PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WAVY) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia has filed two lawsuits against the Virginia Department of Education over Governor Glenn Youngkin’s policies for transgender and nonbinary students.

The ACLU is trying to get the courts to have Youngkin’s 2023 policies vacated, and rule that districts don’t have to adopt them.

One suit was filed on behalf of a transgender high school student in the York County Public School system. The other was on behalf of a transgender middle schooler at Hanover County Public Schools who wasn’t allowed to participate on a girls’ sports team.

“In both cases, we argue that the 2023 Model Policies do not comply with the 2020 state law requiring VDOE to develop model policies ensuring inclusive and equitable treatment of transgender and nonbinary students in Virginia public schools,” the ACLU wrote.

“These cases reflect the real-life impacts that VDOE’s misguided Model Policies are having on students across the Commonwealth,” they added. “We are asking the courts to vacate the 2023 Model Policies and to rule that school districts do not have to adopt them.”

The original policies adopted in 2021 under Democrat Gov. Ralph Northam, but were revised under Youngkin, a Republican, creating a wave of backlash from LGBTQ+ students and advocates across the commonwealth. Many districts, including York and Hanover, have adopted the policies, while others (Arlington, Fairfax and Richmond) have not.

“In 2021 after consulting with psychologists, educators, LGBTQ+ advocates, parents, and students themselves, VDOE issued evidence-based guidance that reflected best practices for the inclusion and protection of transgender students. But after Gov. Youngkin was sworn into office in 2022, VDOE proposed revising its model policies, reversing its guidance on matters like name and pronoun usage, facilities access, and participation in sex-segregated activities,” the ACLU says. “Unlike the 2021 model policies, the department’s final 2023 policies do not recognize LGBTQ+ students as a protected class, and focus not on the rights of students, but of parents.”

Both students are not named due to concerns for their safety. The York student, “Jane Doe,” is a high schooler who had at least one teacher who refused to address her by her correct first name, the ACLU says.

“Because of VDOE’s 2023 model policies, Doe’s school said it had to allow such mistreatment of transgender students. To escape being singled out and disrespected in the classroom, Doe was offered no remedy other than to rearrange her entire class schedule.”

When asked for comment, a Virginia Department of Education spokesperson said they had not yet received copies of the lawsuits and could not discuss ongoing litigation.

You can read both lawsuits in their entirety here.