The Virginia First Foundation turned to the grassroots with a questionnaire designed to yield detailed positions from local government officials and candidates.

The organization found a Lynchburg-area ally when the Campbell County Republican Committee decided Feb. 9 to press the county’s board of supervisors on the definition of sex and its connection to policy.

The organization’s general “yes or no” question comes in the survey’s first line:

“Will you maintain gender specific male and female bathrooms within your jurisdiction?”

The Campbell GOP is among several groups, officials and individuals pushing the issue locally throughout the state after former President Barack Obama’s Title IX-related guidance letter in May and a lawsuit awaiting a U.S. Supreme Court hearing involving a transgender male high school student prohibited from using a restroom at Gloucester County High School.

Campbell County Republican Committee Chairman Eric Zehr — a Campbell County supervisor — plans to submit the questionnaire to his fellow supervisors, he said in an interview last week.

“The gist of it is to get the board of supervisors on the record as to where they stand in regard to this transgender issue,” Zehr said. “It’s for voter information.”

Zehr, who represents the Rustburg district, is up for re-election in November along with representatives from Timberlake and Brookneal. Questionnaire results could be used to elevate or diminish a candidate’s support.

Since student Gavin Grimm, a transgender male, was denied access to the Gloucester High School men’s restroom as a student resulting in a case accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court, parents and officials are pushing for and against rights for transgender people statewide, according to American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia Director of Public Policy and Communications Bill Farrar.

The ACLU represents Grimm.

The ACLU encourages people to know where their local officials stand in general, Farrar said. They should talk to representatives and candidates personally and not rely on a biased survey, he said.

“It’s amateurish in the way these questions are worded. It so blatantly solicits particular responses,” Farrar said, referring to the survey’s use of the terms “common sense,” “time tested methodology,” “drastic change” and “purported science.”

The Virginia First Foundation hopes to partner with parents, residents and political parties to press local candidates statewide, according to Travis Witt, a Virginia First Foundation board member and a pastor. He said he isn’t sure about surveying members of the House of Delegates or governor, lieutenant governor or attorney general candidates, all on the November ballot.

The foundation focused on the issue after Obama’s May guidance letter, according to Witt. The Obama letter said federal agencies should treat a student’s sex as the gender with which they identify for the purposes of Title IX.

The foundation rallied support for the state bathroom bill, HB 1612 carried by Del. Robert G. Marshall, R-Prince William, last month, but the bill failed to pass out of subcommittee. They turned back to localities, said Witt, a former Virginia Tea Party Patriots Federation chairman.

“Hopefully, if you make a difference on a local level, then you’re building a farm team,” Witt said about grassroots organizing.

The Campbell County Republicans plan to target supervisor positions because the party runs candidates for those positions, Zehr said.

Timberlake Supervisor Michael Rousseau expects most Campbell supervisors agree on the issue he said is made controversial by “the homosexual minority.”

“I don’t really see it as an issue here, necessarily, except for the fact that because it’s been pushed, people are curious as to where we come down on it,” said Rousseau, who runs as a Republican but is not active in the local committee.

The request to fill out a survey seems normal, he said, although he had not yet received it Thursday.

“I may not have a vote today, but we may not know what the future may bring on a given issue,” Rousseau said. “I think it’s part of transparency.”

While the Virginia First Foundation considers a black and white or “yes and no” subject as exhibited by the questionnaire, the ACLU referred to scientific evidence that it is not limited to words on a birth certificate.

“What they are implying is that students should carry their birth certificates to school in order to go pee? That’s ludicrous,” Farrar said. “… There’s a mountain of science on this issue that indicates that gender identity is sex.”

Witt, who says “anyone can look down and determine if they’re male or female,” believes he’s following a Christian duty in speaking out politically against the “sin” of homosexuality, despite a broader culture he feels wants him to hold back his beliefs. The bathroom and locker room issue is about children’s safety, he said.

“It’s not like my back is up against the wall,” Witt said. “ I feel more like I’ve drawn a line in the sand and said I’m not going to back up anymore, not that I’d ever back up.”