By Bob Marshall and Richard Black

During the Virginia gubernatorial debate last week, Democrat Abigail Spanberger, a former congresswoman, claimed, “There should never be nude men in [girls’] locker rooms.”

Lt. Governor Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican candidate, challenged Spanberger for contradicting her own well-established Congressional multiple-year record to the contrary, including her co-sponsorship of the so-called “Equality Act,” which would allow naked men inside girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms.

Earle-Sears noted, “Abigail Spanberger voted for the so-called Equality Act. That vote says a grown man can walk naked into your daughter’s locker room and if she’s uncomfortable, she’s the problem.”

Spanberger falsely claimed that Sears lied. However, the House of Representatives official records show that Spanberger co-sponsored and voted for the Equality Act three times in 2019, 2021, and 2023. The Equality Act does allow for naked men in women’s private spaces and much more. Ryan Anderson, writing for the Heritage Foundation in 2019, noted that by transforming transgender status into a civil right, the Equality Act would:

• “[F]orce employers to cover abortion, and medical professionals to perform or assist in performing abortions.
• ”[F]orce employers to pay for sex ‘reassignment’ procedures in their health insurance plans, and require medical professionals to perform them.
• “[F]orce all schools and businesses to open their women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and sports teams to boys who ‘identify as’ girls and to men who ‘identify as’ women.
• ”[F]orce faith-based adoption agencies to either violate their conviction that every child deserves both a mother and a father or to stop serving children in need altogether.
• “[F]orce a variety of small business owners to violate their beliefs about marriage, sexuality, and gender. At the state level, this has happened to bakers, florists, photographers, and even funeral home owners.
• ”[T]hreatens the freedom of speech, freedom of association, and free exercise of religion rights of countless people.
• “Anyone who believes we are created male and female, and that male and female are created for each other … will be at risk.” 

Victoria Cobb of Virginia’s Family Foundation recently observed that “Abigail Spanberger’s votes against the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act and for the Equality Act, demonstrate a willingness to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams and enter sex-segregated bathrooms and locker rooms, putting young girls at risk of physical and mental harm.” Cobb was referring to Spanberger’s vote against HR 734, the 2023 Protection of Women and Girls on Sports’ Act, which passed the House of Representatives but was killed by Senate Democrats.

In 2022, Governor Glenn Youngkin ® met with Virginia’s Congressional delegation to discuss state school regulations about addressing children by their birth pronouns and using separate locker rooms and bathrooms. When Congressman Bob Good (R-Va.) said schools were grooming students and encouraging gender modifications, Spanberger instantly responded with vulgar language disputing Good’s charge. Spanberger’s profanity was reported in The Hill and The Washington Post.

If Spanberger wins, there will be more of what happened at Loudoun County’s Stone Bridge High School when a girl (claiming male status) entered the boys locker room and filmed boys. Although filming was forbidden, two boys, not the girl, were investigated for sexual harassment and were suspended from school.

A recent Pew Research poll of American adults showed the following:

• 66% support requiring athletes play on teams matching birth sex, while 15% oppose and 19% have no opinion;
• 49% support requiring use of public bathrooms to match birth sex, while 26% oppose and 25% have no opinion;
• 56% support making it illegal for physicians to change a minor’s sex/gender, while 26% oppose and 17% have no opinion.

Voters deserve to know that Abigail Spanberger strongly supports transgender policies and Winsome Earle-Sears firmly opposes them.

One of these two women will be elected America’s first female governor of Virginia.

Bob Marshall served 26 years in the Virginia House of Delegates and was the chief House sponsor of the 2006 voter-approved Virginia Marriage Amendment as well as a ban on late-term abortion. He authored 60+ laws and studies, and was chairman of the General Assembly Stem Cell Study.

Richard Black is a former Virginia state senator.