Alaska bans trans girls from participating in high school sports

Alaska has banned transgender girls from participating in girls’ high school sports.

In late August, the Alaska Board of Education, appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, voted to adopt a proposal limiting transgender girls’ participation in school athletics. As the Alaska Beacon notes, the proposal required the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA), which regulates the state’s school athletics, to create a sports division limited to students who were assigned female at birth.

Related: Alaska Board of Education votes to ban trans girls from girls’ high school teams

The board’s student representative was the only member to vote against the proposal.

On Monday, the ASAA voted 5­–3 to change its bylaws, bringing them into compliance with the Board of Education’s anti-trans policy.

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“If a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth,” the ASAA’s bylaws now read.

“Whenever a school has separate divisions based on sex, one team shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth. The other team shall open to both females and males. However, a female is ineligible to compete on both teams during the same school year.”

The changes also allow for schools to declare sports teams coed, in which case schools are not allowed to have a second team in the same sport. “Any school declaring a coed team may not compete in any district, regional or state competition in the division limited to females who were assigned female at birth,” the amendment reads.

According to the Movement Advancement Project, 23 U.S. states have passed laws banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. In others, like Alaska, regulations have been instituted banning or limiting transgender girls’ participation in sports, the Alaska Beacon notes.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration proposed a change to Title IX guidance, the federal law banning sex discrimination in federally funded schools, which would make it illegal for schools to ban trans students from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity.

In March, Dunleavy introduced education policy proposals that included a requirement for parental consent before a student can be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns and a ban on students using school bathrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond to the sex they were assigned at birth. A revised version of those proposals has yet to pass the state legislature, according to the Alaska Beacon.