ARLINGTON, Va. — School districts’ decisions to defy the Trump administration and let students use bathrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity — not biological sex — is making waves in Virginia’s 2025 gubernatorial race, but Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger appears to be in full retreat on the issue.
Spanberger, who served three terms in the House during which she expressed full-throated support for transgender ideology, has recently sidestepped questions and refused to engage reporters about where she stands on the Trump administration seeking to crack down on school districts who let transgender-identifying individuals use the bathroom and locker room of their choosing. Her Republican opponent, Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, argues Spanberger is in hiding over her party’s apparent paralysis on the issue — and has sought to take charge less than three months out from election day.
Earle-Sears attended a fiery Arlington County Public School Board meeting Thursday night during which she hammered school officials for maintaining their bathroom and locker room policy that allowed a registered male sex offender to repeatedly expose himself to women and girls as recently as September 2024. Arlington is one of the five Northern Virginia districts the Trump administration has determined violated civil rights laws by retaining their left-wing gender ideology policies.
“That is the reality, that is the danger, and it’s about keeping schools focused on reading, writing, and math, not ideology,” Earle-Sears said during the two-minutes the board allotted attendees to speak. “As Governor, I will not stand by while political correctness tramples over science, fairness and safety.”
The Republican gubernatorial nominee also slammed Spanberger’s absence from the meeting and her broader silence on transgender policies in schools. Spanberger’s education platform does not mention transgender policy nor Title IX protections in sports and sex-specific facilities.
“Where are you [Abigail Spanberger]?” Earle-Sears questioned following her comments at the school board meeting. “Why are you not here? You believe that, well, biological men should be allowed in girls’ sports and be able to undress in front of our biological females in the locker room. Where is she to defend that position? She’s in hiding.”
“Well, you don’t become governor by hiding,” Earle-Sears continued. “She won’t even stand up for her side of the political aisle. Her side ought to be asking her, where are you?”
Spanberger’s silence on the education fight roiling northern Virginia comes as the Democratic nominee has seen her polling lead on Earle-Sears significantly narrowed.
The lieutenant governor shrunk Spanberger’s lead by 10 percentage points between May and August, according to a survey conducted by Roanoke College. Earle-Sears trails Spanberger 39% to 46% in the most recent survey from the pollster.
The Earle-Sears campaign rolled out a new ad Friday morning going on offense regarding Spanberger’s silence on left-wing gender ideology in Virginia schools.
“She is for nonsense. I am for commonsense,” Earle-Sears says in the ad.
Despite previously slamming Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for proposing policies to block students’ access to locker rooms and bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex, Spanberger has attempted to speak as little as possible on transgender rights during the gubernatorial campaign.
Spanberger cosponsored and voted for the Equality Act in 2022, which women sports advocates argued would have eliminated female-only spaces and women’s sports. The Democratic candidate also opposed legislation that would have prohibited biological males from participating in girls and women’s sports.
The Spanberger campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment inquiring about the Democratic nominee’s views on bathroom and locker room policies and the protection of women’s sports.
Spanberger has similarly dodged questions from local Virginia outlets probing the candidate’s policy stances on transgender issues in schools.
Spanberger’s decision to not weigh into the policy debate comes as a growing number of Democrats support restricting access to sex-specific facilities based on biological sex. Nearly half of Democratic-leaning adults support barring biological males from women’s sports and a quarter favor policies that require transgender-identifying individuals to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex, according to a February survey from the Pew Research Center.
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