Most Were Just There to Skip Class: Untold Story of Walkouts Against Virginias New Transgender Student Policies
October 3, 2022 | Virginia
Most of the students who took part in recent walkouts across Virginia were just there to skip class and didn’t care about the cause of protesting the state’s new transgender student policies, according to an activist debrief recording obtained by The Epoch Times.
On Sept. 16, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released the new transgender student guidelines, whose 30-day public comment period began on Sept. 26. According to the new policies (pdf), public schools can’t affirm a student’s gender without parents’ written requests. In addition, bathroom and locker room use is to be based on students’ sex, defined as the biological sex at birth. Student sports participation should be sex-based as well, unless federal laws require otherwise.
The debrief was held on Sept. 28, a day after the walkouts. The demonstrations’ organizer, Pride Liberation Project (PLP), a youth LGBTQ advocacy group based in Fairfax County, reported participation from nearly 100 schools, mainly concentrated in Fairfax County and other counties in northern Virginia: Loudoun, Prince William, and Arlington.
‘People Weren’t Actually Interested’ in the Cause
“Yesterday, at the school walkout we had, we had about 200 students participating. And most of the students were just there to skip class,” said one student organizer at the debrief. “And when I was handing out flyers yesterday, most of the flyers I handed out got handed right back to me because people weren’t actually interested in the cause for the walkout. They just wanted to skip class.”
Another responded, “I definitely had a lot of those people at my school as well.
“Honestly, they don’t realize it, but they are definitely helping our cause. They are bolstering our numbers; we can count them as our people who walked out for the Pride Liberation Project for these walkouts across the state.”
A third coordinator chimed in, “When helicopters are recording your school, they’re not seeing which one’s caring and which ones don’t. They’re just seeing the numbers.”… (Excerpt from The Gateway Pundit)
