School District Defies Washington State, Votes to Ban Males from Girls' Sports
In deep blue Washington state, where state leaders say men in women’s sports is just fine and dandy, one tiny school district is defying that policy.
In early May, the Quilcene School Board passed a resolution requiring that student-athletes participate in the gender of their birth, according to the Seattle Times.
The 3-2 vote bucks state law and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rule book.
However, it is in keeping with the Trump administration’s definition of Title IX, which says women’s sports are only open to those born female.
Chris Reykdal, Washington state superintendent of public instruction, has said that regardless of that the president says, Washington state will live by its own rules.
“State law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, and we will not back down from that,” Reykdal said in the statement.
The Quilcene School District had 93 students in grades 9-12 and one school building serving all of the district’s prekindergarten through 12th grade students.
The district is the second to go against state law. In February, the Tumwater School Board said students have to be born female to play in women’s sports after two players on a girls’ basketball team refused to play against a team with a male on the squad.
In April, the state’s athletic association narrowly failed to approve a rule change to limits girls’ sports to females.
Limiting girls’ sports to females prompted debate on the school board, according to KCPQ-TV.
“Title 9 is the law,” board member Ron Frantz, who supported the resolution, said.
“This is an interpretation, this is not the law,” board member Viviann Kuehl, who opposed it, said. “The law nowhere in it says only biological males can play biological male sports, by tradition. That is not in Title 9.”
“I’m probably the only one who’s read the whole thing of Title 9,” Frantz said.
“I did myself, it doesn’t say that,” Kuehl said.
When the resolution was first considered in March, one resident told the board that males do not belong in female sports, according to the Port Townsend Leader.
“If you want to identify as a Christmas tree, that is fine with me, but I don’t think it is OK for a biological male to be able to go into a locker room and strip down in front of a little girl,” a resident whose name was not given said.
“It’s not fair in sports, it’s just not. You can be what you want to be; I just don’t think it’s right,” the resident said.
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