A board appointed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy has decided in favor of a new state regulation that would ban transgender girls from participation in high school girls sports.
The decision by the state board of education on Thursday, Aug. 31, came less than six months after the board passed a resolution indicating its members were interested in such a policy. All seven Dunleavy-appointed board members voted in favor of the new policy, which says that only girls whose sex assigned at birth is female will be able to participate in girls sports.
The only individual to vote against the policy during a 90-minute meeting was the board’s student representative, Felix Myers, a junior from Sitka, who said it could expose transgender students to bullying and criticized the board for spending time on the policy rather than other issues facing the state’s education system.
Earlier this summer, the board received hundreds of written comments from parents, students and advocates on the topic. The input was mixed: Many, particularly from conservative parts of the state, expressed support for the policy. But parents of transgender children, civil rights advocates and teachers all said the policy would be harmful to an already marginalized and small group of children.
An effort by conservative lawmakers to limit transgender children’s participation in Alaska school sports through legislation has failed to pass in the past three consecutive state legislative sessions.
Nearly half of U.S. states have passed laws to limit the participation of transgender girls in girls sports, part of a broader effort by Republican elected officials to limit the rights of transgender people across the country. In numerous Republican-controlled states, legislators have adopted laws to restrict gender-affirming care for minors, limit transgender people’s use of school bathrooms and limit what public schools can teach about gender and sexuality.
In Alaska, no such laws have been adopted. LGBTQ+ rights advocates say the state constitution’s privacy clause — the same part of the constitution that protects abortion access — could also be the basis for a legal challenge to laws and regulations pertaining to transgender children, including the new sports regulations.
It is now up to the Alaska School Activities Association to implement the state board’s new regulations. The association oversees all high school activities in the state. Its director, Billy Strickland, said Aug. 31 that the regulation would likely lead the association to create two divisions in high school sports: one for girls whose sex assigned at birth is female, and one for all other students —including transgender students, boys, and girls who prefer to compete alongside boys.
The Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District is the only one in the state that has already adopted regulations limiting the rights of transgender kids to participation in school sports according to the gender with which they identify if it is different than their gender assigned at birth.
Reader Comments(0)