SPOKANE, Wash.– In May, East Valley High School’s Verónica Garcia became the first known transgender athlete to win a Washington State Championship. She won the 2A Girls 400 girls 400-meter run in Tacoma.
Since then, several school districts have called for the WIAA to reconsider its policies on transgender athletes in sports.
Throughout this whole controversy, we’ve heard from many voices.
Parents, school officials, and biologically born female athletes have chimed in to raise their concerns over transgender athletes’ participation in school sports.
The WIAA has heard those concerns and is now considering changing its policy.
The one voice we have yet to hear from regarding these proposals is from one of the teenagers directly impacted by these decisions, until now.
When we asked Verónica Garcia if she’d like to meet with us to share her perspective, she said she’d be flattered to lend her voice.
“I feel like a fire engine with lights and sirens on, because it’s like, I’m just trying to compete,” said Garcia when asked what it feels like when she’s running on the track.
Competing is her sense of belonging, but at only 17 years old, her identity has put her at the center of controversy.
Verónica is transgender and joined the East Valley High School girls’ team in 2023.
“I felt like it was right, I guess, because realistically, if I’m gonna start, you know, living my life as a woman, it would make more sense to compete on the women’s team, but also for my own safety, if i remained on boys team,” said Garcia.
It didn’t take long for people to disagree.
“They can do all these things, yet what they want to instead do is target children, like, literal children. Like, it’s like, why do grown adults think it’s okay to harass a child, let alone a transgender child? Like, why would you ever do that?” asked Verónica.
When Verónica won state earlier this year, she wasn’t celebrated with cheers.
“When i was on the podium, I did hear some boo booing, mostly silence,” Garcia said.
That critical response still reverberates today.
“As I maybe don’t like to admit it, but I very frequently, occasionally search up, you know, on my phone, Washington state transgender athlete. And then, yeah, it gives me articles, said Garcia. “I’ve seen pretty much the entire discourse of it starts off with, like, Lynden, then Mead, and then, you know, Colville, all these other school districts wanting the WIAA to change their policy.”
The WIAA’s current policy reads, “All students should have the opportunity to participate in WIAA athletics and/or activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity.”
That means, if a student identifies as a girl, they can compete with the girls.
People in the community have gathered to raise concerns over how this could be considered ‘fair competition.’
Some have even raised safety concerns, but Verónica says it would be unsafe to force transgender female athletes to compete with the boys.
“That, could also technically lead to injury, but at the same time, it could also lead to certain situations such as the male athletes getting touchy with the transgender female athlete, which could obviously cause a whole host of problems,” said Garcia.
While Verónica acknowledges that this isn’t always the case, it’s still a concern.
After hearing what the community has had to say, the WIAA is now proposing to limit girls’ sports to only students assigned female at birth.
“It’s just segregation. It’s discriminatory,” said Garcia.
Verónica also brought up the small amount of transgender youth that make up high school sports.
Since there is no requirement to disclose whether or not a student is transgender, it is hard to verify how many there are.
However, a study done by the CDC, found that 3.3% of U.S. high school students identify as transgender.
Research done by the Trevor Project, a non-profit that advocates for LGBTQ+ youth, found that only 17% of youth who identify as transgender and nonbinary participate in sports.
“Already transgender youth are feeling unwelcome in sports,” said Garcia. “The point of high school teams to feel like you belong to something and stuff like this is going to really negatively impact the mental health of transgender people.”
The WIAA is also suggesting an “open-division” in which all students can participate.
“Realistically, whois willingly wanting to join an open division, like most are not willing to do that. So, that could lead to literally just no one joining the open division,” said Garcia.
Verónica said in her opinion the WIAA should instead consider instituting a hormone requirement, similar to the NCAA.
“It’s honestly just one of the better ways to go, because it’s like no one necessarily has to feel left out, like it’s just one of those things, of it’s just a happy medium,” said Garcia.
The WIAA will discuss and finalize the proposed amendments during its virtual winter coalition on January 27.
Verónica said these amendments can cause irreparable harm and asks the WIAA to consider this when making its decision.
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