Alaska board of training votes to ban transgender women from competing on highschool women groups

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Alaska state board of training on Thursday voted to bar transgender women from competing on highschool women athletic groups.

The board met in particular session and accredited on a 7-1 vote a regulation saying, “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 solely dissenting vote got here from Felix Myers, the highschool consultant on the board. The army advisor on the board abstained.

The resolution relies upon evaluate and last approval by the state’s lawyer basic’s workplace.

The board had initially taken up the matter in July, but it surely delayed its vote after listening to greater than 2 1/2 hours of testimony and receiving about 1,400 pages of written feedback.

The board didn’t take any public feedback on the newest assembly. However, member Lorri Van Diest mentioned the sooner feedback had been about evenly cut up till a conservative household advocacy group in Anchorage submitted a petition and feedback after the deadline, giving the ban’s proponents a large edge.

The agenda mentioned the state authorities administration had no suggestion on whether or not the proposal ought to go. But Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy has mentioned the regulation is required to make sure equity in women sports.

At least 22 states have legal guidelines that forestall transgender women from taking part in on women’ groups in Ok-12 faculties. Some of the legal guidelines additionally maintain transgender boys off boys groups, and a few apply the ban to school athletics.