Mead School District decries transgender girls’ participation in sports with resolution at busy board meeting

The Mead School Board denounced transgender girls’ participation in school sports through a resolution approved unanimously Monday night.

While current state law prevents the district from changing anything, Mead joins other school districts in an effort to bar female transgender athletes from competing in girls sports across Washington schools.

The resolution cites the safety of female athletes and “fairness in competition” motivating their stance against “biological males” playing in “biological female competition categories.”

“The Mead School District recognizes the inherent biological and physiological differences that exist between male and female students,” the resolution reads. “These differences place male students at an advantage for physical performance in athletic competitions.”

The evening meeting at Mead’s events complex drew a large crowd, with some compelled to speak on the resolution and others in support of a union bargaining rally that occurred prior to the meeting.

Over a dozen people spoke in support of the resolution, thanking district officials for bringing forth the issue. Speakers addressed safety and fairness, some describing a hopelessness felt by cisgender female athletes who compete against transgender female athletes.

Mead High School graduate Becky Clark was one such speaker. She described competing in girls sports in Mead in an era before Title IX, enacted in 1972 to prevent sex-based discrimination in public school sports.

“When I finished my fight for Title IX, I thought it was all over, that girls were safe,” Clark said. “That’s no longer the case. Now I have to step up and fight again.”

Both state law and Title IX protections list transgender identity as a protected class.

Spokane City Councilman Jonathan Bingle spoke in support of the resolution, as his district on city council slightly overlaps with Mead school district.

“This is about fairness to female athletes,” Bingle said, wearing a “protect girls sports” T-shirt. “It’s about making sure that the next generation of young women will compete safely, and their hard work, dedication and talent will be rewarded, not undermined by forces beyond their control.”

No one spoke opposed to the resolution.

Reading a statement upon passage, Board Vice President BrieAnne Gray said the resolution wasn’t meant to target the students, rather the adults at the regulatory level who implement and enforce policy.

“It is not the children who created these rules, it is the adults who have failed them,” Gray read. “It is our job as adults to fix them and protect our female athletes.”

Passage doesn’t spur any changes to Mead’s participation in sports policies. The main governing body for state high school athletics, Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, permits students to play for the team “that is consistent with their gender identity.” This means that transgender girls play on girls teams, and transgender boys play on the boys team.

The resolution adds Mead to a list of school districts supporting an effort to amend this WIAA policy, restricting girls’ teams to athletes assigned female at birth. Lynden School District in Northwest Washington proposed the initial amendment on Oct. 7, with 13 other school districts in support, according to the district’s website. Other supporting districts include Wenatchee’s Eastmont, Moses Lake and College Place, near Walla Walla.

Lawmakers from 25 states have proposed restricting transgender participation in athletics in recent years; the first passed in Idaho in 2020. This law and others are facing legal challenges; a federal appeals court prevented the Idaho law from going into effect with an outstanding injunction. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador in July petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the injunction.

The topic of transgender girls playing sports is gaining attention globally and locally, picking up speed this summer in Washington after a transgender girl from East Valley High School won a state track competition. School administration is supportive of the student and her participation in sports.

For a WIAA amendment to pass, 60% of the association’s membership must vote in support of the amendment. There are 53 school administrators representing the association’s nine districts included in membership.