Virginia governor Glenn Youngkin had the political class fooled.
The vest-wearing conservative positioned himself as a relative moderate during Virginia’s last gubernatorial race, only to unleash an array of right-wing policies once he stepped foot inside of the governor’s mansion.
Most recently, Youngkin’s administration removed LGBTQ+ youth resources from a state website after pressure from the Daily Wire, a far-right troll site co-founded by Ben Shapiro.
“The decision elicited concern from department leaders who had not been consulted and began emailing their higher-ups asking why this had happened,” the Washington Post reports.
The Daily Wire targeted two programs: Queer Kid Stuff, a resource for children and families, and Q Chat Space, which offers live chats to LGBTQ+ teenagers. Neither site requires adult permission to use.
When asked for comment, one of Youngkin’s spokespeople said the pages “sexualize children.”
“In Virginia, the governor will always reaffirm a parent’s role in their child’s life. Children belong to their parents, not the state,” said Macaulay Porter. “The governor supports providing resources that are age appropriate however the government should not facilitate anonymous conversations between adults and children without a parent’s approval.”
“Sexualizing children against a parent’s wishes doesn’t belong on a taxpayer supported website.”
The fleece vest does not make Glenn Youngkin any leads far right extreme than the rest. He’s a dangerous car right oligarch.
— Marla (@marla_vous) July 6, 2023
Youngkin lied to get elected, he sad CRT was taught in VA schools, it’s a total lie
— JoeyBonanno (@RealJoeBonanno) July 7, 2023
I thought MAGAts were pro-life.
— Ze’ev Mishpacha (((Alpha Wolf))) 🇺🇸🇮🇱 (@TheSylvreWolfe) July 6, 2023
What is he afraid of????
— Deb McD. aka Towanda in SC (@DebMcD007) July 6, 2023
💙🌈🏳️⚧️☮️
Despicable. What a horrible human being.
— Tooey (@SueRic2) July 6, 2023
Running on a platform framed around “parental rights,” Youngkin has dismantled protections for LGBTQ+ youth since taking office. His administration’s guidelines also ban transgender students from using bathrooms and playing on sports teams that coincide with their gender identity.
At a town hall earlier this year, a 17-year-old trans high school student challenged Youngkin to defend his hateful policies. “Your transgender policies require students play on the sports teams and use the restrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth,” said the teen. “Look at me. I am a transgender man. Do you really think the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me?”
In-lieu of an answer, Youngkin responded with a word salad.
“I believe, first, when parents are engaged with their children, then you can make good decisions together,” he blathered. “There are lots of students involved in this decision, and what’s most important is that we try very hard to accommodate students. That’s why I have said many, many times we just need extra bathrooms in schools. We need general neutral bathrooms so people can use a bathroom that they in fact are comfortable with.”
Yes, Youngkin wants kids to feel comfortable at school… unless they’re transgender and want to use the bathroom that suits them. Then they’re out of luck!
Youngkin’s team has removed multiple online health resources meant for Virginians over the last couple of years.
In addition to pulling LGBTQ+ sections, his administration has expunged questions about pregnancy and STI prevention and a list of Virginia-based organizations that may be able to provide financial assistance for abortion.
While the governor has demurred when asked about his presidential ambitions, he’s seemingly kept the door open for a run. In May, “top Republican sources” told Axios he was reconsidering whether to entire the 2024 race, due to Donald Trump‘s increasing legal woes.
Earlier this week, Youngkin told Fox News he was focused on being a “great governor” …this year.
“That sounds a lot like what Ron DeSantis said before he started to run,” said host Steve Doocy.
Youngkin is so bad at being coy, even Fox News is calling him out on his bluff.
These days, any Republican who wants to make national headway must attack LGBTQ+ people, and that’s exactly what Youngkin is doing as a supposed “moderate.” How shameful but, sadly, right on brand for today’s GOP.
Scroll down for more reaction to Youngkin’s latest anti-LGBTQ+ initiative…
Picked that up from the DeSatan playbook… pic.twitter.com/pwffQ7rlks
— M Preston Chandler (@Chowdaddy1) July 7, 2023
Disgraceful
— Lou Ann Mercier 🟧 (@lougygougy) July 6, 2023
Republicans are just so hateful
— Matthew, July Reply Guy (@TeachAllAmerica) July 7, 2023
Wait a minute…don’t the parents of LGBTQ pay taxes for this service? Will they get a tax refund so they can fund their own prevention resources for their kids?
