An Arlington School Board meeting yesterday evening (Thursday) attracted Republican governor candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and a large crowd of activists, most advocating for transgender rights.
This was the School Board members’ first meeting since they announced that they would be maintaining their current policy of letting transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, despite the U.S. Department of Education’s threats to withhold federal funding.
The decision stirred up a throng of local community members and leaders who largely applauded the School Board and condemned what they see as an abuse of federal power.
“The Department of Education, they raised a hand, and APS did not flinch,” Samantha Perez, vice president of the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Equality Arlington, told the crowd. “So thank you. We would like to thank APS for standing up for the values of the school system in Arlington County to create a place where everyone, regardless of their race, regardless of their gender, of their expression, is welcome and safe.”
Earle-Sears, Virginia’s current lieutenant governor, was greeted by a vocal but smaller crowd of critics of the APS policy, bearing signs saying “Parents for Winsome,” who argued that allowing transgender girls into female spaces puts girls at risk.
“What is happening in our schools right now is just, it’s dangerous, it’s insane and it has to stop,” Earle-Sears told School Board members. “Here’s the truth. There are two sexes, boys and girls, and for generations, we’ve understood this — that they deserve their own sports teams, their own locker rooms, their own bathrooms.”
Critics held up the January arrest of Richard Cox, a registered sex offender who is accused of claiming to be a transgender woman in order access girls’ locker rooms in Arlington and loiter there while naked. They argued that the case illustrates the need for the School Board to change its policies.
Earle-Sears punted when asked whether she, like the federal government, would seek to withdraw funding from APS.
“As governor, I will continue whatever policies that are necessary to ensure that everyone remains safe,” she said. “Everyone means everyone.”
Superintendent Francisco Durán and School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton defended the school system’s current policy as protecting the rights of transgender and nonbinary students. They pledged to stand behind it despite the Department of Education’s assertion that this violates federal protections against sex-based discrimination.
“We strongly disagree with the Department’s assertion that our policy violates Title IX,” Durán said. “To the contrary, our policy is consistent with both state and federal law, including the Virginia Values Act, and it is also supported by recent court decisions affirming protections for students.”
Many audience members at the standing-room only School Board meeting waved trans flags and held up signs bearing messages like “Hate won’t make us great” and “Keep guns out of schools, not kids out of bathrooms.”
One ostensibly pro-trans sign seen at a rally outside of the meeting attracted national attention, as well as bipartisan criticism, on social media.
“Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom then Blacks can’t share my water fountain,” the sign said.
Let’s check in on white progressive women in Arlington. pic.twitter.com/P3zGFXXxU5
— Arlington GOP (@goparlington) August 21, 2025
The sign drew quick condemnation from the Arlington GOP, national Republican figures from Sen. Tim Scott to Hugh Hewitt to Meghan McCain to Sen. Ted Cruz, state GOP figures like Attorney General Jason Miyares, Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger, and Arlington County Board member Maureen Coffey.
“Arlington was the 1st school district in Virginia to desegregate in 1959,” Coffey wrote on social media. “This is entirely unacceptable & flies in the face of the work we have done to be an inclusive & welcoming community for all. We do not fight for progress by putting others down, we fight for equality for ALL.”
“Dems forced to distance themselves from their racist grandma,” the Arlington GOP wrote. “When will @arlingtondems Chair Steve Baker apologize to @winwithwinsome for inviting this lady to his rally?”
Friday morning, the full County Board released a statement “unequivocally” denouncing the “entirely unacceptable” sign while noting that the Board “continues to stand with our APS colleagues, the educators of our great school system, and our students.”
The woman who held the sign was identified as a local activist. She told Fox 5’s Shirin Rajaee that the sign “was satire meant to provoke conversation around the absurdity of prejudice.”
Public comment at the meeting, meanwhile, lasted for about an hour, with many but not all speakers supporting officials’ current approach.
“Thank you,” APS parent Amy Killelea told the School Board. “Thank you for standing up to federal bullying and for standing up for local control of public education, and for standing up for the rights of every student who walks through the doors of APS to be treated with dignity and respect.”
All five County Board members attended the event prior to the School Board meeting, as did Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti.
A group of Earle-Sears supporters gathered near the trans rights advocates. At one point, a shouting protester briefly interrupted a speech but the event remained largely peaceful.
Coffey called the Education Department’s decision “a massive overreach of federal government into local decision making” and an attempt to distract from issues like federal layoffs, health care or funding for public education.
“They have created a circus for you to come out and be distracted, but Arlington is not going to be distracted,” she said. “Arlington is here to stand up for kids and demand more, and that’s why I’m so proud to be part of this community.”
