Wading into a national debate, the school board of Manhattan’s largest district could urge New York City to bar transgender girls from playing sports aligned with their gender identity.
Community Education Council 2 — which covers large swaths of Lower Manhattan to the Upper East Side — will vote on a resolution Wednesday that would form a review committee to propose changes to the current gender guidelines and assess potential impact on female athletes.
“Girls and women lose when their hard fought and won sports opportunities are ignored in favor of replacing sex with gender identity as a category,” said Maud Maron, the lead sponsor of the proposal.
The resolution, if passed, is nonbinding, but is drawing swift condemnation in the liberal areas of Manhattan, including from members of the LGBTQ+ community who see it as an attack.
“Their statements of the gender identity policy ‘hurting female athletes’ is false,” read an online petition with 2,800 signatories as of Tuesday evening, “and based on the incorrect idea that allowing trans students to participate in sports lessens the experience of other student athletes.”
The council’s proposal mirrors efforts underway across the nation and follows a similar push on Long Island by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
His executive order to block transgender girls from sports aligned with their gender identity at county-run facilities is facing threatened legal action from the Attorney General and and an active lawsuit from New York Civil Liberties Union. New York state law bans discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
Schools Chancellor David Banks strongly condemned the Long Island order as transphobic, promising to asses its practical implications for city school kids.
“At New York City Public Schools, all students have the right to have their gender, gender identity, and gender expression recognized and respected,” said spokeswoman Chyann Tull. “In our schools, every student can participate in sports and competitive athletics in accordance with their gender identity, and we prohibit any exclusion of students based on their gender identity or expression.”
CEC members are picked for the council in typically low-turnout parent elections.
The proposal has four co-sponsors, including Maron, who alongside her councilmate Charles Love headlined a recent controversial “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty event in Manhattan. Maron previously ran for City Council and Congress, and is a co-founder of the parent group Parent Leaders for Accelerated Curriculum and Education.
Maron, who came under fire in the media for saying “there is no such thing as trans kids,” described her positions as “not against trans people of any kind. It is pro-children and pro-healthy children.”
In 2019, the city released new gender guidelines that allow students to participate in sports aligned with their gender identity. Those decisions were previously made on a case-by-case basis, education news site Chalkbeat reported.
The CEC’s resolution questions whether female athletes were consulted on the guidelines, “despite the long history of female athletes fighting for equitable and meaningful access to sports participation,” it read.
It says the current rules raise concerns about “preserving and acknowledging decades of progress by NYC PSAL [Public Schools Athletic League] female athletes to achieve sports equity.”
Gavin Healy, a member of the CEC who will vote against the resolution, said he learned of it Saturday night after it was posted to the council’s website.
“My first reaction is this is just a complete red herring; it’s a made-up issue,” he said. “I’m not aware of any case of a student missing out on a trophy or medal or scholarship opportunity because of this policy.”
Healy said he’s spoken with District 2 families, including some people who are transgender, who feel the motion is an affront or attack on them. Transgender student athletes should not have to “negotiate” their identity with the CEC, he said:
“It’s your identity, and you’re entitled to it.”
