With its recent passage of Resolution #248, Community Education Council District 2 in Manhattan, New York could be changing the future of female sports. It calls for New York City to immediately meet and review the Department of Education's Guidelines on Gender, which were adopted in 2019 and are the first ever of their kind.
The guidelines let school policies replace the category of biological sex with gender identity, which is what has allowed for boys to play on girls' teams.
NewBostonPost reporter Tom Joyce, who monitors instances of biological males having unfair advantages against female athletes, thinks this is something communities across the country need to do.
"I found it to be very interesting," he comments. "Manhattan is obviously known as a quite liberal area, but to see the community district school board vote 8-3 on restrictions for male athletes in girls' sports -- I think that's very, very promising."
He believes Republicans and Democrats generally feel the same on this topic.
"It goes to show that in a lot of communities, whether it's red communities or blue communities, there's going to be a consensus that people do not want males in girls' sports," Joyce submits.
LGBTQ advocates have branded the proposal to review and make changes to the 2019 Gender Guidelines as discriminatory, and they argue it is based "on the false premise that the gender identity policy negatively impacts female athletes and stems from the misguided notion that the inclusion of transgender students in sports diminishes the experience of other student athletes."
Proponents of the resolution, however, recognize the challenges the policy has inflicted on youth athletes and coaches.
One of the outcomes of the review could be that nothing changes.
