“By the time we get some data somewhere down the road, there could be a lot of girls who’ve lost a lifetime opportunity,” Runestad told Bridge Michigan.
The proposal would likely impact only a small number of students: The Michigan High School Athletic Association has received and approved only 10 transgender athlete eligibility requests in the past five years, according to spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly.
“It’s very, very few,” he said. “It’s an average of two per school year.”
Under a policy adopted in 2012, the MHSAA determines post-season tournament eligibility for transgender athletes on a case-by-case basis. The association considers factors, including whether the student has begun testosterone suppression therapy or undergone gender-reassignment surgery.
“This policy has worked for us, and it’s worked for schools,” Kimmerly said. “We haven’t had any issues.”
Supporters argue the new legislation would “protect female sports.” But as written, it would also prohibit cisgender girls — those whose gender matches their sex assigned at birth — from joining designated boys teams.
Roughly 800 girls played on boys high school teams in Michigan last year, including more than 300 wrestlers, according to Kimmerly. Some girls simply want to compete against boys, and others join boys teams because their school does not have a separate program for their sport, he said.
Runestad, who is among 13 out of 20 Senate Republicans backing the measure, said transgender girls should not be able to participate in girls sports because there is a clear “genetic advantage to being born a biological male.”
He noted that in 1998, Venus and Serena Williams claimed they could beat any male tennis player outside of the world’s top 200 but were both defeated by No. 203 Karsten Braasch. In 2017, nearly 300 boys rivaled the fastest 400-meter time by gold medal sprinter Allyson Fox.
“So if you allow biological males to get in and compete, their records are gone, the college scholarships for girls are gone, the records that women set are gone, and I think it’s wrong,” Runestad said.
But just like other students, transgender athletes “vary in terms of their athletic abilities, and it’s a myth and a mistruth that somehow they have a competitive advantage in school sports,” said Knott, the executive director of Equality Michigan.
Having lost their fight against gay marriage in 2015 and their fight against workplace anti-discrimination protections in 2020, social conservatives are now “targeting our most vulnerable young people here in Michigan,” she argued.
“I think that it’s disgusting.”
The State Board of Education in 2016 issued guidance to Michigan school districts recommending they allow transgender students to participate in interscholastic sports programs “in accordance with their gender identity.”
The ACLU of Michigan in 2017 worked with a Jackson-area transgender student to persuade her district to allow her to join the girls track team. Other districts including Ann Arbor Schools have adopted transgender-friendly policies on their own.
“School officials shouldn’t treat a transgender female student as a young woman between the hours of 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., and then flip to treat her as if she’s a young man when sports practice starts,” Knott said. “It’s hurtful to the student and disrupts the school’s policy of treating kids fairly.”
Critics contend the proposal, if enacted, would also violate established anti-discrimination laws, which several state and federal courts have interpreted to protect gay and transgender residents on the basis of “sex.”
The U.S. Supreme Court last year delivered a major victory to LGBT employees last year when it ruled in favor of a transgender Michigan woman who sued after she was fired for transitioning.
Advocates say transgender students are already some of the most “vulnerable” to discrimination, and researchers say they are more likely to suffer from mental health issues like depression and suicide as a result.
“Trans students participate in sports for the same reasons other young people do: to challenge themselves, improve fitness, and be part of a team,” said Jay Kaplan, LGBT Rights Project attorney for the ACLU of Michigan.
“Excluding trans students from participation deprives them of opportunities available to their peers and sends the message they are not worthy of a full life.”
