FILE - Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks to reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol, April 28, 2022, in Juneau, Alaska. The Alaska state board of education on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, voted to support banning transgender girls from competing on high school girls athletic teams, sending the issue to the attorney general. Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who appointed the members of the state education board, has said the regulation is needed to ensure fairness in girls sports.
On Thursday, the board met in special session and approved on a 7-1 vote a regulation saying, “If a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth.” The board did not take any public comments at the latest meeting. However, member Lorri Van Diest said the earlier comments were about evenly split until a conservative family advocacy group in Anchorage submitted a petition and comments after the deadline, giving the ban's proponents a wide edge.
“The decision before us today is difficult with the main question of how to balance inclusion, competitive fairness and safety in high school girls athletics,” Van Diest said before the vote, adding she was “part of the group which prioritizes competitive fairness and safety for high school girl athletes.”
“If this were not true, we wouldn't need Title IX or separate sport divisions for boys and girls and roughly half the members of high school football teams would be girls," he said. Some high school football teams in Alaska have both boys and girls on the squads. “We clearly have a duty to promote the principles of fairness and equity for biological women and girls,” he said.
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