Key Republican leaders have Fairfax County in their sights over a proposal that would introduce instruction on gender identity at an elementary school level.
Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and a close ally of Donald Trump, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) shared a video of a parent who said they didn’t want to send their child to Fairfax County Public Schools as a result of the possible change.
The video features Fairfax resident Caleigh Weichbrodt and her son at a public meeting in February:
My husband and I have a difficult decision to make this fall as [her son] is approaching preschool age and we are faced with a decision of whether or not we are going to put our child in a public school system, where Fairfax County has decided to move forward with instituting gender studies in elementary school despite having done a focus group in the community to see if parents wanted this.
Last month, the Trump administration targeted transgender and nonbinary people with executive orders banning them from military service, only recognizing male and female genders on government documents and more.
The U.S. Department of Education, which the White House is in the process of gutting, also recently opened investigations into FCPS and other Northern Virginia school districts in response to a complaint about their policies accommodating students based on their gender identity.
Elon Musk, who shared the video on his social network X (formerly Twitter) without comment, recently blamed trans people for attacks on his vehicle company Tesla and has publicly feuded with his trans daughter.
Last June, the Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously to accept recommended changes to the district’s sex education curriculum, known as Family Life Education (FLE). Among the changes was the addition of a PBS video explaining puberty for seventh-grade students that acknowledges the existence of transgender, nonbinary and agender people.
The board also directed the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee to explore whether to teach gender identity in elementary schools. The committee discussed the topic at three meetings late last year, but its meetings in January and February were canceled, and the school board voted to disband it on March 13.
In the video, Weichbrodt said gender and other topics “should be handled sensitively and introduced by parents” rather than in schools.
“[FCPS] sees parents not as partners, but as obstacles for their agenda,” Weichbrodt said.
Youngkin, who has closely aligned himself with Trump and expressed support for abolishing the Department of Education, suggested that people have been moving out of Fairfax due to FCPS’ “radical ideology.” A report earlier this year cited housing prices as the leading factor driving young families away.
Youngkin also criticized Fairfax County for having “high taxes and protecting criminals over victims,” noting that the county is currently grappling with a nearly $300 million budget deficit. The Board of Supervisors voted last week to advertise tax increases but has argued that the state could help ease the tax burden by contributing more funding to localities, particularly for public schools.
In his post, Youngkin encouraged Fairfax residents to vote out the current Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and School Board members, who are all Democrats with the exception of longtime Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity.
“Elections have consequences, and Fairfax citizens’ vote matters — time to change school boards and supervisory boards,” Youngkin wrote.
The supervisors and school board were elected in November 2023.
Fairfax County has more people moving away than moving in while the rest of Virginia has successfully reversed a decade of net outmigration. Parents Matter, and Fairfax continues to ignores them, thrusting radical ideology on parents and students while piling on high taxes and… https://t.co/GBDq8NCJrv
— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) March 25, 2025
