Teen girl urges adults to stop being 'cowardly,' protect kids by speaking out against trans policies
A teenage girl whose comments before the Loudoun County School Board in Virginia went viral explained why she felt called to speak out.
Jolene Grover, 14, told members of the school board last week that their policy of allowing males into girls' private spaces, such as restrooms and locker rooms, is an affront to female students.
Sporting a green T-shirt that read “Woman is female,” the now-homeschooled student who was previously enrolled in a Louden County public school told the board members: “Everyone knows what a boy is — even you.”
"Your policies are dangerous and rooted in sexism. Boys are reading erotica in the classrooms next to girls, and you want to give them access to girls’ locker rooms, and you want to force girls to call those boys ‘she,’" she said in her remarks, as reported by the New York Post.
“You do this in the name of inclusivity while ignoring the girls who will pay the price. Your policies choose boys’ wants over girls’ needs."
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She also recounted that when she expressed concern to a guidance counselor about the policies, she was dismissed and told there are stalls in the bathroom.
Jolene said in an email to The Christian Post on Monday that though she is no longer a student in the public school system, she spoke out because she is especially concerned for her friends who are still there, particularly one who is starting sixth grade in the fall.
“I've known her for years, and she is like a little sister to me. I also speak out because there are too many cowardly adults who are remaining quiet about this issue. I want adults to stop calling me brave for fighting a battle that wasn't mine to begin with,” Jolene said.
“They need to speak out publicly about this issue, not just whisper to their friends and other people who agree with them that boys shouldn't be allowed in the girls' locker rooms and bathrooms. Some of my friends still enrolled in LCPS have spoken to me about their concern with these policies, but they are also too afraid to speak out,” she added.
Her mother, Nastassia, who has written previously about gender identity ideology and how it threatens women’s rights, told CP in a separate email Monday that it's important for people to boldly voice their objections.
“Outrage is important. It motivates people to speak out and to fight for what they believe in. Righteous indignation leaves no room for fear,” she said.
She added that the only solution to fix these problems is for conservative-leaning parents to remove their children from the schools. The Democratic Party is "a lost cause" on the issue, she maintained, adding that parents don't stand a chance to win unless the Republicans make a generous school choice policy a part of their platform and act on it.
“The GOP must become the party of the common, moral working man and must do it now,” she stressed, noting that this is an issue where the conservative party will either show itself to be “the controlled opposition party that only exists to lose” or the only party that exists to fight for families and for girls’ most basic rights to privacy and dignity.
The Loudoun County mother also believes that the school system will be doubling down hard on mandatory preferred pronoun use and mixed-sex bathrooms and locker rooms, and believes state and national LGBT activist groups are driving this push.
“The puppet masters pulling the strings — such as Equality Virginia and the Human Rights Campaign — are too financially and politically powerful to ignore. They are not going to let all their hard work in Richmond go to waste because a few outspoken Christians don’t want to be complicit in lies and child abuse,” she said.
“Who Virginians elect, or have elected for them, in November and in other consequential elections will determine the final trajectory of the state. Do we continue on as Maryland-lite, or do we try to become New California, or do we turn back the madness and protect our most basic fundamental rights?”
Jolene’s words come on the heels of coach Tanner Cross, an LCPS employee, who made comments at a similar forum last month when he said he would not “affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa because it's against my religion.”
“It's lying to a child, it's abuse to a child, and it's sinning against our God."
Because of his remarks, he was subsequently placed on administrative leave, but then he filed a lawsuit and won at the Virginia state circuit court, which ruled that he must be reinstated.
