LET’S TALK ABOUT IT…
Are Boys Allowed in Girls Spaces?

Forty-six seconds.

Forty-six seconds in the ring was all it took for Olympic Italian boxer Angela Carini to decide she could not fight Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, due to the power of the Algerian boxer’s punches. According to the International Boxing Association, Khelif has XY chromosomes. Which means he is a man.

There are actually two men competing in women’s boxing in the Paris Olympics. NBC News confirms both Imane Khelif of Algeria and Lin Yu‑ting of Taiwan were disqualified from the Women’s World Boxing Championships last year for revealing via genetic testing that they both had XY (male) chromosomes, but the International Olympic Committee has cleared them both to fight against women in Women’s Boxing in Paris.

We wondered if something similar could happen locally. We learned that it can.

Are Local Boys in Girls Sports?

A quick review of local school districts’ policies taught us that Northern Colorado’s largest school districts allow boys to participate in girls’ sports. Poudre School District states that students may participate on the sports team of the sex with which they identify. Loveland’s Thompson School District has a similar policy called AC-E-3, “Guidelines Regarding the Support of Students and Staff Who Are Transgender and/or Gender Nonconforming.” TSD states that, “Schools will advocate…for students…to be permitted to participate in…athletics in a manner consistent with their gender identity.”

High school athletics are governed by the Colorado High School Activities Association or CHSAA. CHSAA bylaws also state that boys may compete in girls sports and requires schools to determine the sexed sport in which a student will compete. CHSAA also tells member schools (which are virtually all public schools in the state) that students must be allowed to use the restrooms and locker rooms that match their perceived identity. CHSAA’s inclusion policy references and copies language directly from a Dear Colleague letter from the Office of Civil Rights from 2016 despite the fact the OCR letter was formally rescinded as guidance by the federal government, due to legal concerns.

What About Bathrooms, Locker Rooms & Overnight Trips?

Both PSD and TSD clearly state that boys are allowed access to girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms so long as that corresponds to the boys’ perceived gender identity.

Students in both PSD and TSD are allowed overnight accommodations based on their perceived sex, which means boys are allowed to room with girls on overnight school-sponsored trips.

Are Parents Cool with This?

As you know, here at Hi Kid we think our community would benefit from having more conversations about difficult topics. We recently had an interesting conversation with a Colorado parent about boys being allowed in girls’ sports and we learned a few things. First, we learned that few Colorado parents of high school girl athletes are aware that their daughters may be compelled to compete with or against male athletes, let alone share locker spaces with them. Additionally, we were interested to learn that the mom of high school softball player daughters to whom we spoke is adamantly against boys competing with or against her daughters—despite her self-identification as a “raised in Boulder, die-hard liberal.” Maybe there is more common ground between Colorado parents on this issue than the national media would have us believe.

Maybe we need more conversations about girls’ sports.

TRENDING CONVERSATIONS
Men as Women in Olympic Boxing

Is it safe for biological men be hitting women? Even if it is technically allowed by the IOC? Or is the criticism of these two XY athletes unfair?

The two male boxers cited above are allowed to compete in the Olympics as the IOC created the ad-hoc governing body the Paris 2024 Boxing Unit to be the sport’s governing body for women’s boxing. The unit’s rules have no sexual identification requirements. The Boxing Unit was developed by the IOC and therefore is not really an independent organization.

What do you think?

WHY WAS I NEVER TOLD?
American History’s Navy SEALS in Afghanistan

This letter from American History comes to you from the far reaches of Afghanistan where, lost among the numerous caves and mountains, a team of four Navy SEALS struggled to survive.

DINNER TABLE DISCUSSION
What Is the Purpose of Education?

Is the purpose of education simply job training or should education be used as the path to wisdom, teaching people to assess the world with free minds? Consider the question posed in this Substack article HERE.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

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