GOP Lawmakers Urge Michigan High School Athletic Association to Ban Trans Girls From Female Teams
MHSAA reports two trans athletes statewide currently play on high school teams
Republican lawmakers in Michigan this week called on the Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) to adopt policies that comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to no longer allow athletes who are transgender girls on female sports teams.
State Sen. Joseph Bellino (R-Monroe) proudly held up his daughter’s 1st Place Big Ten medal in track and field at a news conference on Thursday rattling off the bouquet of athletic awards his family has across three daughters, saying that had his daughters had to compete against “biological male” participants, his daughters might not have had the same opportunities to succeed.
“Fair competition is important to protect opportunities for girls and ensure a level playing field,” Bellino said, joined by several other lawmakers.
At the news conference, Bellino reviewed a letter he sent to the MHSAA, requesting that they adopt the policies in Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” The order states that educational programs that fail to bar transgender girls from girls sports will risk losing federal funding.
“In recent years, many educational institutions and athletic associations have allowed men to compete in women’s sports,” the order reads. “This is demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
The MHSAA has a policy allowing transgender girls to play sports on girls teams on a case by case basis with a waiver, with the association’s spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly telling media that the organization is reviewing how the executive order would operate under Michigan’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
The number of high school students that inquire about or utilize the waiver are very few, with the MHSAA previously telling the state legislature there are typically two inquiries each year out of about 180,000 athletes, while the organization is currently reporting that just two athletes utilize the policy statewide.
Recent anti-trans executive orders and state actions to create limitations on trans citizens manufacture a solution for want of a problem, Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan wrote in February.
“The message this sends to all trans youth is you don’t belong,” Kaplan said. “There are a lot of bullies trying to pass bad laws and implement harmful policies affecting trans people. These laws and policies are a distraction to the real issues facing the American people, and the inability of these politicians to come up with real solutions to real problems.”
MHSAA needs to “get over itself” and fall in line with those who welcome the executive order, Michigan Senate Minority Leader and Republican candidate for governor Aric Nesbitt (R-Porter Twp.) said.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association changed its policy in women’s sports limiting competition to “student-athletes assigned female at birth only,” while allowing “student-athletes assigned male at birth” to participate in practices.
Nesbitt, a vocal supporter of Trump during campaign visits last year said the country spoke on Election Day, including the people of Michigan, in putting Trump back in office to end “woke nonsense”.
“Sometimes it’s good just to let boys be boys and girls be girls. Let kids be kids. Don’t let these adults plow their ideology into our children,” Nesbitt said “Our girls deserve a fair and level playing field, not a system that sacrifices their safety and opportunities to oppose to appease those to deny reality.”
Though Trump’s executive orders will be challenged by courts and they may find they “aren’t worth the paper they are printed on,” Kaplan acknowledged that the orders still may have a discouraging effect.
After all, the intention, Kaplan said, is to “demonize difference.”
This article has been republished courtesy of Michigan Advance under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
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