Uniform Rules: Addressing the Disparate Rules That Deny Student-Athletes the Opportunity to Participate in Sports according to Gender Identity
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UNIFORM RULES: ADDRESSING THE DISPARATE
RULES THAT DENY STUDENT-ATHLETES THE
OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN SPORTS
ACCORDING TO GENDER IDENTITY
INTRODUCTION
Grade-school and college playing fields have long been segre-
gated on the basis of sex. For decades, male and female students
were afforded the opportunity to participate in interscholastic
athletic competitions on teams determined by their biological
gender. Recently, an increasing number of high school- and col-
lege-aged [students are publicly] identifying as transgender (or
trans), meaning that their internal sense of their gender identity
is different from the gender they were assigned at birth.1 The
emergence of openly transgender students in grade schools and
colleges, in general, has resulted in vastly disparate rules prom-
ulgated by school districts to address how transgender individu-
als fit into the traditional operation of the education system.2 For
the states that have enacted policies that address transgender
students' participation in interscholastic athletics, the guidance
varies widely, and some states' policies are so discriminatory that
they effectively deny transgender students' participation on their
schools' sports teams. While the issue of transgender individuals'
participation in sports has not been the most visible issue con-
1. Pat Griffin & Helen J. Carroll, On the Team: Equal Opportunity for Transgender
Student Athletes, NCLR (Oct. 4, 2010), http://www.wiaa.comConDocs/Con550/Transgend
erStudentAthleteReport.pdf.
2. See, e.g., Emanuella Grinberg, Bathroom Access for Transgender Teen Divides
Missouri Town, CNN (Sept. 5, 2015, 3:37 PM), http://www.cnn.com2015/09/03/living/miss
ouri-transgender-teen-feat/ (addressing a Missouri town's reaction to a transgender stu-
dent's use of the bathroom and locker room that conformed with the student's gender-
identity); Ed Payne & John Newsome, US: Illinois Transgender Student Must Get Ful
Locker Room Access, CNN (Nov. 3, 2015, 6:21 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/us/illin
ois-school-district-transgender-ruling (discussing Illinois resolution to allow a trans-
gender teen to use the locker room according to his gender identity for mandatory physical
education class); Gabrielle Sorto, Students Protest Growing over Gender-Equal Dress
Codes, CNN (Feb. 25, 2016, 12:43 PM), http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/25/living/dress-code-
protests-irpt/ (discussing student reactions to protest a school board's decision not to revise
a decades-old dress code that may violate state gender-rights law).](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/urich51&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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