VA: State Senator Pens Anti-Trans Op-Ed

VA State Senator Frank Ruff, from his website

via Farmville Herald, a biweekly regional newspaper in VA.

What Happened: VA State Senator Frank Ruff wrote a viciously anti-transgender op-ed entitled “Let’s talk about transgender politics.”

Here’s some flavor of what sort of “talk” this is:

Perhaps the most incendiary section is the part where Ruff accuses parents of trans youth of mutilation and hating their own children.

Ruff references a false story about a girl attacked in a Loudon County girls’ bathroom, which was debunked by Michelle Goldberg in the New York Times (the girl in question was attacked by a boy she’d been dating, not by a transgender girl).

Ruff calls for a complete ban on gender affirming healthcare for minors, regardless of parental consent. He calls to ban schools from using nicknames for trans youth without parental consent. He seems to further imply that transgender children should be prevented from wearing their preferred clothing or using a preferred name at school even with parental consent. and perhaps that parents of trans youth who affirm should be investigated for child abuse.