The Alaska Board of Education has postponed a decision on regulations to ban transgender girls from participating in girls’ high school sports following a day of public testimony that largely opposed the proposal.
Citing a myriad of legal issues ranging from students’ right to privacy, handling of their birth certificates, equal protection and whether the Board of Education had the legal authority to make the decision in the first place, the board tabled the proposed regulations at its meeting today. Members said they will bring it back up at a special meeting sometime later this year.
The decision came after a lengthy executive session meeting with state lawyers.
“I just think there was a lot of passionate, well-said testimony on both sides,” said board member Jeff Erickson who, along with all other adult members of the Board of Education, was appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “I think the desire of everybody on the board is to really try to answer some of the questions. … I’d be in favor of a special meeting and allowing us to show the public and show our constituents that we’re not just doing this to quickly rush through it, but we want to take a long look at all of the concerns raised.”
Nearly 50 people testified today, with just 14 in favor of the regulations. The Board of Education received nearly 1,500 written comments on the proposed regulations, which makes it the latest flashpoint over how LGBTQ students should be treated in Alaska schools.
Whether the pause produces any meaningful change in course for the Board of Education is an open question, as the Board of Education has already passed a resolution supporting banning transgender students from most sports (it should be noted that the resolution called for an open division while this regulation deals only with high school girls’ sports). Comments today, which included complaints about the tone and content of those opposing the rules, indicated little has changed.
Following a rise in anti-transgender politics on the far-right, the Alaska Board of Education and Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration have been pushing to exclude transgender girls from girls’ sports after a legislative proposal to put such a ban in state law—which also garnered several marathon sessions of public testimony almost entirely against it—failed to garner traction. They’ve claimed their primary concern is protecting the fairness and safety of girls’ sports rather than attacking trans students.
Testimony has accused them of singling out transgender students who are already at higher risk of harm than their peers. One of the significant concerns raised with the proposed regulation is how it works with Alaska’s constitutional right to privacy. The rule is unclear on how a student’s assigned sex at birth would be disclosed and who would have access to that private medical information.
“In basically any setting, private health information is rigorously guarded and disseminated on a need-to-know basis. But here we’re just going to cavalierly track sex assigned at birth?” wrote ACLU of Alaska Advocacy Director Mike Garvey on Twitter. “Current required forms are geared toward determining fitness to participate in vigorous physical activity. But they also authorize broad disclosures and re-disclosures. That should be alarming to Alaskans and medical professionals who will be roped into complying with this reg.”
Following the decision to table the regulation, the Board of Education unanimously voted in support of naming former Anchorage School District Superintendant Deena Bishop—a close ally of Dunleavy who was present at the launch of his legislation to effectively ban teachers from talking about sex or gender in the classroom—as the state’s new Education commissioner.
Matt Acuña Buxton is a long-time political reporter who has written for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and The Midnight Sun political blog. He also authors the daily politics newsletter, The Alaska Memo, and can frequently be found live-tweeting public meetings on Twitter.
