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34 T. M. Cooley L. Rev. 121 (2017-2018)
Girls Will Be Boys, and Boys Will Be Girls: The Emergence of the Transgender Athlete and a Game Plan for High Schools That Want to Keep Their Playing Fields Level for All Student Athletes

handle is hein.journals/tmclr34 and id is 135 raw text is: GIRLS WILL BE BOYS, AND BOYS WILL BE GIRLS: THE EMERGENCE OF THE TRANSGENDER ATHLETE AND A GAME PLAN FOR HIGH SCHOOLS THAT WANT TO KEEP THEIR PLAYING FIELDS LEVEL FOR ALL STUDENT ATHLETES RAY D. HACKE* ABSTRACT High school sports programs have long maintained separate teams for boys and girls. Doing so has not only increased opportunities for girls in interscholastic athletics, it has also protected them from the physical and psychological harms that come with facing boys on the field and undressing around them off of it. The emergence of the transgender athlete, whose perception of what gender he or she is does not match the athlete's biological gender, places public high schools in a thorny position: Must schools accommodate transgender athletes by permitting them to compete on teams oftheir chosen gender? Ifschools do accommodate such athletes, can they place restrictions on the athletes' participation? In this article, Ray D. Hacke examines the transgender issue through the lenses of three laws (or sets of laws): 1) The U.S. Constitution's Equal Protection Clause, which permits sex- based segregation of school sports programs where such segregation redresses invidious discrimination toward girls and accounts for physiological differences between genders; 2) Title IX, the federal law that was specifically enacted to ensure equal educational opportunities for women and which has greatly increased female participation in sports; and 3) state laws requiring accommodation of transgender athletes, which must yield to federal laws where the two conflict. Ultimately, Hacke concludes that schools, and the athletic * Ray D. Hacke is an attorney who lives in California and has been licensed to practice law for five years. An award-winning sportswriter before attending the University of the Pacific's McGeorge School of Law-and to a limited degree since-Mr. Hacke has spent a great deal of time around, and has a tremendous passion for, high school sports. He has also developed a passion for constitutional law, which he now practices as a staff attorney for the Pacific Justice Institute, for whom he clerked in law school. Mr. Hacke is married and has a 6-year-old daughter, Ava.

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