CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) – The policy concerning transgender athletes in Virginia high school sports is likely to be finalized this week.
The Virginia High School League (VHSL) is meeting in person on Wednesday, for the first time since their February vote to ban transgender girls from female sports teams in the Commonwealth.
Billy Haun, the Executive Director of the VHSL, says he called a special meeting after President Trump issued the executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” on February 5th. The Executive Committee then voted to align the state with the order and updated the VHSL policy to prohibit transgender athletes from playing for female teams.
“We’re not a league or an organization that wants to be in contempt of the law or not follow the law,” Haun said. “With a presidential executive order, we felt like we needed to do this.”
The two clauses of the policy that have changed are 28-A-1, the Transgender Policy, and PM 54-6-1, the Participation Limitation.
Now, according to the organization’s handbook, “Students who were assigned male at birth or are identifying as transgender females may not participate on a girls sports team other than cheerleading.”
Haun added that transgender athletes currently playing on female teams will no longer be able to do so. The handbook does not outline specific punishments for violations of the rule, but Haun says it would fall under the criteria for ineligibility and forfeiture.
“When you’re talking about losing federal funding and those kinds of things, that’s pretty serious stuff,” Haun said of the decision to comply with the order.
Shannon McKay, the Executive Director of He She Ze and We, a nonprofit that supports transgender and non-binary members of the community, is calling on the VHSL to reverse course.
“For the VHSL to change what they’re doing, that has been working for over a decade…it’s disappointing, to say the least,” McKay said.
Previously, if a transgender athlete wanted to play for a gender-specific team that did not align with the sex marker on their birth certificate, they were required to submit an appeal to the VHSL.
The VHSL says it has received 30 of these appeals in the past four years. It granted 27 and denied 3.
“This scrutiny that happens, to have to prove who you are, that you’re trans enough, is what keeps most trans folks out of athletics anyway,” McKay said. “I just think people are making this enormous deal over a small amount of people.”
For others in the Commonwealth, the policy change comes as a big victory. Attorney General Jason Miyares, who has repeatedly pushed for the ban, sent the following statement to 29News:
“The inherent biological differences between boys and girls range from chromosomal and hormonal differences to physiological differences,” Miyares wrote. “Allowing biological boys to compete in girls’ sports is unfair. The science is clear, and I am glad the Virginia High School League is working to protect the rights of our young Virginia female athletes.”
The Family Foundation, a conservative group that advocates for parental rights, agreed in a statement to 29News:
“Our schools and athletic organizations have a responsibility to protect the bodily privacy and safety of young girls, and to ensure they don’t have their chances to compete stolen by boys who already have their own athletic teams or clubs,” said Todd Gathje, Vice President of Governmental Rights. “VHSL’s decision to ratify these guidelines aligns with overwhelming public opinion with recent polls suggesting 75% support for this policy.”
McKay says it’s that type of language that she believes is part of the problem.
“It’s degrading and causing a lot of damage to the community of a group of folks who just need to survive,” McKay said.
Haun says the VHSL is planning to ratify the vote on Wednesday, which means confirming that the vote taken online was under the league’s purview and was valid.
McKay, who has a transgender daughter who has played on girls’ teams herself, is urging them to reconsider.
“The reason she wanted to play was not to win awards, to dominate a sport, or to take a scholarship away from someone else,” McKay said. “What she wanted was to extend her friend group…and that’s exactly what she did.”
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