Virginia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Abigail Spanberger, has had multiple opportunities to state her position regarding males in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports. She refuses to give a clear answer because her top donors and the elites in the Democratic Party support such policies, while would-be Democratic voters are less enthusiastic.
In now-viral clips, Spanberger refused to answer a local reporter’s question last month about her personal view on sex-segregated bathroom and locker room use. Following the interview, her campaign staffers physically blocked the reporter when he tried to approach Spanberger with a follow-up question.
Last week, during the only debate between the Republican candidate, Winsome Earle-Sears, and Spanberger, Sears made it clear that locker and bathroom use should be based on sex, not gender. On the other hand, Spanberger offered an answer that requires significant interpretation. She said, "My answer is that in each local community, decisions should be made between parents and educators, and teachers in each community. It shouldn't be dictated by politicians."
In a post-debate interview, Spanberger offered a three-minute word salad speech that didn’t give further insights into her personal view. Instead, she delivered a diatribe against President Donald Trump and mentioned again that she believes the local community should decide whether boys play in girls’ sports, and use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms. She said, “The local community…can readily make decisions and provide guidance about how to ensure that all our kids are safe.”
Meanwhile, many parents believe that students in the five northern Virginia public school districts currently under the federal government’s high-risk status for violating Title IX are not safe. In Alexandria City, Arlington County, Fairfax County, Loudoun County and Prince William County, public school districts’ leaders have implemented policies to allow for shared-sex intimate spaces. In other words, bathroom and locker use in these K-12 public school districts is based on gender identity, rather than biological sex.
There have been multiple problems with these policies. Richard Cox, a convicted sex offender, has been using girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms at public schools and recreation centers in Arlington County and Fairfax County. He is accused of standing naked for hours and touching himself in front of women and girls. Last month, an Arlington police detective testified that Cox had child pornography on his phone, along with schedules of children’s swimming classes.
A Defending Education public records request to Arlington Schools revealed that Kathleen Clark, an Arlington County School Board member, had exchanged emails with Cox in which she boasted about her work for transgender advocacy. In an email she sent to Cox on October 31, 2024, she wrote, “You should be able to use the showers and changing rooms that you are most comfortable using.”
Based on Spanberger’s statements, she implies that she supports local leaders, such as Kathleen Clark, making decisions about men, such as Richard Cox, using girls’ locker rooms and bathrooms.
In Fairfax County and Loudoun County, public school students without a gender dysphoria diagnosis are invading the privacy of children of the opposite sex. Most recently, at Fairfax County’s West Springfield High School, a sophomore boy with facial hair started leering at freshmen girls changing in their locker room for gym class. When a girl complained, the teacher told her there’s nothing the school could do because the district’s policy is that the boy is able to use whichever facilities he chooses.
And Virginians will not forget that on May 28, 2021, a boy reportedly wearing a skirt raped a freshman girl in the girls’ bathroom at a Loudoun County public high school.
The commonsense smell test finds that policies supporting males in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports have many negative consequences. Public opinion polling reflects that voters are against such policies – and increasingly so from 2022 to 2025. In January 2025, 79-percent of respondents to a New York Times Opinion Poll said that boys should not be allowed to compete in girls’ sports – including 67-percent of Democrat respondents. Public opinion polling also shows that more Americans support than oppose policies that require bathroom use to be based on sex, not gender.
Spanberger’s top donors are not in line with voters. American Federation of Teachers, SEIU Committee on Political Education, UNITE State/Local Committee, National Education Association, Planned Parenthood Va, and Virginia Education Association have donated a combined total of $1,121,217 to Spanberger’s campaign since the beginning of 2024. All of these top donors support the unpopular, so-called “transgender inclusive policies” that, when prompted, seem to make Spanberger run from reporters.
While it is clear that Sears opposes boys in girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, Spanberger is unsuccessfully trying to straddle the chasm between Democratic elites and voters. Unfortunately for her, Virginia’s voters are smarter than she thinks.
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor to Independent Women's Features, The Federalist and the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network.
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