When one girl left her competitors in the dust at a state athletics competition in Utah last year, not everyone was impressed with her inspirational athleticism. The parents of the girls who came in second and third couldn’t accept the winner had simply “outcompeted” their daughter — so they questioned her gender, sparking controversy. a secret investigation that delves into the personal history of the winners.
At a meeting of the Utah Legislature’s Interim Committee on Education Wednesday, a school sports official recounted the grim investigation and added that it was not an isolated incident. David Spatafore, legislative representative for the Utah High School Activity Association (UHSAA), told the committee that his organization has received numerous complaints in which parents claim that “female athletes don’t look good enough” girly.”
Spatafore would not disclose the sport or school involved in the case where the winner overtook her competitors last year. But he did reveal that UHSAA had asked the student’s school to investigate by reviewing her enrollment records. “School went back to kindergarten,” Spatafore said, “And she was always a girl.”
Neither the student nor her family were informed of the investigation. “We do not contact parents or students simply because if all eligibility questions have been answered by the school or feeder system schools, there is no reason to turn it over. personal circumstances with that one family or athlete,” Spatafore explained, according to News about the desert.
Such covert control of children’s bodies was carried out in Utah by HB11, a controversial bill passed by the House and Senate in March bans transgender girls from competing in school sports. Republican Party member Governor Spencer Cox was among the bill’s critics, pointing out at the time of the vote that, of the four transgender children in the state who play sports, only one of them is a girl, CBS News reported. Despite the new rules essentially banning a child from competing in school sports, Cox’s veto was overturned by the state legislature and re-enacted.
If a lawsuit is filed against a transgender student’s ban, the law defaults to a commission assessing whether the student is eligible to play. Utah’s ACLU in May filed such a lawsuit on behalf of two transgender female students enrolled in public schools in the state, arguing that the rules are unconstitutional and discriminatory.
For its part, the USHAA is trying to follow the tenets of HB11 as closely as possible, Spatafore said. Based on LGBT map18 states have introduced bans that prevent transgender students from participating in sports that are consistent with their gender identity.
