Did Spanberger "burst into tears" for THESE girls?

2,300 comments. One unanimous vote. Then Spanberger killed it in the dark.

Gov. Abigail Spanberger quietly killed the Virginia Board of Health's unanimous effort to protect girls in their school sports and locker rooms. Why?

“And I tell you I burst into tears because of the fact that I want to make members of the LGBTQ+ community know that you have a governor that values your community,” Spanberger said from the Virginia Pridefest stage.

So we're asking the question nobody else in the media is:

Did she burst into tears for these little girls at the Arlington public swimming centers?

A quick refresher in case you forgot this story. Little girls—one of them five years old, another nine—had just finished their swim lessons. They walked into the girls' locker room. A naked man was standing there—a Tier III registered sex offender whose record of sex crimes against children stretches back three decades. Mothers complained. They were told nothing could be done. He identified as transgender.

Did Abigail Spanberger burst into tears for female college students like Carter Satterfield?

Carter swam for Roanoke College. A male athlete joined her women's team. “I swam next to him, twice a day, every day," she said, "knowing no amount of training, dedication, or grit could ever change my biology as a female athlete and create a fair competition. …My teammates got physically sick, and we all had trouble eating, sleeping and concentrating, as our safety and privacy were ignored and we were told to stay quiet about it.”

Carter didn't just complain. She petitioned the Commonwealth to fix it.

The Governor cried for one group in front of a microphone. She killed the rule that would have protected these girls with no microphone at all.

WHAT SPANBERGER DID

In August of last year, the Virginia Board of Health voted unanimously to begin writing a regulation keeping males out of girls' sports and out of girls' locker rooms and changing areas. The vote was 14-0. Governor Youngkin formally launched the rulemaking that October.

You made that happen. More than 2,300 Virginians filed comments with the Board— students, coaches, parents, athletes. And you didn't stop at a keyboard. You drove to Richmond. You filled the boardroom at Perimeter Center and stood alongside female athletes and their families while the Board took the vote.

Remember the win you delivered: Board of Health Votes to Protect Girls 

Then, this July, the Spanberger administration quietly withdrew it.

No press release. No public notice. No hearing. No vote. Just a line buried on a state regulatory docket that sat unnoticed for weeks until a reporter stumbled onto it.

People close to the Governor say she didn't want to "bring additional fights."

Protecting Virginia's daughters was, apparently, a fight not worth having.

Her "no legal authority" excuse doesn't hold up

Spanberger now claims the Board of Health never had the power to act. Look at what that claim requires you to believe:

1. That 14 Board members were wrong. They voted in public, on the record, with staff and counsel in the room. Not one of them thought the petition was outside their lane.

2. That Virginia law says something it doesn't. Two sections say otherwise. § 32.1-2 puts women's health inside the Board's mandate by name: the Commonwealth's health program must include prevention focused on women's health and on conditions that fall uniquely or disproportionately on women. § 32.1-12 then hands the Board the tool — power to "make, adopt, promulgate and enforce such regulations … as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this title." A mandate that names women and the rulemaking power to act on it. Spanberger's position requires you to believe the Commonwealth gave the Board both and meant neither.

3. That the Board can regulate the pool but not the locker room. The Board already writes the rules governing hotels, summer camps, campgrounds and pools and bathing facilities in those areas that Virginians use every day. Spanberger's position is that the Board may regulate the chlorine in the water but not the grown man in the girls' changing room.

4. That a private phone call settles the law. No court ruled. No published Attorney General's opinion exists. She consulted Attorney General Jay Jones—her own political ally—behind closed doors.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

1. Email the Governor directly.
Use the Governor's official constituent form: https://constituentservices.solutions.virginia.gov/email

Make it personal. A few lines is plenty. Let her know you're writing on behalf of the girls she failed to mention, and that Virginia's daughters deserve an answer in daylight.

2. Call the Governor's office: 804-786-2211
Let them know you're calling about the Board of Health rulemaking the Governor withdrew in July, and ask her to release the legal opinion behind that decision.

3. Forward this email to three people who care about girls' sports and girls' privacy.

Carter Satterfield and her teammates stood up when nobody else would. Thousands of you stood with them. A unanimous Board of Health stood with them. One person stopped it. She owes Virginia an explanation. Thank you for taking action today!