The Maine Principals’ Association (MPA) on Wednesday adopted a new “Gender Identity Participation Policy” to make it easier for transgender or non-binary students to participate on high school sports teams in accordance with their “gender identity.”
The MPA is a private nonprofit corporation that regulates interscholastic high school athletics statewide, including both public and private schools.
“The Maine Principals’ Association is committed to providing all students with an equal opportunity to participate in interscholastic athletics regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity,” the policy reads.
“In furtherance of this commitment, the MPA has adopted the following policy related to the participation of students whose gender identity differs from the student’s sex assigned at birth,” it reads.
The policy defines “gender identity” as a “student’s innate sense of their gender,” which may be the same or different from their sex “assigned” at birth.
“Non-binary” is defined as “a student whose gender identity does not conform to traditional binary beliefs about gender being exclusively male or female.”
Notably, a student who wished to participate in MPA sponsored interscholastic athletics does not need to provide any medical records or official documents to establish their “gender identity.”
In fact, the policy explicitly prohibits schools from requesting a student’s medical records to establish their “gender identity.”
A student must simply “declare their gender identity” to their member school, and the student’s school will have the “sole authority to determine gender identity assignment for the purposes of athletic registration and participation in MPA sponsored events.”
The new policy allows transgender or non-binary students to participate in sports in accordance with either their biological sex or their declared “gender identity,” but not both.
A non-binary student may “select the gendered team on which they feel most comfortable participating,” under the policy.
“The member school will help to determine, through counseling and discussions with the student, the student’s status regarding gender identity,” the policy states. “Once a nonbinary student decides to participate in a sport different from the student’s assigned sex at birth, the student will be eligible to participate in sports offered for the selected gender, following the same rules as a transgender student.”
Additionally, students who at one time in their high school athletics career declared themselves as transgender or non-binary, they may simply go back to participating as a “cisgender student” in accordance with their biological sex.
Prior to their adoption of this new policy on Wednesday, transgender students were allowed to participate in sports in accordance with their chosen gender, but would have to participate in a hearing before the MPA and present evidence to establish a “consistent gender identity,” including medical documentation.
The MPA would then decide on whether to allow the transgender student to participate on the sports team of their choice based on if the student’s claim to be transgender is “bona fide,” and if their participation would result in an unfair athletic advantage or pose a risk of injury to other student athletes.
Now, however, under the new policy, that decision will be up to the individual MPA member high schools.
The issue of transgender students participating in sports garnered a large amount of controversy in Maine last year, when a male high school cross country athlete transitioned into a girl and began dominating his biologically female competition.
The full policy adopted by the MPA Wednesday can be read below:
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="27998 https://www.themainewire.com/?p=27998">8 Comments
The MPA consists of a bunch of woke turds who couldn’t run a lemonade stand. What creeps!
So how do you dissolve the Maine Principals’ Association?
So they confirmed they hate having girls’ sports and don’t think girls deserve to fairly compete in sports.
They sabotage girls’ sports and embrace mental illness and boys who can’t otherwise compete against boys.
The only way to seriously make the point is to not allow your daughters to participate in any sports until the reality of their stupidity for allowing this to begin with sets in. Boycotts are effective and could get national publicity.
…lifelong Mainer here and it astounds me how Democrats have poisoned the culture and serene simplicity Maine once knew. It’s not entirely their fault, as we have sold our state to them for a few pieces of silver. Progressive liberalism is worse than bamboo… once it takes root, you’ll never erradicate it. Incomprehensible how these people think. On second thought, I’m glad I don’t think like them!
My dad was a Maine High School principal for 30 yrs, and very active in education issues at the state level. He was head of the State Principal’s assn many many years ago and ran tournaments in eastern Maine. I am glad that he is not alive today to see this mentally ill garbage infesting our schools. He died in 2007 and before he died he said the public schools were worthless today and needed to be defunded and we needed to start over. The MEA (Maine Education Assn is the most powerful political lobby in Maine other than the state employees union. They are taking the taxpayers for a ride and destroying our children. My youngest son does high skill technical work on machinery and computer diagnostics. He brings home $2000 a week with some overtime. He travels all over the state doing this work. He has neither a high school diploma nor a GED. Both are meaningless today as they are more a “participation” award than a document to show you actually worked hard and learned something like when I was in school in the 1960’s.
very dangerous decision!!
RickyTickySavvy is 100% correct Mainers sold their souls for a few pieces of silver. Take a good look around and it is obvious to the most casual observer. You get what you vote for, and this is what Mainers are getting. Sadly, they all watch and let it happen like mindless lemmings.