Idaho In The News

There were two news articles about Idaho’s ban on trans athletes and about a trans athlete…

Federal court hears debate on Idaho's transgender athlete ban

The controversial law preventing transgender women from competing in Idaho college and high school sports went into effect on July 1.

KTVB7

By Joe Parris

July 22, 2020

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho's new law preventing transgender athletes who identify as female from participating in girls' or women's sports was debated Wednesday in federal court.

With support from the ACLU, Boise State student Lindsay Hecox, a transgender woman, sued the state over the law because it prevents her from going out for the women's cross country team at Boise State.

Hecox and her legal team argue it's not fair and is discriminatory against transgender athletes.

Shortly after the suit against the state of Idaho was filed, two Idaho State athletes came out in favor of the law and wanted to make a case for it in federal court.

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The judge also heard arguments regarding two female student athletes at Idaho State University. They want to be in the lawsuit to argue in favor of HB 500 and explain, in their opinion, how it keeps women’s sports fair.

The pair are represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom.

The ADF is also representing two cis-women here in Connecticut who are suing towns and the CIAC (Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference) over trans athletes.

A major area of contention is how someone proves they are cis- or transgender, and questions have been raised about invasive exams to determine a person's birth gender.

The state made an argument in court that the statute doesn't mandate any medical test to prove birth gender; a health care provider can just provide a note saying a person is a woman.

[…]

“The state seems to suggest somehow that House Bill 500, despite the statements that were made in support of it during the session, it was actually intended to make it easier for transgender athletes to participate in women's sports teams," said ACLU Idaho Legal Director Ritchie Eppink. "I don't think that's what the sponsors intended and I don't think that's what the bill says. If indeed the state is willing to agree that Lindsay Hecox and other trans women and girls in Idaho can simply get a health care provider's note, then we are okay with that regime for now." 

Yeah, and I bet that a health care provider that provided a note would be harassed by state officials.

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I foresee politicians throwing in monkey wrenches into fray. I don’t think that Republicans politicians will like what the statement that the state lawyers made in court.

Sen. Mike Lee finds NCAA position on transgender athletes ‘offensive’

Desert News

By Dennis Romboy

July 22, 2020

SALT LAKE CITY — Sen. Mike Lee challenged the NCAA’s opposition on a new Idaho law that bans transgender women from competing in women’s college sports in a Senate hearing Wednesday.

“I am concerned about the NCAA’s track record of undermining women by pushing schools to allow individuals born biologically of one gender to participate in another gender’s sports,” Lee told NCAA President Mark Emmert.

“I’m worried about some of the policies that you’ve taken. It’s offensive to me and to millions of Americans that the great strides our society has taken to protect women’s rights and women’s sports are now at risk of being undone.”

Lee, R-Utah, cited a first-of-its-kind law in Idaho that took effect this month banning transgender women from playing high school and college sports in the state.

And I would like to cite the recent Supreme Court case on Title VII…

An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.

[...]

The statute’s message for our cases is equally simple and momentous: An individual’s homosexuality or transgender status is not relevant to employment decisions. That’s because it is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex.

[...]

Or take an employer who fires a transgender person who was identified as a male at birth but who now identifies as a female. If the employer retains an otherwise identical employee who was identified as female at birth, the employer intentionally penalizes a person identified as male at birth for traits or actions that it tolerates in an employee identified as female at birth. Again, the individual employee’s sex plays an unmistakable and impermissible role in the discharge decision.

And that same logic can be used for Title IX cases, trans people would be covered under Title IX (and also the ACA section1557).

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Meanwhile a trans athletes come out…

For trans college equestrian rider, barn was his safe space

‘Horses don’t understand concepts such as sexual orientation, or gender identity,’ says college equestrian rider Jay Robinson. ‘The only thing that a horse really cares about is how the person in the tack makes them feel.’

Outsports

By Jay K. Robinson

July 22, 2020

When I decided to attend Mount Holyoke College — an all-women’s institution — I still identified as a lesbian.

I chose the school because I was relatively shy and according to a blog that my mother found, it had a learning environment where I wouldn’t feel constrained by the social pressures found in a male-dominant environment. Of course, the school’s nationally recognized equestrian team was a big draw too, especially since I had dreamed of competing at the collegiate level since I was 7.

He transferred from Mount Holyoke College to the University of Southern California because he didn’t feel comfortable going to a women’s college.

I’m still learning to accept myself; however, thanks to the privilege I received, I’m well on my way. Hopefully, environments such as this will become more prominent and members of the LGBTQ community that identify as transgender will stop feeling inferior to their cisgender counterparts.

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This afternoon is the monthly meeting of the legislature LGBTQ Health and Human Services Network committee and what we are going to be discussing is a LGBTQ+ survey that the committee will release  this fall.

I know what you are saying… “What another survey!”

Yes, but this one is different and more important, this one is being conducted by the Connecticut Department of Public Health for the state legislature and it will be used for “needs assessment” to determine where we need funding and services. Where are the gaps in our protections and services that needs to be plugged.

So in the fall when this comes out it will be very important that as many LGBTQ+ people as possible fill out the survey.