If you’d like to take a walk down memory lane, New Hampshire has a colorful relationship with allowing boys and men to play girls and women’s sports. From flag lawsuits to sexual predator relatives, there’s no shortage of soap-opera-level intrigue. One consistent thing is the effort by activists to save women’s sports and that of gender warriors to label them as bigots for doing it.
Last year, the story became even more contentious after the state passed a law prohibiting boys from playing in girls’ school sports. A lawsuit followed—still under consideration—and several stories we followed went national and global.
All of that changed when Donald Trump won the presidency last November and, in January, revoked any federal funding for schools that allowed boys to steal spots, trophies, or scholarships from girls. Lawsuits followed (over the loss of funding) but the culture has shifted. There is no Federal Title IX interpretation of rules to support any notion that Girl’s Sports teams should include anyone who decides they are a girl.
In the wake of this seachange from sea to allegedly rising sea, local, state, and national organizations are changing their stance on allowing boys to play as girls. The NCAA announced it would prohibit the practice before President Trump’s signature was dry, and late last week, the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association announced the suspension of NHIAA By-Law Article II Sect. 21.
Prior to the change the NHIAA By-Law read as follows.
Sect. 21: Policy Statement and School Recommendation Regarding Transgender Participation The NHIAA is committed to providing transgender student-athletes with equal opportunities to participate in NHIAA athletic programs consistent with their gender identity. Hence, this policy addresses eligibility determinations for students who have a gender identity that is different from the gender listed on their official birth certificates.
The NHIAA has concluded that it would be fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable State and Federal Law to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team that is consistent with the public gender identity of that student for all other purposes. Therefore, for purposes of sports participation, the NHIAA shall defer to the determination of the student and his or her local school regarding gender identification. In this regard, the school district shall determine a student’s eligibility to participate in a NHIAA gender specific sports team based on the gender identification of that student in current school records and daily life activities in the school and community at the time that sports eligibility is determined for a particular season. Accordingly, when a school district submits a roster to the NHIAA, it is verifying that it has determined that the students listed on a gender-specific sports team are entitled to participate on that team due to their gender identity, and that the school district has determined that the expression of the student’s gender identity is bona fide and not for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage in competitive athletics.
Students who wish to participate on a NHIAA gender-specific sports team that is different from the gender identity listed on the student’s current school records are advised to address the gender identification issue with the local school district well in advance of the deadline for athletic eligibility determinations for a current sports season. Students should not be permitted to participate in practices or to try out for gender specific sports teams that are different from their publicly identified gender identity at that time or to try out
simultaneously for NHIAA sports teams of both genders. Nothing in this policy shall be read to entitle a student to selection to any particular team or to permit a student to transfer from one gender specific team to a team of a different gender during a sports season. In addition, the NHIAA shall expect that, as a general matter, after the issue of gender identity has been explicitly addressed by the student and the school district, the determination shall remain consistent for the remainder of the student’s high school sports eligibility. The NHIAA has concluded that this policy adequately addresses the concerns that a student might claim a particular gender identity for the purpose of gaining a perceived advantage in athletic competition, but does not unfairly discriminate against transgendered student athletes.
NHIAA was careful to avoid complicity with lawbreaking but, at the same time, propped up schools that used this as a crutch even after state law prohibited boys from playing on girls’ teams in school sports. While the NHIAA eligibility By-aw change may not dissuade the wokest districts in the state, the suspension of Article II Section 21 knocks the crutch out from under them.
The carefully worded eligibility based on perceived gender has been suspended.
Here is the Feb 14th Press Release from NHIAA, sent to all member schools across the state.
You can read more about the NHIAA here.
