SPOKANE, Wash. — The WIAA is considering making changes to its policies on transgender athletes.
The State Athletic Association has received over a dozen letters from school districts across Washington, including the Mead and Moses Lake School Districts, over concerns with safety and fairness.
The WIAA’s current law allows athletes to compete in the category consistent with their gender identity. But members of the WIAA are proposing two different amendments that would change the way transgender athletes are allowed to compete, specifically in girls’ sports.
One proposal would create restrictions that would only allow athletes that were assigned female at birth to compete. The other would create a separate open division that all students would be allowed to compete in. But the WIAA believes these amendments would not comply with state law, according to its own legal review.
“If you’re going to bring amendments forward on this topic, please make sure you do a legal review. We’ve heard some legal reviews have been done, we just have not seen them ourselves, neither have our attorneys,” said WIAA executive director Mick Hoffman.
Hoffman said even if the amendments are passed, WIAA can’t implement them if they don’t comply with state and federal law.
A state senator also has a bill for this upcoming legislative session that would create new categories for boys and girls sports. This bill would create categories for athletes based on their chromosomes and gender identity, plus a separate category for athletes with variations in their chromosomes.
“This is being respectful to trans athletes because it is acknowledging their self-identification in addition to their chromosomal makeup or their natural physique,” said Sen. Phil Fortunato (R – Pierce County.)
A decision on if either if these amendments will pass won’t be known until April when the WIAA’s representative assembly will vote on them.
The amendments will need 60% of the vote to pass.
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