Utah sports official reveals secret probe into GENDER HISTORY of schoolgirl who 'outclassed' rivals
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: The victory of a school girl at a state-level female school sports competition in Utah last year apparently did not go down well with her fellow competitors, and their parents. The parents of the runners-up and third-place finishers couldn't accept that the winner had simply "outclassed" their daughters, so they called her gender into inquiry. This caused a secret investigation into the winner's gender history all the way back to her kindergarten days, along with claims that she is a transgender girl.
A school sports official recalled the bleak investigation to the Utah Legislature's Education Interim Committee on Wednesday, August 17, adding that it was not an isolated case. The Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) legislative representative, David Spatafore, told the committee that his organization had received numerous complaints from parents who claimed, "That female athlete doesn't look feminine enough," The Deseret News reported.
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Spatafore refused to reveal the sport or the school associated with the case in question. He did, however, reveal that the UHSAA requested that the student's school conduct an investigation by reviewing her school enrollment records. "The school reverted to kindergarten," Spatafore explained. "And she'd always been a girl." The investigation was not disclosed to the student or her family.
“We didn’t get to the parents or the student simply because if all of the questions about eligibility were answered by the school or the feeder system schools, there was no reason to make it a personal situation with a family or that athlete,” Spatafore explained, according to The Desert News. The secret probe into girls' gender history was made possible under the state-enacted law HB11 - a controversial bill passed by the state House and Senate in March that effectively banned transgender girls from competing in school sports. Republican Governor Spencer Cox was among those critical of the bill at the time.
Cox's veto letter argued that such laws that target vulnerable transgender children can increase suicide rates. Business leaders also warned that the ban could cost Utah millions of dollars in economic impact, including the loss of the NBA All-Star Game next year. However, Cox’s veto was overturned by the state legislature and enacted all the same.
Meanwhile, USHAA, for its part, is attempting to adhere to the principles of HB11 as closely as possible, according to Spatafore. According to LGBT Map, 18 states have laws prohibiting transgender students from participating in sports that correspond to their gender identity.