Blue State Governor Rolls Back Predecessor’s Proposed Regulations Protecting Girls’ Sports

Virginia’s Democratic governor scrapped a proposed rule shielding girls’ sports from biological males and told almost no one.

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Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s administration pulled the proposed regulation on July 30, 2026, ending a rulemaking effort started under her Republican predecessor, Glenn Youngkin, according to OutKick. The rule would have barred biological males from female athletic teams and from female-designated areas such as locker rooms and bathrooms. It had cleared the public comment stage but never became final.

No press release went out. No social media post announced it. The withdrawal instead appeared on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall site, which recorded the action as withdrawn after the comment window closed, OutKick reported. Local broadcaster WJLA confirmed the governor gave no formal notice, describing the change as buried on a government page few people visit. The public caught on roughly six weeks later. (RELATED: Trans Player Dominates French Women’s Basketball League, Is Open To WNBA Bid: REPORT)

Spanberger later gave a reason. She consulted Attorney General Jay Jones’ office and determined the Board of Health had no legal standing to issue the rule, according to TransVitae. “There’s no legal authority to move forward with rulemaking,” she said after speaking at Virginia Pridefest in Richmond, where she grew emotional discussing transgender residents and their families. Allies told Radio IQ that her team hoped to sidestep another political brawl, TransVitae reported.

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The decision undid a petition brought in April 2025 by swimmers Réka György, Lily Mullens and Carter Satterfield, who asked the Board of Health to keep male athletes out of women’s competition and private spaces. The board backed them 14-0 in August 2025 after fielding more than 2,300 public comments, WFMD reported.

György, a Hungarian Olympian who swam against transgender athlete Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships, criticized the reversal in an interview with WFMD. “It’s really sad for me because I had the petition filed a year ago, and Youngkin approved it and wanted to take the next step and protect female athletes and female spaces in Virginia,” she said. She suspects the quiet handling was deliberate. “I have a feeling that she’s afraid of the backlash of people, what they’re going to say or think,” György said.

Equality Virginia and the group He She Ze and We praised the withdrawal, TransVitae reported.

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