All I Want for Christmas is Equal Rights For All
A few months ago the State Board of Education changed a regulation, forcing the Alaska School Activities Association to change its rules on which Alaska school children can compete in sports. The board’s desired result: stop some transgendered children from participating equally.
I wrote in opposition , and public testimony ran heavily against the idea, but the board was determined to single out a population of vulnerable Alaska kids. And without much reason or evidence, they did.
I can’t tell you why they did it. There is no history of trans girls injuring cisgendered athletes at all, much less at higher rates. Nor is there a track record of trans athletes outperforming the field of cisgendered athletes in Alaska sports. So they weren't dealing with an actual safety or fairness problem.
I heard the argument they were preventing a nonexistent problem from coming into being. That rings awfully hollow, since the state board didn't address any other nonexistent threats.
It would be hard to overstate the impact this ban will have on our children. Activities are good for kids. Participating in sports teaches life lessons and skills. It also reduces suicide and mental health problems. Trans children are 3-5 times more likely to commit suicide than their cisgender peers. It's a group of people who need more participation in activities. The state board's changes will lead to less. Worse, it sends a message that trans children are somehow threatening and therefore unwelcome. That's a reprehensible message to send to the children already at the highest risk of suicide.
And the new regulation was shockingly hamfisted in its approach. It requires trans girls to compete according to the gender they were "assigned at birth." A trans person can get a new birth certificate, so there's no way to enforce the rule.
The blunt instrument of "assigned at birth" also gives the lie to any claim the board was trying to deal with fairness or safety issues. If so, they would have at least considered biological differences in sexual development. While that itself is a controversial issue, not even looking at it makes abundantly clear the board was not interested in safety or fairness questions. They had a bone to pick with trans girls. Only.
The other smoke screen they threw up was to allow new categories of competition for trans children in 'separate-but-equal' leagues. Let's set aside the fact that separate inherently means not equal for just a second and look at the practical possibilities. First, no school district in the state has extra money for that. Second, there's no reason to believe there are enough trans athletes in the state to populate such a league. But third and most important: if someone waved a magic wand and created one, would you want your daughter to take part in it? Many trans children live their lives without telling anyone about their chromosomes. For some its not relevant. For far more, it's a matter of personal safety. Requiring these vulnerable children to advertise that they're transgendered in order to compete is a recipe for failure at very best. More likely it would serve as an extraordinarily visible mark to single them out for cruel treatment
ASAA went along with the state board's new regulation without challenge. As a legislator, I normally wouldn’t comment on a nonprofit's decision, but Alaska has long outsourced student activities to them. ASAA's acquiescence forever tars the previously well-deserved reputation for helping children it spent decades building. Not only that—it directly contradicts local laws several municipalities have in place preventing discrimination. I should know—I helped write Juneau's.
These rules put Juneau’s school board in a tough spot. They have to wrestle with whether to comply with the ban, or risk losing out-of-district sports and activity opportunities for our kids. Both choices would hurt our children.
I'm glad the Juneau School District hired a lawyer to look at their options. I'm shocked and ashamed that the Alaska Board of Education and the ASAA forced them to spend money that should have hired teachers to do it. The board and ASAA should be ashamed of themselves.
