By Ann Schimke | Colorado Sun
At an April school board meeting near Colorado Springs, debate raged over a proposed policy to ban transgender students from playing on school sports teams that match their gender identity.
A high school student named Sadie, who spoke against the policy, asked why her district would need a blanket policy when a tiny percentage of student athletes are transgender.
A 60-year-old man who supported the policy and described himself as stronger than any woman in the building claimed a transgender girl could slam a ball into a girl’s head hard enough to put her in the hospital.
A father opposed to the policy said his son, a district student, has an extra X chromosome and suggested gender is more complicated than it seems.
He said of the proposed policy, “We’ve now created a situation where an adult is having a conversation with a minor concerning that minor’s genitalia. That’s gross, it’s disturbing, and potentially a crime.”
The recent discussion in the conservative-leaning District 49 is a sign of the times and foreshadows what’s to come in other Colorado school districts as federal and local officials target transgender youth in sports. It also highlights the shifting legal ground that school officials across the state are treading as they try to reconcile state law protecting transgender people from discrimination with recent executive orders from President Trump that aim to eliminate such protections.
Advocates for transgender youth say they are at greater risk for bullying, isolation, and mental health issues, and that denying them access to sports teams that match their gender identity will only exacerbate those problems. Supporters of policies banning transgender students from teams aligned with their gender identity say it protects girls from getting hurt by transgender players or losing out on playing time, wins, or athletic scholarships.
The policy under consideration in District 49 — “Preserving Fairness and Safety in Sports” — would apply at the middle and high school levels to transgender boys who want to join boys teams and transgender girls who want to join girls teams. It wouldn’t apply to sports that are considered coed, which at some schools includes wrestling. The policy appears likely to pass its final vote Thursday. It won preliminary approval in April in a 3-2 vote.
The policy cites a February executive order from President Trump that threatened to withhold federal funding from any school that allows athletes assigned male at birth to participate in girls’ or women’s sports. In an early test of that threat, the Trump administration settled with Maine and reversed its plan to withhold millions in funding for school meals after the state refused to bar transgender athletes from girls teams.