— Vicky M (@VickyMozart5) July 6, 2023
But he’s got a fleecey vest, so it’s all ok! 🤷🏻♀️
— Sue voted Blue (@CAMadScientist) July 6, 2023
Jack
Meanwhile go to the high school football game Friday night and see the cheerleaders in short skirts, blatantly sexualized. 80% of the Republicans screaming this trash have plenty of girl on girl porn in their browser history. I’m an adult and I don’t give a f*ck what they say. PLEASE, say it to my face. I’m petrified about what their hate and hypocrisy is doing to our gay youth. Vote these monsters out of office.
inbama
As far as protecting gay and lesbian kids are concerned, we’ve become our own worst enemy.
It’s not Republicans chemically castrating them or cutting their tits off.
dbmcvey
Hey inbama. Find anything, anywhere that doesn’t come from a right wing propaganda site to prove what you just typed.
You are disgusting.
James
Inbama, You are obviously a disgusting republican homophobe yourself. Get lost creep.
inbama
@James
If you think that every person who rejects Gender Ideology is a Republican, you really are an idiot. We didn’t win our rights by saying things that aren’t true – as the saying goes, you can’t fool all of the people all of the time. I’m hoping my fellow gay men and Democratic Party can come to their senses before we lose both houses, the presidency and all the gains made by gay activists in the past 50 years.
Google Ana Kasparian and see what she has to say about the gender ideology we’re throwing away gay rights for. You don’t get any farther Left than the Young Turks, and even she’s fed up with it.
dbmcvey
Hey inbomba,
Ana Kasparian isn’t a doctor. I also notice you have no evidence to back up your claims. You’re a terrible person.
inbama
@dbmcvey
I’ve seen enough of your posts to know that intellectually you are a total waste of time.
If you were really interested in facts, rather than questioning me, you would know what I know. But you don’t and you never will. Because you’re just a lemming spreading the official lies you’ve been fed by the Gender Medical Industry. A Vichy Gay who betrays his own kind.
dbmcvey
Inbama, we’ve seen enough of your posts to know that you are a traitor to your own people. A conservative troll whose very name reeks of racism and betrays the lonely bitter shell you are.
inbama
@dbmcvey
As usual, what comes out of your mouth can only be properly cleaned with toilet paper.
johncp56
spot on, they double-talk their way out the corner every time, they think! this POTUS race is truly creepy
Den
“Google Ana Kasparian”
For one thing, nobody is “cutting the tits off of children” or “chemically castrating them”. Pre-pubescent girls have not tits to cut off, and puberty blockers where used are not “chemical castration”. I have known transgender kids, and just like the majority of gay kids they have as strong an understanding of themselves as puberty approached, some long before. It sounds as if you have interacted with neither trans kids nor trans adults but uncritically buy into the right wing crap. You probably believe that trans women are just “big bury ,men in dresses” who get silicone injections in their chests and take hormones just to try and watch women pee in public rest rooms! Or low level athletes who get their balls cut off and take hormones just for a better chance to win medals!
And Ana Kasparian may object to some of the less productive tactics of the whole TERF accusing and hating crowd, but she would never object to the reasonable and useful gender affirming care for kids that is being outlawed , would not oppose full enfranchisement and legal protections for trans people, and does not support the current right wing attacks you seem to echo. That said, despite her strong progressive bona fides, she is nonetheless rather a prude and makes no bones about it. She is not truly comfortable with some of the public displays of affection that raise few eyebrows these days and has vocally affirmed that the understands the difference between drag queen story hours and the whole Hooters/Cheerleader/tween romance continuum that actually constitutes the sexualizing of children (but is considered OK by the right because it is entirely heterosexual).
I defy you to find any quote or writing by Ana that supports your claims about her. And though TYT (which I watch daily) IS progressive, there are a ton of on-line opinion sites that are way further to the left. That is why TYT network is so hugely popular, they are reasonable.
dbmcvey
Oh Den, inbama doesn’t care about truth. He would believe anything negative about trans people because he really, really wants to.
inbama
@Den
“puberty blockers where used are not “chemical castration”
Tell that to Jazz Jennings.
inbama
@dbmcvey
There you go lying again. Why don’t you find someone who WANTS to engage you in conversation? Is there no one?
