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Organizations to hold rally in support of transgender students in Chesapeake

Parents, students and community members are coming together to support Chesapeake Public Schools' transgender bathroom policy.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Several organizations are pushing for equality within the Chesapeake Public Schools school division. 

They're holding a rally Monday afternoon at 5 p.m. to support Virginia's transgender policy in Chesapeake.

Blaizen Bloom is one of many organizers who plan to rally for the rights of transgender students at the event.

"It's not just rallying for this, but it's also supporting our trans community and supporting our trans students and showing that we support them," they said.

This comes as the Chesapeake School Board reviews Virginia's transgender policy. The policy calls for gender-neutral bathrooms and locker rooms and programs to help transgender students.

At the school board's last meeting on July 26, the board postponed taking any action after many spoke out against the policy.

"As a result, we as parents, as students and community members, wanted to show up, just as they did in that meeting, to make sure we can get that legislation passed through our school board," Bloom said.

13News Now reached out to the school board chair and the communications department to get answers on why they delayed the vote. By Monday at noon, the station was still waiting to hear back.

The board did make revisions to their Harassment and Discrimination policy, adding transgender and sexual orientation to the list. It will help prevent bullying and harassment toward identifying students.

"I think it's a start," Bloom said. "I would disagree that that is the absolute most we can do to support our trans students."

Bloom is confident the policy will pass; it's just a matter of when.

"Chesapeake isn't a city that's likely to go against the state mandate," they said. "We've seen this time and time again. They like to do symbolic acts but at the end of the day they past state mandates."

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