Trans Athletes

There is another push by the Republicans and conservatives to pass legislation blocking trans athletes like the disastrous in Texas* that forced trans masculine student athletes to compete on girl’s teams.

Anti-transgender bill advances as Tennessee lawmakers return to work
WVLT
By The Associated Press
May 26, 2020

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee lawmakers marked their return to legislative offices Tuesday by advancing an anti-transgender proposal after abruptly recessing three months ago because of the coronavirus outbreak.
 
In March, lawmakers scrambled to approve a newly designed 2020-21 fiscal year budget back when the virus outbreak was just emerging in Tennessee - leaving hundreds of bills in limbo - but promised to formally return on June 1.
 
House members, however, decided to gather this week and hold legislative committee meetings on a wide variety of bills - many of which were not directly related to COVID-19. This included a proposal dictating that Tennessee elementary and high school students could only play sports based on the sex identified on their birth certificates.
 
The bill is one of two proposals being considered in the GOP-dominated Statehouse involving transgender students and what sports teams they can play on.

Think about this… the Republicans think that an anti-trans bill is more important than finding relief for small businesses, helping their citizens get though the plague. Nope they see hate as being more important that love for their citizens.

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Meanwhile up in Idaho…

Idaho State track athletes want transgender lawsuit tossed
The Oakland Press
By Keith Ridler Associated Press
May 26, 2020

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Two female athletes at Idaho Sta/te University want a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit challenging a new state law banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports, the first such law in the nation.

Madison Kenyon, 19, of Johnston, Colorado, and Mary Marshall, 20, of Twin Falls, Idaho, run track and cross-country on scholarships at the university. Each said they’ve lost to a transgender athlete from the University of Montana and contend that transgender athletes are unfair competition.

Attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom are representing the two athletes. They filed the request to side with the state of Idaho in fighting the lawsuit and are asking that the lawsuit be dismissed.

Hmm… where did we see Alliance Defending Freedom before?

Oh, I know back here in Connecticut. Guess who they are representing?

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A Question of Fairness
Trans women athletes often bear the brunt of hatred and vitriol
CT Voice
By Dawn Ennis (This article was just chosen by the CT Society of Professional Journalism for first place, in the sports category! Congratulations Dawn!)
September 10, 2019

Three teenage girls from Connecticut are the unlikely combatants embroiled in a ferocious debate that has divided athletes, fans, feminists, clerics, pundits, and parents around the world: the issue of transgender inclusion in sports.

At the core of this controversy looms one overarching question: What is fair? That word means different things to different people, depending on which side of the debate you’re on.

On one side, there is a female student athlete who argues she should not have to compete against transgender girls.

On the other side are two girls who are trans, and the private, nonprofit organization that serves as the lone governing body for all of the interscholastic athletic activities throughout the state: the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC). CIAC rules state that trans student athletes can compete according to their gender identity. A similar policy is in effect for high schoolers across New England, in New York, and in several other states.

The CIAC policy follows Connecticut’s anti-discrimination law. But in an ironic twist, the opponents of trans inclusion say the anti-discrimination policy is discriminating against girls who are cisgender, meaning that they identify with the gender they were assigned at birth.

To best understand the genesis of this standoff, let’s go back to May 2017, when these three young women competed in the Middletown Varsity Invitational. The results of that meet sparked the firestorm that has made headlines around the world.
[…]
On June 18, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal advocacy nonprofit organization, joined the fray.

Labeled an extremist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ADF filed a complaint on behalf of Soule and two unnamed Connecticut student athletes, with the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Their attorneys called the CIAC policy “illegal discrimination,” and claim it violates Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.

The ADF misgendered Miller and Yearwood throughout its announcement on Fox News, and in the complaint, as “two biological males.”

“Between them, they have taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by 10 different Connecticut girls) and have taken more than 40 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.”

In August, the U.S. Department of Education approved the investigation.

“I’m grateful that the Office of Civil Rights has agreed to investigate our complaint,” Bianca Stanescu told Connecticut Voice, “because girls deserve to compete on an equal and fair playing field and shouldn’t become spectators in their own sport.”

The District Judge Robert Chatigny in the case ruled earlier this month that the ADF lawyers to say “transgender females” instead in an effort to preserve “respectful, humane, intelligent, civil discourse.” And that created a fire storms in the conservative press.

