#Virginia politics

[fagknowledge]

PLEASE READ: The Lives Of Trans Students In Virginia Are At Stake.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has turned his focus on making education ten times worse for everyone involved. His current focus is on Transgender students in K-12 public schools. He is introducing a new policy, the main points are as follows:

-Administration is to use the pronouns on the student's record, not their chosen pronouns.

-If administration is aware of a student's identity they are to inform parents of it.

-Students may not use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity, only their AGAB.

There are more issues with it that can't be listed here, but trust me when I say this could get trans students KILLED. Parental abuse will spike as well, and depression rates among trans kids. I don't need to tell you why this is horrendous.

So please, go to the link below and fill out a comment card. It's easy, it's free, it's anonymous. Put what you feel you need to. This is not useless. They are required to look at every comment.

Please. This is serious.

If you look at the list you can see how many awful comments there are from transphobic people. Please help us. It takes 30 seconds.

[spec-squared]

Okay so I don't normally post about this kinda stuff, but this is important and I need to talk about it.

"Currently, the kids of veterans who are more than 90% permanently disabled can have their tuition waived for up to eight semesters at a public college or university in Virginia."

The program explained above is called the Virginia Military Survivors Dependents Education Program (VMSDEP). I was a recipient up until just a couple weeks ago, because I finished up my eighth semester of college and will be graduating soon.

Republican Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin just gutted funding for this program. Now there are going to be thousands of children and young adults who will either lose access to higher education entirely, or they will be forced to go into tens of thousands of dollars of debt to pursue it.

Now, I had a very long-winded paragraph typed out, giving you my sob story about how my father died due to military service-related injuries and that my Ma had to jump through hoops with the USDVA for a year so that I would be granted eligibility. It was meticulously worded so that you, the reader, would sympathize with me and understand why this program is so important to me and many other Virginians like me. Unfortunately, I'm on mobile and accidentally swiped my thumb the wrong way, causing the whole thing to be deleted, and I am too emotionally exhausted to write all that out again.

TL;DR - this is EXTREMELY bad for a LOT of people, and if you live in Virginia, I am BEGGING you to contact our local representatives and tell them that they need to reinstate funding for VMSDEP, and PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, VOTE BLUE.

[cistematicchaos]

ID: a screenshot of a short essay with text reading:

“We Don’t Deserve To Be Demonized

To the editor:

We all know about the anti-trans legislation being pushed by Youngkin. This is for the supporters, for everyone who isn’t sure or just doesn’t care:

You can ignore it but there’s bigotry in Virginia and from your support or inaction, you’re stoking the flames. I’m one of the many trans teens in Virginia and this legislation is just another sign not only are our rights in danger all over the world but in my state.

This legislation isn’t going to save anyone. It won’t protect children from sexual assault or keep the “perverted trans kids” away from your kids. The only thing it’s guaranteed to do is kill trans people.

Whether at the hands of bigots encouraged by the hysteria or even at our own hands in our desperation to escape this hell it’s creating, this legislation will kill us. But we’re not disappearing. Genocide has never eradicated queer people and never will. If it could, don’t you think we’d be gone already? You think your legislation can do what lynches and beatings couldn’t?

We’re not staying silent. We’re not monsters. We don’t deserve to be demonized just because you don’t understand our identities. You’re trying to control us as if you’ll manage what your bigoted predecessors failed but we all know things are changing. Even ACPS is pushing back.

Let me be clear: each death of a trans person following this legislation is murder. Each of you who write this legislation, each of you who claim neutrality or quietly agree, are all complicit in that. But if there’s one thing that I can guarantee about all of this, it’s that no matter what you do, from hate crimes to rallies to legislation, we will never disappear.

Our existence is not your decision.”

END ID

[cluster-fandom]

IF YOU LIVE IN VIRGINIA, THERE IS AN ELECTION TODAY NOVEMBER 7TH

OUR HOUSE OF DELEGATES AND STATE SENATE ARE UP FOR ELECTION PLUS OTHER LOCAL POSITIONS

ITS SUPER IMPORTANT TO VOTE IN YOUR LOCAL AND STATE ELECTIONS BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE BIGGEST DIRECT IMPACT ON YOU!

