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Alaska’s Board of Education Approves Measure Protecting Girls’ High School Sports
Alaska’s board of education decided late last week to approve a measure prohibiting transgender men from participating on girls’ high school sports teams.
The proposal indicates that “if a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned females at birth.”The Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA), which oversees high school sports in the state, would apply the idea to school districts that sign up if Republican Attorney General Rod Taylor grants final permission, according to The Hill.
According to current ASAA regulations, each member school is free to decide whether boys who identify as female are permitted to play on girls’ sports teams.
“However, if a school determines that a transgender student is eligible to compete, that determination ‘shall remain in effect for the duration of the student’s high school eligibility,’” according to the report. “Transgender students attending member schools that do not have written policies in place ‘may only participate based upon [their] gender assigned at birth,’ according to ASAA guidelines.”
Members of the state education board first proposed the idea in June. It follows the failure of a similar Republican-introduced bill in the state legislature this session to get out of committee. A bill that would have prevented boys who identify as female from using the girls’ facilities and locker rooms was also presented by Republican governor Mike Dunleavy.
According to the article, legislation safeguarding female sports teams has been passed by 23 states to date, although those in Arizona, Idaho, West Virginia, and Utah are currently being temporarily blocked by court rulings.
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