I can’t help but wonder… Doesn’t states get to determine a person’s gender and not the federal government? If the trans athletes’ birth certificate say that they are female doesn’t that mean that under Title IX they are females?**

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The ACLU is fighting to make sports accepting of trans athletes,

Four Myths About Trans Athletes, Debunked
Upholding trans athletes' rights requires rooting out the inaccurate beliefs underlying harmful policies sweeping through state legislatures.
April 30, 2020

For years state lawmakers have pushed legislation attempting to shut trans people out of public spaces. In 2020, lawmakers zeroed in on sports and introduced 20 bills seeking to ban trans people from participating in athletics. These statewide efforts have been supported through a coordinated campaign led by anti-LGBTQ groups that have long worked to attack our communities.
[…]
FACT: Including trans athletes will benefit everyone.
MYTH: The participation of trans athletes hurts cis women.
Many who oppose the inclusion of trans athletes erroneously claim that allowing trans athletes to compete will harm cisgender women. This divide and conquer tactic gets it exactly wrong. Excluding women who are trans hurts all women. It invites gender policing that could subject any woman to invasive tests or accusations of being “too masculine” or “too good” at their sport to be a “real” woman. In Idaho, the ACLU represents two young women, one trans and one cis, both of whom are hurt by the law that was passed targeting trans athletes.
[…]
FACT: Trans athletes do not have an unfair advantage in sports.
MYTH: Trans athletes’ physiological characteristics provide an unfair advantage over cis athletes.
[...]
Trans athletes vary in athletic ability just like cisgender athletes. “One high jumper could be taller and have longer legs than another, but the other could have perfect form, and then do better,” explains Andraya Yearwood, a student track athlete and ACLU client. “One sprinter could have parents who spend so much money on personal training for their child, which in turn, would cause that child to run faster," she adds. In Connecticut, where cisgender girl runners have tried to block Andraya from participating in the sport she loves, the very same cis girls who have claimed that trans athletes have an “unfair” advantage have consistently performed as well as or better than transgender competitors.
[…]
FACT: Trans girls are girls.
MYTH: Sex is binary, apparent at birth, and identifiable through singular biological characteristics.
Girls who are trans are told repeatedly that they are not “real” girls and boys who are trans are told they are not “real” boys. Non-binary people are told that their gender is not real and that they must be either boys or girls. None of these statements are true. Trans people are exactly who we say we are.

There is no one way for women’s bodies to be. Women, including women who are transgender, intersex, or disabled, have a range of different physical characteristics.
[…]
FACT: Trans people belong on the same teams as other students.
MYTH: Trans students need separate teams.
Trans people have the same right to play sports as anybody else. “For the past nine years,” explains Carroll, “transgender athletes have been able to compete on teams at NCAA member collegiates and universities consistent with their gender identity like all other student-athletes with no disruption to women’s collegiate sports.”

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*Texas passed a bill that required students to play sports on the team of their birth gender and as a results  trans boys are winning in girls sports.

Transgender Wrestler Wins Texas Championship For Girls
Spring Hill Insider
December 12, 2019

Transgender wrestler wins Texas championship for girls

Feb 26 (Reuters) – Mack Beggs, a 17-year-old high school wrestler who is transitioning from female to male, took home gold in the 110-weight class of the Texas girls state championship after the state refused to allow the student to compete against boys.

Beggs, his family and many of his opponents wanted him to wrestle against male wrestlers, but state sport regulations require athletes to compete according to their birth gender.

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**I realize that for some trans athletes that this might create a problem if they haven’t changed their birth certificates. Connecticut law doesn’t require any thing other than a person to self-declare that they’re trans.

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News Flash!
Update: 1:15

Department of Education just issued a ruling!

Not good.

Connecticut transgender policy found to violate Title IX
Houston.com

HARTFORD, Conn. – A Connecticut policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls sports violates the civil rights of female athletes, the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has ruled.

The ruling, which was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, comes in response to a complaint filed last year by several female track athletes, who argued that two transgender runners who were identified as male at birth had an unfair physical advantage.

The office said in a 45-page letter that it may seek to withhold federal funding over the policy, which allows transgender athletes to participate as the gender with which they identify. It said the policy is a violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that guarantees equal education opportunities for women, including in athletics.
[…]
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which oversees scholastic sports in the state, has said its policy is designed to comply with the state’s law barring schools from discriminating against transgender students. A call seeking comment was left Thursday with CIAC.

Attorneys for the Alliance Defending Freedom, who represent the girls who brought the complaint, said they would have a comment later on Thursday.

This is from the Trump’s DoEd Office of Civil Rights and it is wasn’t a surprise.

How this will effect the case it is not know at this time.