The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) in Washington State released a proposal to create an open division for transgender athletes.
“In order to maintain fair and equitable competition, participation in girls’ sports and girls’ divisions of sports is restricted to students who were assigned female at birth. The purpose of this policy is to offer clarity with respect to the participation of trans and gender-diverse student-athletes,” the proposal says. “Additionally, this policy encourages a culture in which student-athletes can compete in a safe and supportive environment, free of discrimination.”
A second proposal says, “Athletic programs would be offered separately for boys, girls, and an open division for all students interested.”
The document notes that there may be a future appeals process for “gender-diverse student-athletes to participate in competition best-aligned to their physiological development.”
Women’s sports activist Beth Bourne wrote on social media that the proposals “will have a huge rippling effect on California and @CIFState [California Intercollegiate Federation] as our state’s policies for ‘gender inclusivity’ in high school sports are modeled on the WIAA regs.”
“Being a girl or a woman is not a feeling,” she added. “Human sex is binary and immutable.”
In California, high school students have staged protests over the inclusion of a transgender athlete in girls’ sports. The protests began when two female athletes filed a lawsuit alleging school officials prohibited them from wearing T-shirts reading “Save Girls’ Sports.” The shirts were compared to swastikas.
More than 150 girls began wearing the shirts after the school implemented a dress code policy against them.
