This week, the Representative Assembly of the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association will be voting on 16 proposed amendments to the WIAA Handbook.
However, two of these proposals restricting eligibility of transgender athletes will be advisory-only votes after the WIAA determined that the proposed rule changes would violate state law.
The first proposal, ML/HS Amendment #7, would create two categories of competition — Boys/Open, in which all students would be eligible to compete “regardless of sex, gender identity or gender expression,” and a Girls category limited to “students who biological sex is female.”
The second proposal, ML/HS Amendment #8, would divide competition into three categories — boys, girls and open.
But Sean Bessette, director of communications for the WIAA, said in a statement last week to the Seattle Times: “The WIAA has been told by the Attorney General’s office, the Office for Civil Rights, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction that proposed amendments ML/HS #7 and ML/HS #8 would be a violation under current Washington state law, affirming our attorney’s legal review. The WIAA remains committed to following state law, and those amendments focused on gender-identity participation would not be implemented on August 1 if they were to pass under current state law.
“If state law were to change, the WIAA’s Executive Board has the authority and would need to alter the Association’s rules accordingly.”
Amendments to the WIAA Handbook are proposed each December. After review, those amendments are sent to the Representative Assembly for voting. The Representative Assembly is comprised of 53 high school and middle school administrators from each of the six WIAA districts.
For an amendment to pass, 60 percent approval is needed from the Assembly — 32 votes for middle school/high school amendments or 21 votes for amendments that only impact high school competition.
Thirteen school districts — from the Northwest, Central and Eastern parts of the state — plus one private school submitted Amendment #7.
While the topic of transgender athletic eligibility has been a hot-button topic in recent years, the issue gained momentum in the state of Washington after a transgender student from Spokane won the girls 400-meter state title at the 2A state track and field meet last May.
While proponents of the amendments will undoubtedly be frustrated by the WIAA’s change to an advisory vote — which is simply a non-binding reflection of sentiment — these proposals faced an uphill battle from the start.
First, there was the 60 percent approval threshold. There have been many much less controversial proposals in recent years that have struggled to win that 60-percent approval.
But even if these proposals gained approval, they would have faced challenges in the courts. And that likely would not change even if the state law were changed.
Laws passed in multiple states banning transgender athletes from girls competitions are currently being held up in the court system.
Regardless of what happens in the Representative Assembly vote, which runs April 9-18, this is an issue that won’t be going away any time soon.
Here’s a quick look at other proposed amendments of note:
- HS #4 would reduce the percentage of schools required to offer an activity or sport during the two-year trial. Currently those percentages are 20 in the first year and 40 in the second. The proposal seeks to drop those percentages to 15 and 25.
- HS #6 would add an opportunity for students to transfer schools after initially establishing their athletic eligibility at the start of their ninth-grade year.
- HS #11 would increase the regular-season contest limit for baseball, slowpitch softball and fastpitch softball from 20 to 22 games.
- HS #13 would sanction girls flag football as a high school sport. A similar amendment fell four votes short of passage last year.
- HS #14 would increase the regular-season contest limit in soccer from 16 to 18 matches.
- ML/HS #15 would establish a mercy rule that would end a soccer match early if one team is ahead by eight goals after 60 minutes of high school play and 45 minutes of middle school play. High school soccer matches are 80 minutes long, while middle school matches are 60 minutes long.
