From The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/us/transgender-high-school-students-gain-admission-to-sports-teams.html?_r=0
By IAN LOVETT
Published: May 6, 2013
LOS ANGELES — Not so long ago, Toni Bias dreamed of playing in the W.N.B.A. But after starring on the girls’ junior varsity basketball team as a high school freshman, Toni came out as transgender last summer, began going by the name Tony and started transitioning to male.
At the time, California had no policy governing transgender high school athletes. Already finding himself the target of bullies, who often taunt him with “he-she,” Tony feared he would have to endure even more abuse if he pushed to try out for the boys’ team.
So he made a wrenching decision: he quit basketball.
“They don’t understand I’m not trying to pretend to be someone else,” Tony, now a 16-year-old sophomore at River City High School in Sacramento, said. “I’m just trying to be who I was all along.”
Professional sports have grappled with this question for decades, since Renée Richards, who was born male, underwent sex-change surgery and sued the United States Tennis Association to be allowed to play in the women’s draw at the 1977 U.S. Open: How, if at all, should transgender athletes be allowed to compete?
Over the last decade, the International Olympic Committee and the National Collegiate Athletic Association have adopted regulations for athletes who were born male but now consider themselves females and want to play on women’s teams.
And now, high schools are beginning to take on the issue as well, as a small but growing number students who identify themselves as transgender have begun demanding access to the same school activities, like interscholastic sports, that other students enjoy.
More than half a dozen states, from Washington to Massachusetts, have adopted rules to allow transgender students to compete on teams that correspond with their gender identities rather than the sex listed on their school records. Half a dozen more states are considering similar regulations. And a bill in the Legislature would make California the first to specifically guarantee by law that transgender students like Tony are allowed to play school sports.
“Transgender students deserve equal access to everything in public education, including sports,” said Tom Ammiano, the state assemblyman sponsoring the bill. “You can’t discriminate just because you’re uncomfortable with a young man transitioning to become a young woman.”
Continue reading at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/us/transgender-high-school-students-gain-admission-to-sports-teams.html?_r=0
