A major U.S. school board has moved to ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports. On Tuesday, the Kern County Board of Education in California approved a vote to move forward with the ban, per The Spun.
While the state of California is at odds with United States President Donald Trump over his administration’s crackdown on transgender females being allowed to compete in girls’ sports, he’s now got the support of at least one major school board.
Schools in California have been outspoken recently about the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports.
Jserra Catholic High School, Orange Lutheran High School, and Crean Lutheran High School sent a joint letter to the California Interscholastic Federation earlier this month.
“CIF’s Gender Identity Policy also fosters an environment that is increasingly hostile to religious member schools. CIF’s expectation that all faith-based schools facilitate the CIF Gender Identity Policy puts religious schools in the untenable position of adhering to the tenets of their faith in their classrooms and communities but practicing something contrary to their faith on their athletic fields,” the letter stated.
Sports announcer Bob Costas also weighed in on the debate.
“It’s not transphobic to say ‘Let’s inject some common sense here,’” he said. “A lot of this is murky. We know that some people who use this as an issue actually are hostile towards trans people, or people who after carefully considered decisions at a certain point in life, decide that they’ll be happier and closer to their true selves- I think any sensitive person is aligned with that.”
It’ll be interesting to follow the issue as resistance against Trump’s administration mounts.
About Qwame Skinner
Qwame Skinner has loved both writing and sports his entire life. In addition to his sports coverage at Comeback Media, Qwame writes novels, and his debut; The First Casualty, an adult fantasy, is out now.