Pennsylvania District Restricts Trans Students to Sports Matching Birth Sex
A Pennsylvania school district approved a policy this week that will minimize how transgender student-athletes may participate in interscholastic athletics.
Board members of the Hempfield School District in Lancaster County approved the measure by a vote of 6–3 on Tuesday.
The policy goes into effect immediately and will require all athletes to play team sports aligned with their sex at birth.
“Separate athletic teams on the basis of sex preserve fairness, provide increased opportunity for girls, and are safer,” the policy (pdf) reads. “As such, the district provides separate interscholastic athletic teams on the basis of sex.”
However, the measure notes two exceptions, as “reasonable accommodations” will be given to girls who wish to participate in the boy’s sports team, but only if there’s “no female team for that sport during the school year.”
Similarly, the school district will make accommodations available to biological males wishing to play on the girls’ team if there is no other viable option, although a doctor’s note certifying the student has yet to start male puberty must be shown to the school’s athletic director.
On the day of the vote, Hempfield school board member Jim Maurer, who opposes the new policy, said the ruling would make the school district more vulnerable to legal challenges that could jeopardize its federal funding through Title IX, which prevents sex-based discrimination.
“We’re at risk for further lawsuits in the future which would take away dollars that should be available for our students for educational needs,” Maurer told Lancaster Online.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Education proposed an overhaul of anti-sex-discrimination rules, reinterpreting the term “sex” as something that doesn’t have to have a biological basis.
The Biden administration says the changes would be in accordance with President Joe Biden’s March 2021 executive order, which vowed to guarantee an educational environment “free from discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation or gender identity.” Its proposed amendments would reverse many changes made by the Trump administration.
The debate around similar policies nationwide intensified after University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who publicly identifies as a female, became the first transgender NCAA champion in women’s Division I history after winning the women’s 500-yard freestyle earlier this year.
The win drew significant backlash from female swimmers, activists, and other athletes, including Thomas’s teammates.
Nearly 30 states have recently introduced measures that would bar transgender student-athletes from competing on sports teams not consistent with their sex at birth, according to Freedom for All Americans, which tracks such legislation.
Earlier this year, FINA members widely adopted a new “gender inclusion policy” that bans transgender student-athletes who transitioned after age 12 to compete in women’s swimming events. The move was celebrated by one of Thomas’s competitors, University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines.
About 72 percent of members voted in favor of the directive to restrict the participation of transgender athletes in elite women’s competitions and create an “open” category for them.
On July 8, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed the Protect Women’s Sports Act, claiming the policy was “discriminatory” and would violate federal law and constitutional guarantees of equal protection if it had been enacted.
“I have been crystal clear during my time in office that hate has no place in Pennsylvania, especially discrimination against already marginalized youth representing less than half of 1 percent of Pennsylvania’s population,” Wolf said in a statement.
“The fact that this bill passed through Pennsylvania’s Republican-led General Assembly solely to bully and oppress vulnerable children is atrocious. These members should be ashamed of themselves for proposing and voting on policies that are discriminatory, unnecessary, and incredibly harmful.”
Only about three in ten U.S. adults believe transgenders should be allowed to compete in female sports at the professional, college, high school, or youth levels, according to a new poll from the Washington Post-University of Maryland.
The survey results released on June 14 show that 68 percent of Americans worry that transgender athletes would “have a competitive advantage” over biological women.
Nearly 60 percent opposed transgender participation in college and professional female sports. For high schools, 55 percent opposed transgender participation in female sports compared to 30 percent who reckoned they should.
The divide narrowed when it came to youth sports, with about a third saying transgenders should be allowed to compete, versus 49 percent against such an opinion, citing biological physical advantages.
See more here: theepochtimes
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Saighdear
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Seems fair enough – not rocket science. ” … now why didn’t I think of that? “
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Russ D
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There is no such thing as a “transgender” person, just mutilated males and females.
There are roughly 50-100 trillion somatic cells in the human body (estimates vary widely), and each cell “knows” whether the person is male or female, regardless of plumbing. The plumbing operation has absolutely no impact on the DNA structure of the somatic cells. The hormone treatments also have no impact on somatic nuclear structure. The clothes a person wears also has no impact on the DNA that determines gender.
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Geraint HUghes
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Stop using the word trans and start using the word “BORN”
“Born Females” only sports and “Born Male” only sports. Whatever that person has legally designated themselves since becomes irrelevant.
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She Blinded me with Science
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Not sure but God must be rolling his eyes and ready to puke his guts out by now. Satan has been working overtime apparently and Mankind is at his weakest moment in all history. Sodom and Gomorrah exist everywhere now.
Before the attacks come and all the science fans state how this is a science forum, just realize that science is just another religion.
Religion is a belief system based on texts and teachings that are trusted to be true. How is science any different?
One believes in the science textbooks and teachings by trust and faith alone. Nobody has ever seen a positively identified actual virus in person. Nobody has ever been to space. Nobody has been beyond the crust of the earth to witness the so called mantle and core, yet seem to trust and believe this information just because men with lots of letters behind their names, white coats and given authority say it is so. How is that any different then the Holy Bible saying there was a great flood? (And evidence of most parts of the earth being covered by the oceans can actually be observed by anyone)
Like I said. Science is just another religion and a flawed and fake one at that if you really take the time to look into it yourself.
That same “science” now tells humanity that “Global Warming” is real, that the pandemic is real and the jabs are safe and effective. Yep, real good and trustworthy science.
No thanks. I place my trust in God.
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Kevin Doyle
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A man and woman, expecting a baby, can identify the gender of the child by a simple blood test. The blood test from real woman indicates the gender, as this unique unborn human being has a genetic makeup. Any further questions?
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cn
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WHAT LIBERALISM IS:
It is the world of Lucifer, disguised in our times under the name of Liberalism, in radical opposition and in perpetual warfare against that society composed of the Children of God, the Church of Jesus Christ.
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