Manhattan school district passes resolution demanding NYC re-evaluate transgender sports policy

The Community Education Council District 2 in Manhattan, New York, passed a measure 8-3 on Wednesday calling for a public review of the city's policy allowing trans-identified males to compete in female sports.

The resolution claimed that the gender guidelines the New York City Department of Education developed in 2019 did not "indicate that female athletes, coaches, or sports medicine doctors or evolutionary biology experts were ever consulted or considered despite the long history of female athletes fighting for equitable and meaningful access to sports participation."

"The Guidelines were developed by the City’s first LGBTQ Liaison and stakeholders who were already supportive of replacing sex with gender identity," It noted.

The school board requested that New York City Public Schools "immediately convenes a Gender Guidelines review committee which: Includes NYC PSAL female athletes, parents, coaches, relevant medical professionals and evolutionary biology experts; and Is authorized to propose amendments, changes, and additions to the Gender Guidelines which are the result of an inclusive, evidence-based process concerning the impact on female athletes when the category of sex is replaced by gender identity."

According to The New York Post, the school board meeting was filled with city council members, parents, and even trans-identified female actor Elliot Page, formerly Ellen, to speak against the controversial measure. In 2010, Page revealed that Page had grown up playing sports.

Department of Education employee and parent, Jared Danker claimed the resolution would "marginalize and discriminate against a group of students who need our affirmation and support."

"We are outraged that you’re considering a resolution targeting transgender girls and sports," New York City Council member Erik Bottcher said. "It is utterly shocking that such a regressive and harmful resolution is being proposed in the school district in the middle of Manhattan."

Sponsor of the resolution CEC member, Maud Maron, pushed back on the criticism of the resolution. "If we have a proper and real conversation, one of the outcomes could be that nothing changes and that we all discover that these guidelines are just perfect as they are,” she told the Post.

"But another one of the possibilities is that we realize that the excluded voices had something really important to offer and they should have been heard from in the beginning," Maron added.

CEC president Leonard Silverman shared doubt that the vote will make much of a difference. "Unfortunately my experience has been that organizations including the community education councils, are sometimes created to give the appearance that parents have control over process when the reality is, that we really don’t have any control," he said.