USE THIS WEBSITE TO CHECK WHOS ON YOUR BALLOT

(THERES ALSO A LOT OF OTHER COOL INFORMATION REGARDING VIRGINIA POLITICS)

GO VOTE

[markherri]

Let's bring back hope to the people of Virginia and united state at large, will be tagging every page here as much as I can to reach out to people...❤️❤️❤️❤️

They government want the good but I won't stand with corruption

[asexual-bard]

I wish I was surprised that Virginia's wannabe Desantis is signing dangerous transphobic laws that put children at risk. I am so fucking tired I don't even know what to say anymore. I feel like I should have some big speech right now but I just don't. This personally affects some of my closest friends and I am truly disgusted by this utter lack of empathy from someone who is supposed to represent ALL Virginians.

[heydragonfly]

HELL YEAH VIRGINIA LETS GOOOOO TAKE THAT GOVERNOR FUCKWITS

[pottersangel99]

FUCK Glenn Youngkin. You are a fucking disgrace to Virginia.

[freesidexjunkie]

getting more and more nervous about 2024...

Democratic Party, please learn from your mistakes. Sincerely, the native genocide and the idea of slavery being bad aren't fucking allowed on our standardized tests anymore.

[newsmatt]

Many Virginia Democrats are framing the controversy around a legislative candidate who livestreamed herself performing sex acts as a distraction from the issues they say matter to voters. WTOP's Matt Small reports.

[millennial-maureen]

So glad to see Fairfax standing up for our trans students!

[cistematicchaos]

ID: a tweet by L. Louise Lucas @ SenLouiseLucas from 23 hours ago reading: “Is anyone else’s Pornhub not working?”

If this isn’t the wildest way to get attention and address VA’s porn “ban”...holy shit

[robpegoraro]

RCV IRL: A return to poll work brings some new math

The 15-hour shift I worked as an Arlington County election officer Tuesday didn’t match my previous poll-worker gig two years ago in a few ways. To start, this time I got assigned to work the precinct where I’d normally vote in person, shortening my commute to a quick walk and allowing me to sleep in all the way until 4:30 a.m. But Tuesday’s Democratic primary election was also the first one run…

[andy-kandy]

Watch "US SOLDIER KIDNAPS A CHILD ???" on YouTube

When ppl say fuck the USA military this is what we're talking about. Shitty ppl

[reasonsforhope]

"Georgia Republicans bundled over a dozen measures that targeted the state’s transgender residents into omnibus packages in a desperate attempt to get them passed. In a stunning defeat for the GOP, every single one of them failed.

Legislators gutted bills that had passed through committee and instead stuffed them full of their anti-LGBTQ+ wishlist items.

Bills that would ban transgender students from playing on teams aligned with their gender identity, ban transgender students from bathrooms aligned with their gender identity, opt parents into notification for every book a student checks out of the library, bar sex education before sixth grade, make all sex-ed classes opt-in and expand obscenity laws to make it easier to ban books with LGBTQ+ content all failed.

“MAGA politicians in Georgia tried it all in service to their anti-LGBTQ+ agenda,” said Human Rights Campaign Georgia State Director Bentley Hudgins, “including silencing debate and gutting unrelated, popular bills that had bipartisan support to ram through policies that would have put young LGBTQ+ Georgians in harm’s way. They failed.”

“It’s undeniable that the tides are shifting, both here in Georgia and across the nation,” Georgia Equality executive director Jeff Graham added. “Anti-LGBTQ actors are losing their political power, and more and more Georgians who know and love LGBTQ people are standing up against their baseless fear-mongering.”

In Florida recently, nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ+ bills were defeated in the wake of Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s (R) presidential campaign implosion, dozens of measures in Virginia were tabled [Note: In the US, "tabled" means "shelved" or "taken out of consideration - the opposite of its meaning in the UK and other places], and Ohio’s governor backed off his attempt to restrict gender-affirming care access for transgender adults and minors. 

Meanwhile, in D.C., Democrats successfully excised 50 anti-LGBTQ+ provisions in the two budget bills passed and signed by President Joe Biden to fund the federal government.

Even Fox News has been forced to acknowledge transgender issues are among the lowest-priority concerns among voters."

-via LGBTQ Nation, April 1, 2024