sears, said, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.” In response to the racially charged sign, which made national headlines, Earle-Sears said, “This is the ‘tolerant’ left Abigail Spanberger defends.”

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“By making bold reference to segregation in protest of the commonwealth’s first black female lieutenant governor, the blatant discrimination underlying gender ideology was on full display,” Perry told the Washington Examiner.

Perry pointed to Earle-Sears gaining on Spanberger in the polls. A recently released Roanoke College poll shows Spanberger narrowly leading Earle-Sears by seven points (46% to 39%), a significant shift from polling in May, which had Spanberger up 43% to 26%, or a 17-point advantage.

“The notion of ‘transgender rights’ has Americans—and Virginians—utterly fed up with political pandering, pseudo-science, and victim hierarchies,” Perry said.

The Washington Examiner contacted Earle-Sears’ and Spanberger’s campaigns for comment.