Transgender Deja Vu in Loudoun County

“The predator transgender student or person simply does not exist.”

With those infamous words, then-Loudoun County Superintendent Scott Ziegler dismissed the very possibility that a male student could have committed sex crimes against girls in a girls’ restroom. He spoke those words in 2021, daring to face a father whose daughter suffered just such an indignity.

While Ziegler is long gone from Loudoun County, his pro-transgender mentality remains.

Four years after Ziegler’s infamous words, Loudoun County is defying the U.S. Department of Education, which found that the school district’s pro-transgender policy violates Title IX, the federal civil rights law forbidding discrimination on the basis of sex in education.

The debate revolves around the same policy that sparked outrage in 2021—Policy 8040. That policy states that Loudoun County Public Schools “shall allow gender-expansive or transgender students to use their chosen name and gender pronouns that reflect their consistently asserted gender identity without any substantiating evidence.” The policy allows boys to compete in girls’ sports and to access girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms if the boys claim to identify as girls.

Transgender activists claim that such policies are matters of politeness and that, in their absence, kids who identify as transgender will be more likely to commit suicide. In reality, however, these policies represent an official endorsement of a worldview at odds with science, tradition, and common sense. Pro-transgender interventions actually increase thoughts of suicide, studies find.

The transgender rules practically beg for abuses. High school boys who find themselves in the middle of the pack in boys’ sports may “identify” as women and gain an athletic edge. Worse, perverts may claim a false female identity to invade restrooms or locker rooms and spy on girls in various states of undress.

The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights rightly found that such policies discriminate against women and girls.

Yet following a closed session Tuesday, the Loudoun County school board voted, 6-3, against agreeing to a resolution agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, Loudoun Now reported. The school district may lose its federal funding, up to $46 million, as a result of noncompliance.

If any school district should know the horrible results of a transgender policy like 8040, it is Loudoun.

On May 28, 2021, a 15-year-old male student forced a girl to commit sex acts at Stone Bridge High School. He went on to sexually assault another girl in the girls’ restroom at Broad Run High School on Oct. 6. 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.

After then-Superintendent Ziegler made his infamous remarks on June 22, 2021, Scott Smith, the father of the May 28 victim, spoke out and was arrested and eventually convicted on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Yet the incident drew so much outrage that it likely propelled Republican Glenn Youngkin to victory in the gubernatorial election that year. As governor, Youngkin issued a complete pardon to Smith.

Meanwhile, the transgender open-door policy runs both ways.

Now, Loudoun County is reportedly investigating two high school boys for “sexual harassment.” Their crime? Complaining about a girl in the boys’ locker room.

According to the local ABC News affiliate, a female student used her phone to record three boys in the locker room. While the school district prohibits video and audio recordings in school locker rooms, the district is investigating the boys, not the girl who recorded them.

In May, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares announced that his office will investigate the school district after Youngkin urged him to do so.

“It’s deeply concerning to read reports of yet another incident in Loudoun County schools where members of the opposite sex are violating the privacy of students in locker rooms,” Youngkin said in May. “Even more alarming, the victims of this violation are the ones being investigated — this is beyond belief.” 

Four years ago, events in Loudoun County galvanized the parental rights movement and led to Youngkin’s election victory over former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who infamously said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

Will another round of transgender scandals provoke a similar backlash this year?

While all the Loudoun County School District leaders from 2021 have been replaced, the same issues are boiling up once again, and once again, the Loudoun County School District is on the wrong side of sanity and fairness.

Political observers often note that the Virginia gubernatorial election, which follows one year after the U.S. presidential election, tends to favor the party opposite that of the president. This would give Democrat Abigail Spanberger the edge, since Donald Trump won in 2024.

Yet one of the major reasons Trump won involved his opposition to gender insanity, and Democrats seem unable to rid themselves of that albatross around their necks. The transgender activist group the Human Rights Campaign has endorsed Spanberger’s campaign.

One thing’s for sure: this issue certainly isn’t going away.

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