This op-ed was written by Carrie Lukas, a mother of five, resident of Fairfax County, and member of Independent Women’s Network. Originally appeared in Fairfax County Times.
Fifty-eight-year-old Virginia resident Richard Cox has been sent to prison five times. In 1992, he was indicted for entering a school gymnasium and masturbating in front of children. In the last few years, Cox has claimed to identify as a woman. He changed his Virginia driver’s license to “female” and asserted his right to use women’s facilities. As a result, as one horrified Virginia mother detailed, he was allowed to expose himself in a Virginia public high school bathroom and watch young girls change for swim class.
Do my fellow Virginians think that Richard Cox should be allowed into girls’ changing rooms and disrobe around young girls?
It’s really not a hard question to answer. But somehow, some candidates to represent us in Congress and in Richmond refuse to say whether they support Richard Cox’s right to expose himself in school bathrooms or if they support protecting the safety and privacy of women and girls.
James Walkinshaw has been asked numerous times to comment on this issue, specifically regarding Richard Cox, and has declined to do so. Walkinshaw is running in a special election for the 11th Congressional District in Virginia. If he enters Congress, he will vote on legislation to keep men out of women’s sports, prisons, and other private places. Shouldn’t he clarify his stance on issues like this? Walkinshaw has refused to answer these questions during this campaign, but we know that as a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, he enthusiastically embraced policies allowing people to select the facility that matches their declared gender identity. In other words, Walkinshaw explicitly championed the very policies that allowed Richard Cox to enter that girls’ locker room.
Gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger has also dodged questions about Richard Cox and whether men like him should be allowed into girls’ locker rooms, including in public schools. Yet her record is also crystal clear. As a member of Congress, she consistently voted against bills that would have preserved Title IX sex-based protections and ensured that women’s sports and spaces, including locker rooms, are reserved for women only and predators like Richard Cox are kept out.
Contrast that with their Republican opponents. Stewart Whitson, who is running against Walkinshaw for the 11th district, and Gubernatorial candidate Winsome Sears haven’t had any trouble answering on this issue. Of course, they oppose letting men into women’s sports and spaces. Stewart Whitson is a former FBI agent, a father of five young children currently attending schools in Virginia, and has emphatically stated that one of the reasons he is seeking office is to stand up for common-sense policies, such as keeping men out of women’s spaces. Winsome Sears has been equally vocal.
Undoubtedly, apologists for Walkinshaw and Spanberger—if they are willing to speak about this subject—would likely say that, of course, they don’t want registered sex offenders and convicted criminals like Cox to abuse the system. They only want men and boys who really identify as women to access women’s locker rooms. However, they are unlikely to offer any solutions for how to enforce that distinction. They want Virginians to trust that, somehow, the authorities in our schools and in these facilities will be able to identify those men who sincerely believe they are women and those who are just using gender identity as a fig leaf to shower next to your daughter.
Do you trust them?
I don’t. I have five children of my own, and my daughter is currently enrolled in Fairfax County Public Schools. Fairfax County school officials are currently demonstrating that they are so committed to allowing men into women’s spaces that they will jeopardize $160 million in federal funding. They are very, very worried that Richard Cox or some other male claiming a female identity will be made uncomfortable by having to use a facility based on his sex. They aren’t so worried, apparently, about the consequences for women and girls if another Richard Cox slips through the cracks of the system.
There is a better solution. I feel confident that FCPS and Virginia leaders could find ways to accommodate trans-identifying community members—like finding single-use bathrooms—that would be sensitive to their needs but prioritize the safety of women and girls. That seems to me like the common-sense solution. Why can’t Walkinshaw and Spanberger just say that they too care about women and girls? That they know that women and girls are uniquely vulnerable to exploitation? What is holding them back?
The fact that they refuse to answer speaks volumes.
