Newport News community members want the school district to reconsider a policy related to the treatment of transgender students that was adopted during former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's term.
Supporters of the policy argue that it provides clarity and aligns with state-level expectations. Critics say it marginalizes transgender and nonbinary students, creating an environment that can feel exclusionary and unsafe.
The Rev. Natalie Chamberlain is the pastor at Hilton Christian Church. She’s attended school board meetings for several years to speak out against the model policies public school systems were encouraged to adopt under Youngkin’s administration.
“It is about time that you, as a board, get on the right side of history, even if getting on the right side of the ethical issue isn’t an important issue for you,” Chamberlain told the Newport News School Board in February. She’s made a point to attend and speak at most school board meetings about the same topic since then.
The controversy surrounding transgender student policies in Newport News is not new. In August 2021, the school board initially voted against adopting state-recommended guidelines related to the treatment of transgender students in public schools created under former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam.
Those 2021 policies allowed students to choose their preferred pronouns without proof of any particular biological sex or gender identity, and allowed the use of bathrooms that corresponded with the student’s “consistently asserted gender identity.”
Newport News’ decision sparked immediate backlash from advocacy groups and community members, leading the board to reverse course just days later.
In 2023, Youngkin’s administration drafted guidelines that dictated which bathrooms transgender students could use at school, which sports team trans students could participate in and how schools should handle students who wish to go by a different name.
His administration’s policies required most students to use their biological sex to make those determinations, unless they had proof of medical or legal transition.
Several Hampton Roads school districts adopted the policies, believing if they didn’t, they would be in violation of state law. In November 2023, Procedure JB-P was adopted as a districtwide policy in Newport News.
Since then, the issue has remained a point of tension, and with Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger now in office, some see an opportunity for change.
At the only gubernatorial debate in October 2025 at Norfolk State University, Spanberger was asked if she would consider rescinding Youngkin’s policy on transgender students.
She said, “in each local community, decisions should be made between parents and educators and teachers. In each community, it shouldn’t be dictated by politicians.”
Several speakers at the February Newport News School Board meeting called on district leaders to reverse the policy, arguing that it reflects the priorities of a previous administration rather than the current needs of the students.
“You no longer have a bigoted government in Richmond dictating their conditions on how you write your procedures,” said Jackie Batterson, a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of the Peninsula in Newport News. “The time has come to change the procedure so that our transgender children receive the same rights and respect as every other child in this school system.”
Board members listened without responding directly during public comment and didn’t take any action related to the policy.
Williamsburg-James City County, York County, Suffolk, Virginia Beach and Norfolk public school systems all adopted versions of the Youngkin administration’s model policy in 2023.
Hampton’s adopted policy does not require teachers to share a student’s gender identity with parents if there is fear for their safety.
Newport News School Board Chairman Terri Best said the board is not planning to add procedure JB-P to the school board’s agenda.
Newport News Public Schools is a member of the Hampton Roads Educational Telecommunications Association, which holds WHRO’s license.
