Kansas high school sports association bans males from competing against girls, following new law

Following a law recently enacted by the Kansas Legislature, the Kansas State High School Activities Association has adopted a new rule banning trans-identifying biological males from competing against girls.

The rule will go into effect July 1, reports Fox News.

“We needed, then, to make sure we had a policy that our member schools could follow that meets the letter of the law, as well as the philosophical basis,” Bill Faflick, the KSHSAA’s executive director, told the executive board, according to ABC News. 

Earlier this month, the Kansas Legislature overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who opposes a transgender ban in high school and middle school sports.

Previously, the KSHSAA considered the gender of an athlete to be whatever sex was assigned at the athlete’s most recent physical. Under the new policy, every athlete will have to submit a birth certificate created close to one’s birth. 

If for some reason a birth certificate cannot satisfactorily answer the question of gender, determination can be made with a physical examination by a qualified doctor, “based upon an evaluation using current standard assessment protocols,” said the Wichita Eagle.

Faflick said that there are a variety of ways that a physician can determine the biological sex of an athlete, also debunking claims by opponents of the measure that KSHSAA or school officials will ever be involved in genital inspections.

“A genital inspection would be done when a kid is suspected of a hernia – it has nothing to do with determining their biological sex,” Faflick said, according to the Eagle. “So no, that’s not ever come out of this office. That’s not an expectation before; it’s not an expectation moving forward.”

A number of national publications such as Newsweek and BuzzFeed have widely publicized criticism that the new laws could lead to genital inspections by school authorities.

“Kansas Republicans just overrode the Democratic governor’s veto, enacting a new law that allows for forced genital inspections of children to make sure they’re not transgender,” said one progressive podcaster, Brian Tyler Cohen.

Multiple outlets including the Associated Press and Reuters have said the claim of genital inspections under the new law is untrue. 

At least 21 states now have laws restricting males from competing against girls, reports Fox News.

On another front in the effort to beat back the LGBT agenda, the GOP failed to muster enough support in the Legislature to override Gov. Kelly’s veto of a measure that would ban transgender medical treatment for minors.

“Sometimes, unfortunately, we as a Legislature have to be the last line of defense when parents have lost their way, when a health care system has lost its way,” said Sen. Mark Steffen, a Republican, who supported the ban, according to the Associated Press.