Washington
Amendments aimed at altering transgender athlete policy fail in Washington
The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association representative assembly passed seven amendments, including one sanctioning girls flag football.
Two amendments aimed at changing how transgender students in Washington participate in high school and middle school sports failed to garner enough support during a recent vote by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association’s representative assembly.
The assembly, which is comprised of 35 high school administrators and 18 middle school administrators, passed seven of 16 amendments in total, including one that will make girls flag football an officially-sanctioned sport and another that will change transfer eligibility rules in high school. Amendments to the WIAA handbook require 60% approval in order to pass.
The failure of two amendments involving transgender athletes stood out considering current WIAA policy allows students to compete in the division of gender they most consistently express.
One amendment aimed to restrict participation in girls’ sports (such as fastpitch and volleyball) and girls’ divisions of sports (such as soccer, wrestling, basketball, and track and field) to students who are assigned female at birth. That measure barely failed, with 31 votes of support and 22 votes against. Support from 32 votes was needed to achieve the 60% threshold.
A second amendment called for athletic programs to be offered for boys and girls, while a separate open division would be created for “athletes wishing to compete according to their gender identity, if differing from their assigned sex.” That measure only generated 13 votes of support, while 40 were against it.
Those two failed amendments, which drew local criticism in January during the representative assembly winter coalition, remained on the ballot as “advisory vote only” items after recently being declared in violation of state law “by the Attorney General’s office, the Office of Civil Rights, and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction,” WIAA director of communications Sean Bessette recently stated in a story in the Seattle Times.
Despite the failure of (these amendments), the Association’s message remains clear: The WIAA remains committed to following Washington state law and will continue to do so moving forward,” the WIAA said in a release Monday. “If state law changes in the future, the WIAA Executive Board holds the authority to revise policies accordingly — and now has input from the membership on how to proceed in that event, while remaining in compliance with state law.”
Flag football now an official sport, transfer limit set
Girls flag football generated enough support to become the first new sport to be officially-sanctioned by the WIAA since 1999: 22 assembly voters supported the amendment, while 13 opposed it.
In Kitsap County, girls flag football’s popularity increased significantly last winter. Two years ago, only South Kitsap and North Kitsap offered the sport. Last season, Bainbridge, Bremerton and Kingston fielded teams, while Olympic formed a team comprised of athletes from all across Central Kitsap School District.
Regarding high school athlete transfer rules, the assembly voted 29-6 in favor of an amendment that would allow students to transfer schools one time during their four-year career, but only during designated transfer periods. The transferring student would be ineligible for 40% of the maximum amount of allowable games played.
Other amendments that passed included one that would end soccer games at any point after 60 minutes once an eight-goal margin is achieved. Amendments that failed included one that would have increased the number of regular season baseball and fastpitch games allowed from 20 to 22, and another that would have increased the number of regular season soccer games from 16 to 18.