WATCH: This bold trans student stumps anti-LGBTQ Gov. Glenn Youngkin with the most basic question

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s transphobic rhetoric started blowing in the wind last week under the slightest questioning by an actual transgender person.

During a CNN Town Hall on Thursday, the anti-LGBTQ+ governor’s policies limiting the rights of transgender students were called into question by a student named Niko to his face.

“Your transgender policies require students play on the sports teams and use the restrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth,” the teen says.

“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?”

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Glenn’s answer certainly was a collection of words:

Hear @GovernorVA’s comments on transgender rights in schools when asked directly by Niko, a transgender high school student from Virginia, during the CNN Town Hall: The War on Education hosted by @jaketapper. pic.twitter.com/CIX7MrfCRB

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) March 10, 2023

Glenn starts by thanking Niko for his involvement in “this important discussion” before immediately side-stepping the question to ramble a bit on the supposed parental rights that his legislation hides behind.

“I believe, first, when parents are engaged with their children, then you can make good decisions together,” he says.

In addition to discriminating against trans students in sports and restrooms, the policies the governor put into effect last fall require parental approval for a student to use any pronouns or names other than what’s listed in their official record.

Rather than saying whether Niko, a boy, should be using the men’s or women’s bathroom at school, Glenn just says all schools need to make “extra bathrooms”.

“There are lots of students involved in this decision, and what’s most important is that we try very hard to accommodate students,” he equivocates. “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.”

This might sound progressive to anyone not reading between the lines at the governor pointedly ignoring that Niko is comfortable using the men’s restroom and doesn’t require alternative accommodations.

Related:

Gov. Glenn Youngkin opposes gay marriage but thinks doxing teenagers on Twitter is OK

What a trash bag.

Glenn goes on to address the point of trans students in sports, once again ignoring the reality or the transmasculine students in front of him to solely focus on transfeminine student athletes.

“I don’t think it’s controversial,” he states. “I don’t think that biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls… It’s just not fair.”

In a statement released by the Human Rights Campaign following the night’s Town Hall, Campaign Director Geoff Wetrosky spoke out against Glenn’s hypocritical “parental rights” platform.

“Tonight, Glenn Youngkin once again claimed that he believes that ‘parents matter,’” Wetrosky states. “In reality he only cares about some parents. He does not care about parents of LGBTQ+ – particularly transgender – students, who have been consistently under attack in Virginia and across the country.”

Wetrosky continues, “He said that there is no room for bullying or harassment in Virginia’s schools, but his own policies only further marginalize and isolate transgender students, creating more stigma and more discrimination against an already vulnerable population. His extremist, anti-LGBTQ+ positions should have no place in Virginia, or this country.”

Related:

Amid the wave of anti-LGBTQ bills sweeping the nation, this state just did something amazing for queer people

The law finally passed after about 40 years of stonewalling from Republicans.