Georgia High School Association bans transgender athletes
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BY DYANA BAGBY The state organization charged with overseeing Georgia high school sports voted May 4 to ban transgender athletes by requiring athletes only be allowed to compete based on the gender marker on their birth certificate and not by gender identity. The ruling angered and disappointed leading LGBTQ advocates, who say it was made hastily, was discriminatory and would only harm transgender students. The Georgia High School Association’s executive committee voted to change a bylaw to say athletes can only compete based on their gender assigned at birth, according to a report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re approaching this as a competitive-balance issue,” GHSA executive director Robin Hines said. Hines submitted the proposal. “We don’t want to discriminate against anybody, but that includes biological girls. There are competitive imbalances generally between biological females and biological males,” Hines said. Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality, the state’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, denounced GHSA’s vote. “All Georgia students should have equal access to school sports, and efforts to change policies that facilitate that should be done in a transparent and open way,” Graham said in a written statement. “[The] actions of the GHSA Executive Committee will do real harm to trans kids in Georgia that just want to be themselves and fit in.” Georgia Equality Gender Policy Manager Chanel Haley called the vote “discriminatory and divisive.” “Unfortunately the GHSA has decided to ignore case precedent by favoring certain students and parents over others,” she said in a written statement. “Now because our state policymakers have failed all students, we need to look to our federal policymakers to intervene in securing protection and inclusion for all student athletes.” Gov. Brian Kemp praised the GHSA vote on social media. Kemp successfully pushed a bill through the legislature this year to ban transgender athletes from high school sports. Kemp posted on Twitter: “Following my signature on HB 1084, the Georgia High School Association today voted to protect fairness in school sports by unanimously approving youth to compete according to the sex determined on his/her birth certificate. I’m proud to have championed this effort in Georgia!”
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JUNE 2022 | 33
