‘RACIST AND ABHORRENT’: Spanberger Condemns Sign Comparing Black Republican’s Stance on Trans Bathrooms to Segregation

Virginia Democratic gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger condemned a sign comparing her black Republican opponent’s stance on transgender bathrooms to racial segregation.

“Abigail condemns this repulsive display,” Libby Wiet, Spanberger’s press secretary, told The Daily Signal in a statement Friday. “It’s racist, abhorrent, and unacceptable.”

The candidate herself took to X with another statement Friday.

“Many Virginians remember the segregated water fountains (and buses and schools and neighborhoods) of Virginia’s recent history,” she wrote. “And no matter the intended purpose or tone and no matter how much one might find someone else’s beliefs objectionable, to threaten a return of Jim Crow and segregation to a Black woman is unacceptable. Full stop.”

A protester held the sign outside a meeting of the Arlington County School Board Thursday night, ahead of an expected speech from Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican in the race.

The sign reads, “Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain.” While the protester behind the sign said it was satirical, she defended the comparison.

“I’m disgusted, but not surprised,” Earle-Sears said in a post on X. “This is the ‘tolerant’ left Abigail Spanberger defends.”

“I’m the sitting lieutenant governor, second in command in the former capitol of the Confederate States,” the black Republican nominee added. “I’m an immigrant, a Marine, and above all, a human being. There is no place for this disgusting hatred in our commonwealth. Anyone who doesn’t condemn this sign is complicit in approving it.”

Glenn Youngkin, the state’s Republican governor, said the sign revealed “the hypocrisy of the liberal Left on display again.”

“Winsome is so much bigger than this idiocy,” he added.

Segregation Message Satirical, Protester Says

The protester who held the sign told the local Fox News affiliate that her message had been satirical.

“It was satire meant to provoke conversation around the absurdity of prejudice,” she said. “If anyone thinks we are actually supporting separate drinking fountains based on race, they are mistaken. In the same way, that drinking fountains should be usable by all races, bathrooms should be nondiscriminatory.”

Virginia Scope reporter Brandon Jarvis first shared a photo of the sign, and he also shared the front of the sign.

The Transgender Bathroom Issue

Two recent flashpoints have underlined questions about males using the girls’ room and vice versa.

Five Northern Virginia school districts—including Arlington County Public Schools—have policies allowing boys who identify as girls to use girls’ restrooms and vice versa. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights found these policies in violation of Title IX, a federal law banning discrimination on the basis of sex.

On Tuesday, the department cut off all federal funding from these five districts, except funding by reimbursement.

“States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said. “The Northern Virginia school divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”

Loudoun County Public Schools, one of the five school districts in question, moved to punish three boys who expressed shock at seeing a girl in the boys’ locker room at Stone Bridge High School in Ashburn. The girl, who identifies as a boy, had filmed the encounter, even though that violates the district’s privacy policy. The school system did not investigate her, but instead brought claims against the boys under Title IX.

On Friday, the school district found two of the boys guilty of sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination, imposing a 10-day suspension. The school district has temporarily lifted the suspension while the boys appeal the finding.

Transgender issues played a large role in the 2021 gubernatorial election, which Youngkin and Earle-Sears (as the lieutenant governor candidate) won.

In May 2021, a 15-year-old male student forced a girl to commit sex acts in the girls bathroom at Stone Bridge. The school district moved the male student to Broad Run High School, where he then sexually assaulted another girl in a girls restroom in October of that year.

The Loudoun County Juvenile Court had found the perpetrator “not innocent” of charges of forcible sodomy and forcible fellatio. The student also pleaded “no contest” to charges of abduction and sexual battery on Oct. 6.

Earle-Sears has championed the case of “the Loudoun 3” and condemned the Northern Virginia school districts’ policies, while Spanberger positions herself as an advocate for the LGBTQ community and received the endorsement of the transgender activist group the Human Rights Campaign.

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