Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's administration withdrew a proposed regulation that would have barred biological males from participating in female-only athletic teams and competitions across the state, ending a rulemaking process initiated under former Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. The withdrawal took effect July 30, 2026. No news release accompanied the decision, and the administration made no public announcement.
The change surfaced on the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall website, which lists the proposed rules as "withdrawn on 07/30/2026 after the comment period had ended." OutKick contacted Spanberger's office seeking an explanation. No response had been received at time of publication.
How the rulemaking began
The process traces to April 2025. Female athletes Réka György, Lily Mullens, and Carter Satterfield filed a petition with the Virginia State Board of Health seeking regulations that would bar biological males from female-only athletic teams and competitions, and from female-designated spaces where women and girls were likely to be in a state of undress. The athletes argued that the participation of biological males in women's sports and their access to female spaces created physical and psychological harms for women and girls. The Board of Health voted 14-0 in August 2025 to approve the petition and authorized the state to begin drafting the rules.
What the withdrawal changes
The proposed regulation, if finalized, would have established a regulatory framework separate from existing guidance. Virginia's Department of Education had already issued model policies under Youngkin in 2023 directing public schools to separate athletic teams and intimate facilities on the basis of biological sex. The Virginia High School League updated its eligibility policy in February 2025 to restrict girls' sports participation to students whose biological sex is female. The organization oversees most public high school athletic competitions in the state.
Implementation of those Department of Education policies has varied considerably across school divisions, a gap that has been sharpest in Northern Virginia, where disputes over bathrooms, locker rooms, pronouns, and parental notification have produced repeated conflicts between state officials and local school boards. The Board of Health action was intended to create a distinct regulatory layer covering organized female sports and sex-separated spaces statewide. With the July 30 withdrawal, no remaining actions are listed under the proposed regulatory chapter.