The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA), the governing body for various school sponsored sports games in Pennsylvania, removed the transgender policy and amended Article XVI of its policy and procedure manual on Mixed Gender Participation. The organization announced the changes “to be in effect immediately” at the Feb. 19 PIAA board of directors’ meeting. The article cites President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” signed on Feb. 5 as the reasoning behind the decision.
The organization now references “sex” instead of “gender” and states that the “school” instead of “principal” is in charge of determining if a student can participate in the amended section. It adds that “schools are required to consult with their school solicitors relative to compliance with the Order” 14201.
“The PIAA board of directors’ position on the executive order is binding to all PIAA member schools that accept federal funding,” said PIAA assistant executive director Lyndsay Barna in a statement to the Beaver County Times. “The board is following the order.”
The executive order states its purpose is to only allow athletes assigned female at birth to compete in women’s sports through rescinding federal funding from educational programs that do not comply. Written prior to the executive order and PIAA changes, TESD Regulation 6146 states that district schools will follow the PIAA’s By-Law Article XVI of mixed gender participation. It also states that although athletes generally will compete on sports teams that correspond with their birth gender, the district can make exceptions as long as they align with the PIAA and do not prevent the team from competing with “other teams of the District’s team’s gender designation” n PIAA-sponsored games.
Several Conestoga teams participate in PIAA-sponsored tournaments as part of District 1. Maureen Gregory is the District 1 Women’s Officials Representative for the organization.
“My cousin is transgender, and I love him unconditionally. It is a years’ long process that involves so much more than most of us will ever know. This decision, carefully and thoughtfully made, is not decided overnight,” Gregory wrote in an email. “Anyone interested in learning more should do some research. What is a level playing field? The answer is constantly evolving as more is learned and understood. In the meantime, sports’ governing bodies, i.e., PIAA and the NCAA, set their own policies and procedures.”
In response to Executive Order 14201, the National Association for Intercollegiate Athletics also revised its policies to only allow athletes assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports.
Junior and Conestoga Gender/Sexuality Alliance co-president Celeste Russo competes in wheelchair basketball games. She feels that the executive order and related policy changes fuel claims regarding the LGBTQ+ community that are misinformed, such as that support for transgender athlete participation in women’s sports is “letting quote, unquote men playing in women’s sports.”
“It negatively impacts the (LGBTQ+) community for no reason. And, as an athlete, I know that sports are for everybody,” Russo said. “I really think that it’s a lot of pointing fingers, and it’s a lot of saying things that aren’t true just because we’re the community they’re talking about.”
On March 6, the Women’s Law Project and Education Law Center wrote an open letter condemning the PIAA policy. Representatives from the Philadelphia School District stated that the district would allow transgender students to compete in sports matching their gender identity and that competition participation would be “resolved on a case-by-case basis” as according to Philadelphia School District school board policy 252.
Valerie Cunningham, an adviser of the Conestoga Gender/Sexuality Alliance, said that some LGBTQ+ students feel nervous regarding legislation affecting the LGBTQ+ community.
“There’s hateful rhetoric that is coming out through that conversation that students are feeling, whether they are a transgender athlete or not,” Cunningham said. “I think that this conversation is something that is also happening on a broader level, just about the right for transgender people to exist, and sometimes that’s happening under the guise of the conversation around transgender individuals in sports.”
Faith Zantua can be reached at [email protected].
