With just over two weeks before Virginians head to the polls, a new political ad is drawing national condemnation for what advocates call “dangerous and grotesque lies” about Democratic gubernatorial nominee, former U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger’s record on transgender rights. Spanberger is leading her opponent, Lt. Gov. Winsom Earle-Sears, in all public polls.
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The 30-second spot, funded by the right-wing Restoration of America PAC, begins with ominous music and a woman’s voice declaring, “Abigail Spanberger is as extreme as it gets.”
As she speaks, images of young girls appear in sports uniforms along with an older boy, including one digitally altered to show the same boy, now shirtless and chest-haired, standing among them. “She’d allow boys to play girls’ sports and shower in girls’ locker rooms naked.”
The narrator’s tone sharpens, “Worse? She’s apparently all in on horrifying gender mutilation. And irreversible sterilization of children.”
The ad continues: “Spanberger refuses to answer questions about this because she knows how evil it is. Most of the civilized world bans it. And Spanberger’s silence enables the horror.”
The ad contains no factual basis. There is no evidence that Spanberger has ever supported legislation allowing minors to undergo surgery without parental consent, nor any measure permitting students to “shower naked” across genders.
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Additionally, every major medical association endorses gender-affirming care, including for minors, for transgender patients. Surgical interventions for people under 18 are rare. Experts told The Advocate that the ad’s language mirrors a national disinformation playbook designed to conflate gender identity with child abuse, a tactic that has surged in conservative political messaging over the past two election cycles.
“Ads like these are breathtakingly full of disinformation and a sign of a desperate campaign that’s out of touch with what voters value and want,” a GLAAD spokesperson told The Advocate. “Parents want safe schools and know that grotesque lies and fearmongering do nothing for academic success. Voters have repeatedly shown they want politicians to stay out of private health-care decisions.”
GLAAD said the ad’s creators “dangerously undermine already vulnerable people and make everyone less safe,” adding that similar spots have repeatedly failed to sway elections in Wisconsin, Nebraska, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and more.”
Narissa Rahaman, executive director of Equality Virginia Advocates, said the ad “once again mainstreams disinformation about the trans community to fearmonger, increase anti-trans hate, and normalize bigoted views.”
“Since the start of her campaign for governor, Winsome Earle-Sears has made one thing clear: she is obsessed with punching down on transgender youth, their families, and the broader LGBTQ+ community,” Rahaman told The Advocate in a statement.
She added that 71 percent of Earle-Sears’s digital ad spending has gone toward anti-trans content, far exceeding the share of any other issue in the race. “The Virginia GOP is running a classic fear campaign to make voters so afraid of a group of people in hopes they’ll forget about the real problems they’re dealing with: unaffordable housing, rising grocery costs, and devastating federal job cuts,” Rahaman said.
“If Winsome Earle-Sears loses on Election Day,” she continued, “it should prove that attacking children and families is not a winning strategy. And maybe if she took time to get to know any transgender Virginian, Earle-Sears wouldn’t even believe the same lies she’s trying to sell to voters.”
Laurel Powell, communications director for the Human Rights Campaign, said the ad’s tone and imagery reflect a campaign trying to change the subject from its own record.
“These ads are dangerous, blatant lies created to exploit misinformation about the trans community to further their harmful agenda,” Powell told The Advocate in a statement. “With more than $230,000 spent so far on these advertisements in Virginia, Republicans are desperately trying to distract from their ongoing failure on issues facing Virginians — like the Republican-led government shutdown, the fallout from the disastrous tariff wars, and thousands of people being booted from their jobs to feed Donald Trump’s lust for political vengeance. While they make life harder and more dangerous for transgender people, all Virginians are being robbed of the leadership they need and deserve.”
Spanberger addressed questions about her stance on transgender issues in an interview with ABC affiliate WSET last month.
“So in Virginia, until very recently, we have had a process in place where on an individual, one-by-one basis, schools, principals, parents, coaches were making decisions based on fairness, competitiveness, and safety,” she said.
When asked whether she would support legislation explicitly addressing transgender participation, Spanberger said she would back a bill “that would put clear provisions in place that provide a lot of local ability for input, based on the age of children, based on the type of sport, [and] based on competitiveness.”
“I’m the mom of three daughters in Virginia public schools,” she added. “I recognize the concern that families and community members might have about the safety of their own kids, about competitiveness, about fairness. And I think the process that was in place for 10 years was one that was working.”
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The new spot continues a months-long pattern from the Earle-Sears campaign, which has made transgender issues a central theme.
Earlier, her campaign released a “They/Them” ad claiming Spanberger “wrote the bill” allowing men in girls’ restrooms and asserting she believed “this man has the right to undress next to little girls.” It ended with the line: “Radical Abigail Spanberger is for they/them, not us.”
Another commercial accused Spanberger of wanting to “transform Virginia,” echoing rhetoric used by national right-wing figures and Donald Trump’s former advisers. Equality Virginia called those earlier ads “ripped from the Trump playbook” and “intended to stoke fear and division.”
But the data suggests voters aren’t swayed.
According to The New York Times’ analysis of recent polling, Spanberger has led every public survey since August, by margins ranging from three to 12 points. Even polls conducted by Republican sponsors, including the Trafalgar Group and Cygnal Political, show her ahead.
A Washington Post/George Mason University Schar School poll conducted September 25–29 put Spanberger at 55 percent to Earle-Sears’s 43 percent, while an Emerson College/Hill survey the same week found a 10-point advantage. The average across all polls collected by The Times has Spanberger leading by roughly 8 points, a margin that has remained steady.
“Voters want elected officials and candidates to show how they can improve lives and make our communities and country stronger and safer. Campaigns like this do the exact opposite,” the GLAAD spokesperson said.
Watch the disturbing new ad below.
– YouTube www.youtube.com
This article originally appeared on Advocate: Advocates condemn graphic anti-trans ad targeting leading Virginia gubernatorial candidate Abigail Spanberger
