From Maine Public Broadcasting Network: http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNewsArchive/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3475/ItemId/27138/Default.aspx
Transgender high school students in Maine will now be able to play for sports teams that match their gender identity. The Maine Principals’ Association yesterday gave final approval to the new policy.
By: Samantha Fields
03/29/2013
Until now, students in Maine could only participate on sports teams according to their biological gender. There were certain exceptions that allowed girls to try out for boys’ teams when there was not an equivalent girls’ team. But Dick Durost, of the Maine Principals’ Association, says that if a transgender athlete who identified as male wanted to swim or play basketball, his only option was to play for a girls’ team.
“Within the last year or so I’ve had a couple requests from transgender students to consider looking at present policy to see whether we might be able to address some of their needs and concerns,” Durost says.
Durost found that there are only a handful of states that have policies designed to accommodate transgender student-athletes. Those include Vermont, Colorado and Washington state. Durost says the Maine Principals’ Association drew on those states’ guidelines and experiences in putting together its Transgender Participation Policy, which was approved overwhelmingly by schools that are members of the MPA.
“There was one vote opposed to the policy, so that’s the kind of support that it had,” he says.
Under the new policy, transgender students will have to submit a request to the school, along with documentation that their gender identity differs from the biological sex they were assigned at birth. The school will then request a confidential hearing before an MPA Gender Identity Equity Committee.
“The request will be granted unless the committee determines that it’s not a bona fide or legitimate request, or if there is the danger of an undue athletic competitive advantage, or the risk of harm or injury to others,” Durost says.
Continue reading at: http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNewsArchive/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3475/ItemId/27138/Default.aspx
