This week, the University Interscholastic League, which oversees athletic competitions throughout the state, asked school superintendents to approve a policy that would use a student’s birth certificate or other government-issued documents to determine gender.
The UIL has a nondiscrimination policy that includes gender – but this new rule would put Texas junior and high school sports on a gender binary system.
Texas Tribune reporter Kiah Collier has been following the story.
“Gender on a birth certificate is often different than what transgender student athletes would identify with,” Collier says. “Changing a sex on a birth certificate involves having surgery in most instances.”
Collier says that in recent years, over a dozen states and the District of Columbia have adopted policies that are “basically the opposite” of what Texas is deciding on – policies that allow students to play for teams based on their gender identity, rather than what their birth certificate says.
If a majority of superintendents vote for this policy, it will become official UIL policy.
“I’m told that this is binding and would be statewide,” Collier says.
Listen to the full interview in the player above.
