Transgender rights in the state of Alaska took a major hit last week as the Alaska state Board of Education voted last Thursday to approve a ban on transgender girls from competing on girls’ high school sports teams.
Under the current rules, member schools are called to make their own decision regarding whether or not to allow transgender athletes to compete on sports teams that are in accordance with their gender identity. But the new proposal states that “if a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth.”
But the proposal was met with fierce pushback.
“The Board has totally disregarded the ways this policy violates the privacy of young Alaskans, and sanctions wholesale discrimination against transgender children,” said Michael Garvey, the advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Alaska.
“Instead of spending our time going through lawsuits surrounding this issue and dedicating funds to those legal battles to further and perpetuate this, I think there are some other things that we can do to actually help women and female athletes and women’s sports that would be a lot more beneficial,” said Felix Myers, a junior in high school and the board’s student representative, who was also the only board member to vote against the policy.
It’s safe to say this isn’t a popular move.
