On February 6th, the NCAA announced that the Board of Governors updated its policy for transgender student-athletes. The changes were in response to an executive order by the Trump administration. The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student athletes assigned female at birth only.
The President of NCAA stated:
The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.
Despite these changes, MCPS remains absolute and non-responsive to the policies it has regarding transgender participation in MCPS athletics. Currently still accessible is MCPS Athletics Inclusion for All Gender Identity Guidance.
The guidance specifies:
Per MPSSAA guidance and to ensure competitive fairness, the integrity of women’s sports, and equal opportunities to participate without discrimination, transgender and gender nonconforming students in MCPS shall be permitted to participate on the interscholastic athletics team of—
- the student’s sex assigned at birth; or
- the gender to which the student has transitioned; or
- the student’s asserted gender identity.
MPSSAA is the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association. However, MPSSAA has recently removed its Guidance for Participation of Transgender Youth in Athletics, a document that the MPCS LGBTQ page still tries to link to.
So where does MCPS currently stand? Will they change their policy or continue to allow girls that attend MCPS have their spots on teams, locker room privacy, and chance for scholarships undermined?
