The ruling was thrilling news to the girls and their families, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
“The pressure, the strain this was putting them under was so enormous,” Minter said. “It is just a huge relief to have that weight lifted.”
Utah state Senator Stuart Adams, a Republican, said in a statement that the commission that will now make decisions in a way “to protect equitable and safe competition while preserving the integrity of women’s sports”.
Minter said he is hopeful the commission will make fair decisions, keep the process confidential and become a good solution. He hopes the commission will act merely as a safety net, with the presumption being that transgender girls can play unless there is an obvious issue of competitive fairness.
“How it is done is very important,” Minter said.
The ruling follows a revelation this week by the Utah High School Activities Association that it secretly investigated a female athlete — without telling her or her parents — after receiving complaints from the parents of two girls she had defeated in competition questioning whether the girl was transgender. The association and the girl’s high school determined she was indeed female after poring through her school records dating back to kindergarten, association spokesman David Spatafore told lawmakers this week. He said that the girl and her family weren’t told of the investigation to spare them embarrassment and “to keep the matter private,” the Salt Lake Tribune reported.
Governor Cox said on Thursday at his monthly news conference that the parents’ complaint about the girl who was investigated had crossed a line.
“My goodness, we’re living in this world where we’ve become sore losers, and we’re looking for any reason why our kid lost,” he said. He said he supports fairness in sports but that “making up allegations like that are pretty disturbing to me”.
Spatafore declined to reveal the student’s grade, school or sport to protect her identity. He said the student and her family were not told about the investigation because it might be offensive to them and that the parents would have been contacted “if needed”.
Spatafore also said the association has looked into other complaints involving transgender athletes in its efforts to comply with the Utah law, which went into effect in July. Some complaints include “when an athlete doesn’t look feminine enough,” he said. None of the complaints have been verified.
Before the ban, Utah had one registered transgender female athlete competing last year on a high school girls’ team, Spatafore said.
AP
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