Inside simply hours of an inquiry from the Day by day Wire, an notorious right-wing web site co-founded by conservative extremist Ben Shapiro, Virginia’s governor quietly eliminated LGBTQ+ youth assets from state web sites.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin continued an obvious sample of quietly eradicating sure well being assets from Virginia web sites by taking down a dozen assets for LGBTQ+ youth simply as Delight Month was about to start.
Information present that these youth assets have been faraway from the state web site after the Day by day Wire, a right-wing extremist media outlet, questioned them. They have been the premise of two headlines, and the web site’s conservative viewers generated a flurry of on-line reactions.
In accordance with the Washington Put up, Youngkin has quietly eliminated well being data from state web sites at the very least 3 times with out consulting his personal consultants on the subjects since taking workplace only a 12 months and a half in the past. All three situations concerned the identical workplace within the Virginia Division of Well being: the Workplace of Household Well being.
The primary occasion occurred in February 2022, when the supervisor of the workplace’s net staff was directed to take away a sure query from the sexual well being FAQ web page. That query was, “The place can I be taught extra about sexual well being and being pregnant/STI prevention?” and the response advisable a web-based chatbot powered by Deliberate Parenthood and two different websites with data catered towards youngsters.
Then in Might 2022, at some point after the draft of the US Supreme Courtroom resolution that overturned Roe v. Wade leaked to the general public, the top of the state’s well being division directed the elimination of an inventory of 5 Virginia-based organizations that may present monetary help for these in search of abortions. A request for the elimination of a definition of reproductive justice – “the human proper to take care of private bodily autonomy, have kids, not have kids, and father or mother the youngsters we have now in secure and sustainable communities” – from the division’s household planning web site was additionally made that day.
Inside emails point out that not one of the consultants on these points employed by the Virginia Division of Well being have been consulted earlier than eradicating these pages and gadgets. One of many division’s administrators particularly expressed concern that these removals have been “in response to a politically motivated inquiry.”
A Youngkin spokesperson claimed that the current resolution to get rid of LGBTQ+ youth assets was a part of the governor’s deal with “mother and father’ rights” and characterised the deleted data as a part of an alleged effort to “sexual[e] kids.”
Equality Virginia, a state LGBTQ+ rights group, decried taking down the assets as “craven and politically motivated.”
“That is a part of a sample with this administration, the place it’s extra essential to enchantment to an anti-LGBTQ+ political base quite than serve LGBTQ+ Virginians in any capability,” stated Narissa Rahaman, the group’s government director.
