The debate on the victory of a transgender student at a girls gathering meeting of the high school was heated in a meeting of the School Board at the Illinois suburbs this week.
The meeting took place at Jefferson Middle School in Naperville, about 30 miles west Chicago, where the student athlete won multiple events, becoming a microcosm of a national debate about trans athletes in sports.
During the public comments at a meeting of the Board of the 203 School District of the Community Unit of Naperville, almost 100 parents could be seen at the audience, some raising transgender pride flags, others that contain signals that said “protect the sports of girls” and “stop exploiting boys.”
At one point, a audience member could be heard “protect trans young people” before being escorted outside the meeting.
Parents in opposition to student participation in the meeting have requested that federal funds freeze in district 203 until the Board changes the course of their athletics policies, arguing that they violate the title IX.
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities that receive federal funds.
Awake Illinois, a non -profit organization that advocated the attention of minors who affirm the genre, filed a federal civil rights complaint against the district for the meeting.
The parents who spoke at the meeting
Illinois’s Human Rights Law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in educational environments in the State.
“Transgender, non -binary and non -gender students often face barrier Human Rights. to full participation or the equal enjoyment of extracurricular activities due to their identity related to gender. “
In a statement, District 203 said it is “committed to protecting the privacy of all students.”
“In accordance with the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Law (Ferpa) and the District’s policy, we cannot and we will not share personal or identifiable information about any student without the appropriate consent,” reads the statement. “Regarding our procedures, Naperville 203 adheres to the Illinois Human Rights Law and the guide of the Illinois State Education Board, which prohibits discrimination in schools and guarantees total and equal access to programs and services, regardless of gender identity or other protected characteristics.”
No measures were taken at the meeting on Monday.
“The initial reaction to start judicial cases before the Department of Justice and convert the life of a 13 -year -old child in a show … That is not something very human,” said Kristal Larson with the LGBTQ center in Grayslake to NBC Chicago.
Larson said that a child’s ability to participate in sports is essential for his mental health.
Dr. Kelsey Leonardsmith, who treats transgender boys from several states of the family tree clinic in Minneapolis, and is a professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Minnesota, said that transgender girls and women are already sub -present in sports and constitute only a small percentage of student athletes. She played the claim of critics that allowing them to participate in the sport of girls gives them unfair advantages and puts other girls in physical danger.
“Turning off the trans girls does not help anyone, and is deeply harmful to those who excludes,” Leonardsmith said. “On the surface, it eliminates the opportunities of physical activity, for the physical state, to belong. But at a more fundamental level, it tells trans young people:” We do not believe, you are not real, “and it is difficult to imagine a more harmful message to send children.”
The cases of transgender athletes in women’s sports have been in the center of the debates nationwide since President Donald Trump assumed the position.
In 2022, the NCAA used a sports approach to Deportivo to allow transgender athletes to participate, postponing to the National Government Organization of an individual sport, the International Federation or the previous criteria of the International Olympic Committee.
The NCAA changed its policy on the day after Trump signed an executive order on February 5 that was intended to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports. That ended his sports practice by athlete in favor of a general policy that only allows athletes assigned to women at birth participating in women’s sports.
The Illinois High School Association “allows the participation of students consisting of their gender identity subject to applicable federal and state laws,” although state officials have urged to communicate with federal authorities to “provide a clear direction.”
The Department of Education has already opened volleyball reviews of the San José State University, the Public Schools of Denver, the Public Schools of Portland, the Association of School Activities of Oregon and the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Massachusetts, among others.
This story first appeared at NBC Chicago
