Welcome to episode 11 of The Spectrum. This was recorded on February 14, 2025. Most of this episode will deal with recent events in Shenandoah County but before I get to that I want to mention some news that came out on the afternoon of the 13th.

According to The Washington Post and other news outlets, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order banning gender affirming care for people under 19. We looked at this ban in episode 6. This is another example of a judge saying Trump overstepped his authority. It’s only a temporary restraining order and this won’t be the final word on the subject, but medical providers should be able to resume care if they had stopped. Hopefully we’ll have good news to report there soon also.

Now, let’s turn to the events of the Shenandoah County School Board meeting from February 13th. Back in episode 1, I reported that the board had unanimously  voted on a change to policy INB: Teaching About Controversial Issues that basically made gender identity a taboo subject in the school system. It could not be taught and no school personnel were allowed to talk about it.

We wrote letters about this and though we got no feedback, it’s possible that it had some impact.  At the February meeting, they introduced another proposed change to this policy. Teaching about it is still taboo, but they want to add this paragraph:

School administrators, counselors, student support specialists, social workers, and psychologists may respond to student inquiries about gender and gender identity in an age-appropriate, factual, and neutral manner. Staff members should provide information without promoting personal beliefs or advocating for any particular viewpoint. Discussions should remain within the scope of professional responsibilities and align with the school’s curriculum and policies.

Overall, this is an improvement. It allows for a student to reach out for help. And, it appears to be phrased in a way to allow a student to be connected to the necessary resources. I do wish that it included teachers in that list. At the February meeting, I and many others spoke about this. We think the January changes should be revoked entirely, especially since it misdefines gender identity, but this proposed change is a meaningful improvement. Not an ideal one, but a meaningful one. 

The board did discuss and vote on the proposed change to policy GBAB/JFHAB: Privacy, Dignity, and Respect for All Students and Parents In Shenandoah County Public Schools. The change, proposed by school board member Gloria Carlineo, would have removed the sections describing how parents could inform the school of the name and pronouns for their own children.

Ten people, including me, spoke out agains this change. One of the people who spoke was an unexpected ally in this. Only one person spoke in favor of the change. He spoke in overtly Christian rhetoric. I’m not sure why people like to cherry pick sentences from the Bible, take them out of context and then expect other people to agree with them. First, he is entitled to his view. But, he is not entitled to force that view on other people.

Gloria’s stated justification for this was court cases in other jurisdictions and Donald Trump’s executive orders. She claimed that removing the policy would somehow make the policy more clear, something which even her own colleagues seemed to find incredulous. She claimed it would still let parents notify the school but the policy would only allow students to be referred to by the name on official records if it had been implemented. She appeared to be lying to the board.

In the end, the vote went against her 3 to 2. Voting no were chairman Dennis Barlow along with Larry Vance and Kyle Gutshall. Gloria Carlineo and Mike Rickard were the yes votes. I am, and the members of PFLAG Woodstock who spoke out against this change are extremely grateful that this change was not implemented. Actually, when the board entered the room at the start of the meeting, Carlineo had a very unhappy look on her face so it seems likely she knew she was going to lose this vote. I can’t say how much influence our efforts to educate the board had, but I can’t deny that it felt good to hear those “no” votes.

One school board member was not present. I’m not clear on what would have happened if he had been there and voted yes, making it a 3-3 tie. Does the superintendent break ties or is a tie a failure? I’ve no idea and thankfully, we didn’t have to find out tonight.

It isn’t all clear sailing, though. The chairman seemed to only be a ‘no’ vote because he didn’t want to the school system to be “leading the train” in an apparent reference to complying with Trump’s executive orders. He seems to think that events in Washington will shake out in such a way that in the not too distant future, the school board could more safely revisit this. Carlineo also indicated that this issue would be back soon.

So, it’s clear that while we had a victory yesterday, the school board will probably be revisiting this again. This will probably depend on what happens with the courts to Trump’s transgender bans. If he wins, it is likely the board will quickly jump on it. This is an issue that is both very local and very national at the same time. We must keep our focus on both.

Still, any victory is a reason to celebrate, and we had two! Yesterday was more validation that the Project 2025 agenda can be thwarted. We have a long haul ahead of us but let’s let events like this motivate us to keep working to protect all of us, whatever letters we use to describe ourselves.

 If you have an experience of LGBT life you would like to share, you can contact me at spectrumpodcast@gmail.com. Take care and stay safe.

Washington Post article on the temporary restraining order on Trump's ban: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/02/13/trump-transgender-health-care-youth-lawsuit/

Current state of policy INB in Shenandoah County Schools: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/shenandoah/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DCXNPP60AC27

The proposed change to INB: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/shenandoah/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DDEVWT82C817

Current policy GBAB/JFHAB: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/shenandoah/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=D4DPZZ671EF7

Proposed change to GBAB/JFHAB that failed: https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/shenandoah/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=DCS3AF05EB60

WHSV coverage of the school board meeting: https://www.whsv.com/2025/02/14/shenandoah-county-public-schools-votes-3-2-against-gender-identity-policy-amendments/

The Spectrum – Trump;s Third Transgender Ban (gender affirming care for people under 19): https://spectrumpodcast.org/2025/02/03/episode-6-trumps-third-transgender-ban-no-gender-affirming-care-for-young-people/