Playing sports is one of the joys of high school. Sports can be really enjoyable to watch and participate in. You learn valuable lessons of teamwork and you have the opportunity to make lasting friendships with all kinds of people. One would hope that gender fairness in the high school sports experience would never become a hot topic of controversy in the state of Utah today, but alas, it has.
Spencer Cox, the Governor of Utah, vetoed a bill that would ban transgender students from participating and competing in high school sports. Now legislative leaders are putting forth an effort to try and override his veto, and are confident that they have enough support to do so.
“I believe in fairness and protecting the integrity of women’s sports. Unfortunately, HB11 has several fundamental flaws which is why I’ve chosen to veto it,” Cox tweeted last week.
Outside of the fairness issue for transgender students, there is also a high possibility that the state could face lawsuits over the ban that could cost millions of dollars.
Currently there are 75,000 Utah students involved in school sports. Of that number only four are transgender, and only one of the four competes in girls sports. The AP reports that currently, there are no known public concerns about competitive advantages in the state.
Originally I had thought that if there are plenty of transgenders out there in America why don’t we create a sports category specifically for them. But four kids isn’t enough for that.
In 2016 a UCLA study found that among adults, 0.6% identify as transgender, about twice as many as a decade earlier.
Another thing to note is that the media has been talking specifically about transgender people competing in women’s sports (above high school). If a transgender woman steps up to compete with other women, again more often then not, they perform better.
For decades women have fought for rights to play sports on a level playing field, but the transgender issue has threatened that fairness, as fairness is weighed against inclusion.
In December the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute pointed out the differences in male and female biology in sports, and then suggested that both fairness and inclusion could be achieved by preserving women’s sports, and by changing men’s sports to a category called “open.” Since then, others have agreed with this idea, such as the editorial board of The Economist.
As a girl in high school myself, I have participated in games where girls and boys mixed. As you would imagine, it’s not as fun as if we just had it separated. The guys have to be self aware of how hard they play so they don’t accidentally hurt one of the girls, and it’s frustrating for the girls because they are playing their hardest and it’s not doing much against the boys who are naturally stronger overall.
In the end we’re all people here, and there’s not a single one of us who isn’t here to have fun, and truly I see nothing wrong with that. There are issues, however, and we do need to be aware of them.
– by Ella Hughes (18) Panguitch
Feature image courtesy Rick Bowmer/AP photo.
Ella Hughes – Panguitch
Ella Hughes is a junior journalist and editor at The Byway. She has recently graduated from Panguitch High School and has written for The Byway for two years now. Her favorite topics to write about are history as well as present-day local events. In her free time she enjoys singing, watching movies, reading books, and spending time with her family she adores.
Ella is currently serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She is serving in the Philippines Tacloban Mission.