During the Younkin administration, some members of the state’s LGBTQ+ Advisory Board claimed they were pushed out of their positions over ideological and political differences. Another resigned after his comments on social media were criticized for being regressive.
In March, Gov. Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, appointed 8 new members to the board — a 21-person panel established in 2021 that’s among five identity-based boards that advise the governor.
Demas Boudreaux was previously the LGBTQ+ panel’s chairperson, serving in both Democratic and Republican administrations.
“The board exists to speak truth to power,” he said about the group’s work. “The boards exist to represent the interests of these historically marginalized communities to the executive branch to inform policy making that flows from the executive branch and state agencies.”
Among the LGBTQ+ panels’ duties is compiling a yearly report that identifies key issues and makes recommendations for how the state can move forward. Since the first report was filed in 2022, there’s been a consistent refrain: LGBTQ+ children experience homelessness and mental health issues at a higher rate than their peers.
The 2025 iteration of the report also included reference to the Trump administration and its effects “acutely felt by trans members of our community, many of whom have expressed fear in the current climate to be and live their lives as themselves.”
Boudreaux’s written introduction continued: “I urge respect and the maintenance of a safe environment for all members of the LGBTQ+ community. A healthy, safe environment for not only LGBTQ+, but all Virginians will continue to ensure Virginia’s place as a national leader for the next 250 years.”
During Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s term, LGBTQ+ issues weren’t at the forefront of state policy, though the Republican administration published school guidelines that rolled back protections for trans youth.
Reed Williams, Equality Virginia’s communications director, is among the new Spanberger appointees to the board. She noted that the panel’s previous membership didn’t include many LGBTQ+ women and added that access to health care is among her top priorities.
“I think having that perspective of someone who had access to this care throughout my entire teenage years, and now being an adult and experiencing trans healthcare as an adult,” she said, “it's really so central to me that those voices be heard — that we listen to trans young people, and their parents and their providers, who are just really struggling right now.”
Brandy Faulkner, a Virginia Tech political science professor, said it’s problematic if advisory board recommendations aren’t being heeded.
“I think that this board specifically has brought up the health care component several times — because it's important to the community. And while it is absolutely an issue that affects Virginians more broadly, the way in which the LGBTQ+ community experiences things like healthcare disparities is very different from what we see across the general population,” she said. “To my knowledge, what's been coming out of the General Assembly, that still has yet to be adequately addressed.”
The board’s next meeting is set for May 15; no agenda’s been posted. A March 20 agenda indicated elections for leadership positions are on the horizon.