Defending Education sends letter to FOIA Officer at VCU Health Systems

On November 25, 2025, Defending Education submitted a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request to the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System regarding documentation of its performance of “gender-affirming care.”

After identifying 784 responsive emails and issuing an invoice to Defending Ed for processing costs, the office abruptly reversed course and claimed that none of the emails were releasable public records because none of those emails “transacted the business of VCU or VCU Health System.” That claim is implausible, contradicted by publicly available information about VCU Health System’s operations, and inconsistent with Virginia Supreme Court precedent on what constitutes “public business” under Virginia law. On March 5, 2026, Defending Education sent a demand letter to VCU Health Systems’ FOIA officer requesting compliance with Defending Education’s requests.

Freedom of information laws are designed to keep the government and its officials accountable to the people they serve. We look forward to a speedy resolution of this effort to achieve transparency in the Commonwealth of Virginia.