Clement, Rives Call Out Nonprofit For Distorting Responses To Survey

ARLINGTON, VA — Two Arlington County candidates on the Nov. 5 ballot claimed Thursday that Equality Arlington misrepresented their responses to a recent Arlington Gender Identity Allies questionnaire.

On Tuesday, Equality Arlington, a nonprofit that advocates for the county's LGBTQ+ community, released a statement criticizing comments Arlington County School Board candidate James “Vell” Rives made about his LGBTQ+ policy positions.

Responding to a questionnaire from the parents of transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive students in Arlington Public Schools, Rives said the school system should follow the 2023 Model Policies from the Youngkin administration, according to Equality Arlington.

On Thursday, Rives refuted Equality Arlington’s accusation, saying the organization mischaracterized him and his responses.

“Equality Arlington distorts my words to the point of being unrecognizable,” Rives said, in a release. “I invite voters to read the actual questionnaire from Arlington Gender Identity Allies (AGIA), which is posted on my website.”

As an example of what he called a mischaracterization, the school board candidate pointed to the statement that "Rives repeatedly states that APS should follow the Youngkin Administration’s 2023 Model Policies."

Rives disagreed with that and Equality Arlington’s decision not to include his full answer, seen below:

"The DOE guidelines frequently defer to legal precedent and the Constitution, so right now, there is only one area where I find the current APS J-2 PIP-2 in contradiction with the DOE (see question 3). With state guidelines like these, it is often unclear how legally binding the provisions are upon a local entity like APS. That said, I believe APS should comply with local, Federal, and Virginia law and any executive orders that carry the full force of the law, without regard to which party is in power in Richmond or Washington."

A post on AGIA’s Facebook page summarizes the same video, saying that Rives "claim[s] that most transgender kids de-transition."

This was untrue, according to Rives, adding that there was no corresponding language in his comments to match those statements.

"I said that gender dysphoria is usually temporary,” Rives said, responding to the Facebook post. “I have never said that most transgender kids de-transition."

"I am disappointed that AGIA employed a candidate questionnaire so that voters can compare and decide themselves, but then felt compelled to weigh in and make untrue statements about me," he said. "Again, I invite voters to see what I have actually written and said. I stand behind it."

Arlington County Board candidate Audrey Clement also objected to Equality Arlington's release. She submitted the following comment to Patch on Thursday:

"On Oct. 21, 2024 Patch ran an article reporting that Equality Arlington accused me of blaming 'the danger [of recent bomb threats at Freddie's Beach Bar] on those receiving the threats.'

"This is patently false, as evident from my own words, which Patch itself reported in the same article as follows: 'Likewise gay bars should adopt policies that limit attendance at drag events to an adult audience. Screening attendance at drag events should in turn discourage provocations from opponents of gay rights.'

"Nowhere do my comments blame gays for the violence visited upon them. Rather my position is that gays could limit hostilities directed at them by limiting drag performances to adult audiences, just as adult bookstores are encouraged to limit their clientele to adults.

"I would appreciate it if you publish my rebuttal to Equality Arlington's smear."

Clement added that a retraction from Equality Arlington for its "mischaracterization" of her response to its survey was also in order.

Patch shared both Rives and Clement's concerns with Equality Arlington and requested a response. This is the statement Patch received:

"Equality Arlington encourages voters to research each of the candidates for Arlington County Board and School Board to make an informed vote for the candidates that best align with their values. We stand behind our statements released earlier this week and hope that the candidates who received low grades or messages of concern will work to better understand and support the LGBTQ+ community in Arlington. In both our statements on the County Board candidates and a particular School Board candidate, we provided links to the candidate questionnaires and other supporting information so voters could make their own decisions about candidates’ values and assess Equality Arlington's conclusions. If candidates do not like what we said, we encourage them to adopt better policy positions that would support and uplift LGBTQ+ residents."

The following is the full text of the statement Equality Arlington released on Tuesday:

Equality Arlington is concerned by recent statements from Arlington School Board candidate, James “Vell” Rives, regarding his anti-LGBTQ+ policy positions. In Rives’s responses to a questionnaire from parents of transgender, nonbinary, and gender expansive students in Arlington Public Schools (APS), Rives repeatedly states that APS should follow the Youngkin Administration’s 2023 Model Policies. The model policies, widely condemned by LGBTQ+ advocates as harmful to students and contrary to the Virginia statute which authorized their creation, would:

Force school employees to “out” students to their families, potentially creating unsafe environments for LGBTQ+ students and making it harder for students to be their true selves at school.

Allow school employees to bully students by refusing to use their correct pronouns or names.

Place additional burdens on parents and transgender students who want their school to recognize their correct name and gender.

Rives also states that a student’s sex, not gender identity, should solely determine participation in girls’ or boys’ sports teams. This policy would lead to exclusion and suffering for transgender, intersex, and gender expansive students. It is noteworthy that in his responses to the questionnaire’s five questions, not once does he use the term transgender even though the questionnaire is focused specifically on transgender students.

Equality Arlington also reviewed Rives’s public comment to the Arlington School Board at the April 11, 2019, meeting, where he advocated that schools should push students with gender dysphoria to conform to their birth sex, a suggestion that is at odds with best practices of the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, the Endocrine Society, and the World Health Organization.

Taken together, Rives’s policy stances on LGBTQ+ students are a significant step backward from existing APS policy and betray a worldview that seeks to minimize and disappear transgender students. His policies have the potential to significantly harm LGBTQ+ students who already experience higher rates of bullying, depressive symptoms, and sexual harassment than their heterosexual or cisgender peers (2019 Community Report Card on the Status of Children, Youth, and Families).

We do agree with Rives’s statement that APS must implement more effective anti-bullying protections. Equality Arlington continues to hear reports from transgender students and parents of transgender students that their peers harass and bully them because of their gender identity and APS staff do little to nothing about it. However, refusing to recognize that a student is transgender, forcing APS to implement the Youngkin Administration’s anti-LGBTQ+ Model Policies, and making critical decisions about a student’s school experience based on political dogma instead of the medical community’s best practices will do nothing to reduce bullying and only make life worse for LGBTQ+ students. We hope that Rives will reconsider his harmful policy positions and that voters will consider these when casting their ballots in the 2024 Arlington School Board election.

Early voting began Friday, September 20th and continues through Saturday, November 2nd. Election Day is Tuesday, November 5th (polls open 6am-7pm). For more information about voting, please go to Elections – Arlington County VA Voting and Elections (arlingtonva.gov)