Friday, April 07, 2017

In The Spotlight

Coming just a week after the Transgender Day of Visibility, I have to wonder if it is for the better or worst that a high school athlete has been highlighted.
At Cromwell High, Transgender Athlete Competes With Girls For First Time
The Hartford Courant
By Matthew Conyers
April 7, 2017

Cromwell High School freshman Andraya Yearwood finally ran the race she had been dreaming of running, and not because she had a personal best time.
Andraya is a transgender woman who was running for the girls' track team on Wednesday, racing other female athletes from Portland and Old Saybrook. After telling her father, Rahsaan Yearwood, and mother, Ngozi Nnaji, in middle school that she identified as a female, Andraya, 15, was getting the chance she wanted.
With family, friends and teammates cheering her on at her first high school track meet, Andraya won the girls 100- and 200-meter dashes, and helped her 4x100-meter relay team take second place. She ran 11.99 seconds in the 100 and 26.34 in the 200.
It really great that she is playing sports and that is due to,
Officials from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs sanctioned high school sports in the state, said Wednesday that they did not believe Andraya is the first transgender athlete to participate in a sanctioned sport, but the organization does not keep records.
[…]
The CIAC defers to the determination of the student and his or her local school regarding gender identification. According the CIAC handbook, it is fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable state and federal law to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team that is consistent with the public gender identity of that student.
I always have mixed feeling when a child comes out in public. It great that they do it because it serves as a role model for other trans people but they will always be “Out.” If you Google their name this article will always pop up. If you Google my name there are over a thousand hits that are listed, there is no doubt that I’m trans (I pity the woman who has the same name as me).



As the post above said, “contrary to applicable state and federal law to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team” there maybe an action against a sports association that is banning trans women from taking part in their event. Right now, there is an attempt to show them the errors of their ways, that their policy goes against state law.

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