On Tuesday, December 5, 2023 at 11:45 a.m., League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, VA hosted Virginia Tech professor Dr Courtney Thomas for our December First Tuesday Talk. She discussed the impact of a recent US Supreme Court ruling weakening discrimination protection for LGBTQ+ individuals as well as on the Youngkin administration’s education guidelines affecting trans students’ rights.

Dr. Courtney I. P. Thomas is a Collegiate  Assistant Professor in Virginia Tech’s Department of Political Science where she also serves as the Acting Director of Undergraduate Studies. Her research and teaching emphasize mass political violence, political economy, international relations, queer politics, and public policy.

The Supreme Court ruled in June in favor of a Christian web designer in Colorado who refused to create websites to celebrate same-sex weddings out of religious objections. News analysts called the ruling “a devastating blow to LGBTQ protections… .”

Dr. Thomas will also share her research insights on guidelines issued by the Youngkin Administration in July involving transgender students. The guidelines directed public schools to limit some school systems’ accommodations for trans students and mandated disclosures to parents of a student’s gender identity discussions with school officials.

Featured image by Senate Democrats, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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