JUNEAU, Alaska (LifeSiteNews) — Alaska is the latest Republican-led state moving to protect women’s and girls’ sports from the encroachment of so-called “transgender” male athletes.
The Alaska Board of Education on Thursday voted in favor of banning males from competing on girls’ high school athletic teams. The proposal, which passed unanimously, states, “if a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth.”
All board members were appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who has made protecting women’s sports one of his policy priorities.
Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, a Republican who was also appointed by Dunleavy, must approve the proposal before it can take effect, the Associated Press reported.
“We clearly have a duty to promote the principles of fairness and equity for biological women and girls,” board member Bob Griffin said prior to the vote, noting that Alaskan Olympic swimmer Lydia Jacoby’s “best time ever posted is almost 4 seconds slower than the Alaska state high school record for boys.”
“Thank you to the State Board of Education for acting to protect the opportunity for girls to participate in high school sports in a division that is safe, fair, and competitive,” Dunleavy wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday.
The proposal would affect school districts that join the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA), which regulates Alaska’s high school sports. The director of the ASAA said that the rule would likely result in the association creating one division for girls and another division for “all other students,” according to the Anchorage Daily News.
One Alaska district, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, has already adopted a policy requiring athletes to compete based on their actual sex.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Department of Education told the Anchorage Daily News that the department “does not have a specific date” for when the proposal would come into effect. After Taylor’s department reviews the measure, it must be filed with the lieutenant governor’s office and would take effect 30 days after being filed, according to the newspaper.
Republican Alaska Sen. Shelley Hughes told the Anchorage Daily News that she was “elated with the victory.” “I am glad to see that we have a policy on our books,” she said. “Now, we will have to see what the courts will do.”
Bills to protect fairness in women’s sports have repeatedly failed in Alaska, where the state legislature is divided between a Republican-controlled House and a Democratic-controlled Senate.
At least 23 other states have passed laws limiting male athletes from competing on female teams amid widespread backlash over gender-confused males dominating women’s and girls’ sports in recent years.
The International Powerlifting Federation last month announced new regulations on so-called “transgender” athletes after male powerlifter “Anne” Andres set a Canadian women’s national record.