Your trolling is sad and weak.
dbmcvey
inbomb, you’re not engaging in conversations, you’re just posting stuff you either pulled out of your a$$ or read off a right wing propaganda site.
Also, we will ask Jazz Jennings about it because I don’t hear her complaining.
Also, she’s an adult.
inbama
@dbmcvey
That you don’t know or don’t care what hell Jazz Jennings, the poster child for puberty blockers, has suffered just shows what a thoroughly rotten human being you are.
abfab
Cretin.
Kangol2
This man, like so many in his party, is a grotesque homophobe and transphobe. If anyone thinks the GQP has the LGBTQ community’s best interests in mind, just look at their record over the last 25+ years. And if anyone thinks the gains the LGBTQ community have made over the last 55 years are safe, again, just look at what the GQP and its allies on the courts and in US corporations have done and are doing now and going forward.
Mister P
‘Bama should also learn about transgenderism, so he knows the truth and stops saying it’s castration and other nonsense.
decrans
Well, people on the left don’t want you to use the term transgenderism. You might to look inside your own walls before tossing around stones.
dbmcvey
That’s because it’s a term made up by anti-gay bigots, Jarod.
BTW, how’s your NAZI roommate?
inbama
Mister P
Apparently you’re another ignoramous who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Last year, WPATH (the World Professional Association for Transgender Health that sets the standards for transgender healthcare worldwide) approved EUNUCH as a legitimate Gender Identity. Bottom surgery for a boy is known as “Gender Nullification Surgery” or a “smoothie.” It involves “a complete penectomy, orchiectomy, a reduction of the scrotal sac, and shortening of the urethra. The goal is to leave the area as a smooth unbroken transition from the abdomen to the groin.”
I don’t make sh*t up.
The sh*t is real – and you and dbmcvey support it no matter how sick and insane it gets.
Den
“Bottom surgery for a boy is known as ‘Gender Nullification Surgery’ or a ‘smoothie.'”
Provide verifiable and legitimate sources for this being done to anybody but adults, or be laughed at. Keep in mind that “Info Wars”, “Daily Caller”, NewsMax, and so on are not legitimate sources. There are people who have been doing this for years in unsafe conditions through renegade or unlicensed surgeons. Just as women got back alley abortions before Roe v Wade, and with as great a risk to life or health. WPATH is advocating for safe pursuit of this where adults are not helped by therapy or counselling. I am not at all surprised that you have fallen for the MAGA bullshit that this would be done to “a boy”, nor would I be surprised to hear that you might get some pleasure to know willing adults have died from illegal procedures. You seem unable to express any empathy for those who don’t think exactly like you. And that certainly is the far-right/redneck/cracker mindset in a nutshell.
dbmcvey
I’m sure inbama doesn’t make sh*t up, he’s not that smart. He reads if off lying right wing propaganda and believes it because he really, really wants to.
inbama
@Den
So you believe it is fine for adults to identify as ‘eunuch” and undergo gender nullification surgery?
Should we add a letter for eunuchs to LGBTQIA+?
dbmcvey
And here’s inbama writing a bunch of crap.
inbama
And there’s dbmcvey lying again.
dbmcvey
So he’s just a freelance bigot.
gothvixen
This American idea that children ‘belong’ to their parents is outrageous. Parents have responsibilities but no rights in a decent society. Giving them the right to impose their decisions unchallenged means that they can purposefully and legally harm their child, hence child marriage is still allowed in 40 states. Parents can decide to refuse essential medical treatments. In the UK the courts step in when there is contention over a parent’s wishes for their child, with an adult representative appointed who presents to a judge that which is in the child’s best interests, based on expert opinions, and the judge makes the decision. Children are never possessions, they are people with their own individual rights, one of which is not to be harmed by a bad parent.
James
Another narcissistic republican loser.
Chaucer
Younkin is a humiliation to the Commonwealth of Virginia. He should never hold any political office. He’s devious, lies, and is harmful to people, such as playing games with the lives of LGBTQ+ children.