# Virginia Governor Spanberger's Office Withholds Every Record on Dropping the Girls' Sports Rule, Citing Executive Privilege and Attorney-Client Privilege, OutKick Reports

OutKick says the governor's office refused a records request on why the Board of Health withdrew a Youngkin-era effort to keep males out of female sports. Fewer than 100 documents were withheld. A narrower request found no records.

- Section: [Culture](https://rightnewsrightnow.com/culture/)
- Published: 2026-11-05
- By: RightNewsRightNow Staff
- Canonical page: https://rightnewsrightnow.com/articles/spanberger-office-withholds-records-dropped-womens-sports-petition-foia-executive-privilege-board-of-health-youngkin-outkick-fox-news/

A public records request about a Virginia sports rule has run into a wall, OutKick reports.

What happened. OutKick's Jackson Thompson says Gov. Abigail Spanberger's office is withholding every record it found in response to a Freedom of Information Act request about the decision to drop a rule-making effort that would have kept males out of women's and girls' sports. The office cited executive privilege, attorney-client privilege and a state exemption for the governor's working papers and correspondence. It wrote that "the volume of records being withheld is less than 100 documents, including many duplicates."

The second request. OutKick then filed a narrower request for emails from employees other than the officials covered by the governor's exemption. The office replied that, after reasonable inquiry, "the requested records could not be found or do not exist."

The rule. The Virginia State Board of Health withdrew the petition on July 30. It would have limited male participation in organized female teams and competitions and in designated spaces where women or girls could be undressed. OutKick says the petition was filed in April 2025 by Réka György, Lily Mullens and Carter Satterfield, and the board approved it 14 to 0 that August. Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin's administration advanced the notice, which cleared review Oct. 28, 2025, and was published Nov. 17. Public comment ended Dec. 17. It never got past that early stage.

The explanation. The withdrawal notice, published Aug. 24, said only: "Upon review of statutory authority, the State Board of Health is not proceeding with this regulatory action." In September, Spanberger told Radio IQ: "There's no legal authority to move forward with rulemaking and prior administrations may have tried to create lanes, and we're not doing that." OutKick notes that the agency's original background paper had cited Virginia's public health statutes as the basis, while also flagging enforcement authority and capacity as issues.

The law. OutKick says Virginia lets the governor's office withhold qualifying records, that the exemption is discretionary unless another law bars release, and that the law requires release of non-exempt portions. It says the office's reply did not say whether any records could be released in part.

Why it matters here. The dispute is about whether the public can see how a decision was made. Virginia law lets the office withhold these records, and OutKick does not argue that it broke the law. The story is about what the office chose to do with that discretion.

What we could not check. We read OutKick's article, not the FOIA letters. We did not ask Spanberger's office for comment, and OutKick's article, as we saw it, carries no further response from it beyond the FOIA replies and her earlier radio comments. OutKick is Fox's sports and culture brand and the author is its reporter.

## Source

Original reporting: [Fox News (OutKick)](https://www.foxnews.com/outkick-sports/jackson-thompson-spanbergers-office-refuses-hand-over-emails-decision-drop-womens-sports-petition)