Alaska Education Board Backs Ban on Transgender Athletes in Girls’ High School Sports
The Alaska State Board of Education Votes to Support Ban on Transgender Athletes in Girls’ High School Teams
The Alaska State Board of Education made a significant decision on Thursday regarding transgender athletes participating in girls’ high school teams. The board voted in favor of a ban, which will now be reviewed by the state attorney general to determine its implementation.
During a special session, the board convened and passed a regulation with a 7–1 vote. The regulation states, “If a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth.”
Felix Myers, the student representative from high school, was the sole dissenting vote among the board members. Additionally, the military adviser on the board chose to abstain from voting.
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In July, the board initially addressed the issue but postponed the vote after extensive testimony and the receipt of approximately 1,400 pages of written feedback.
No public comments were entertained during the most recent meeting.
In March of this year, Lorri Van Diest introduced the initial non-binding resolution concerning the matter (pdf). She highlighted the challenge of achieving a balance between inclusion and fairness due to physiological disparities between the sexes.
“I will be voting for the regulation amendment because I am part of the group that prioritizes competitive fairness and safety for high school girl athletes,” she said.
The agenda indicated that the state government administration did not provide any advice on whether the proposal should be approved or not.
Board member Bob Griffin clarified that he held no personal objections to how individuals choose to express their gender identity.
“But the issue at hand is not gender identity, it’s performance differences between biological males and biological females and the competitive fairness that that implies,” Mr. Griffin said.
Mr. Griffin emphasized the considerable competitive edge biological males possess over biological females in most sports.
“If this were not true, we wouldn’t need Title IX or separate sport divisions for boys and girls, and roughly half the members of high school football teams would be girls,” he added.
Mr. Griffin pointed to Alaskan Olympian Lydia Jacoby, who won a gold medal in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Tokyo Games in 2021, noting that her gold-winning best time was four seconds slower than “the Alaska state high school record for boys.”
While acknowledging that most Alaskans are proud of Ms. Jacoby, he added, “We clearly have a duty to promote the principles of fairness and equity for biological women and girls.”
Alaska’s Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who appointed the board members, supports the regulation, emphasizing its importance in maintaining fairness in girls’ sports.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, a Republican, will be responsible for deciding whether the regulation should be implemented.
Around 22 states have enacted legislation that prohibits transgender athletes from participating in girls’ teams in K-12 schools. Some of these laws also extend to preventing transgender individuals from joining boys’ teams, and a subset also extends the prohibition to college-level athletics.
The Anchorage School District
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