Virginia Waives Speech Code As SCOTUS Reviews Gender Ideology Cases

Before the Supreme Court can review the constitutionality of Colorado’s ban on minors receiving talk therapy to treat unwanted same-sex attraction or gender confusion, which nearly half of states have imposed, the blue state that elected Republican Glenn Youngkin its governor in the parental rights wave of the early 2020s has given up on its own five-year-old ban.

Henrico County Circuit Court approved a consent decree between the Virginia Department of Health Professions and its Virginia Board of Counseling and Christian counseling couple John and Janet Raymond, who practice at the far end of Washington, D.C.’s exurbs, recognizing that the Old Dominion cannot enforce the ban under its founding document.

The decree cites the Virginia Supreme Court’s reinstatement of a lawsuit by Christian teacher Peter Vlaming, fired for refusing to use a student’s preferred pronouns, which affirmed the state constitution’s religious freedom protections exceed those of the U.S. Constitution. Vlaming got a $575,000 settlement from the West Point School Board nine months later.

Another set of Virginia teachers who sued their district for the same protection against compelled pronoun use reached a settlement in December 2024 influenced by the Vlaming ruling. Years earlier, the state’s high court reinstated another anti-preferred pronoun teacher, Loudoun County’s Tanner Cross, under state and U.S. constitutions.

The settlement furthers the legal momentum against gender ideology that has accelerated in just the past three weeks due to moves by SCOTUS.