HENRICO COUNTY, Va. β The Virginia State Board of Health approved the start of a regulatory process Thursday morning to create rules that would prevent transgender women from playing in female sports or using female changing rooms.
The brief portion of a larger State Board of Health meeting begins what could be a years-long process on these regulations, meaning it will carry over into the next administration for the next Virginia Governor.
In August, the board unanimously approved a petition from three current and former college swimmers in Virginia to create regulations to "prevent biological males from participating in organized female-only athletic teams and competitions in Virginia, and to prevent biological males from using designated female spaces where females are likely to be in any state of undress."
Thursday, the board approved the first step with what's known as a Notice of Intended Regulatory Action or NOIRA, basically announcing the process is starting.
The proposal now goes to the executive branch for review and then would start a 30-day public comment period.
Around 30 minutes after the board voted, Gov. Glenn Youngkin put out an Executive Directive directing the board to immediately take all necessary steps to get this done.
No one signed up for public comment Thursday, but at the August meeting there were people for and against this taking place.
"It takes courage and cost for these young ladies to stand up here and stand against this tide, but they know it's a fight worth fighting for their fairness, for their safety," Rebecca Messe said.
"In addition to inviting legal challenge, the proposed regulations would be detrimental to all women's health. They would require athletic governing bodies and schools to engage in dangerous gender policing and sex testing for enforcement," Wyatt Rolla, Senior Transgender Rights Attorney with the ACLU, said.
After this first step is completed, the board will see how the proposed regulations would be worded, along with how enforcement would work and potential penalties, and start more rounds of executive review and public comment.
The entire process could take up to two years and would continue into the next administration.
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