Georgia HS Association votes on transgender athlete’s ability to play sports

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - The Georgia High School Association voted unanimously on Wednesday to replace the current policy of allowing individual schools to decide whether or not transgender students can play on the team of their choosing.

According to the minutes for GHSA’s meeting on Wednesday, the proposal that was approved was to delete paragraph “b” of by-law 1.47 on page 16 of the Constitution and replace it with the following text: A student’s sex is determined by the sex noted on his/her certificate at birth.

Last month, the Georgia legislature passed a Republican-sponsored education bill that said the GHSA “may” ban transgender girls who play for public schools from competing against other girls.

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The bill pressured the GHSA to take a stronger stand. The association began allowing individual schools to make that decision beginning 2016.

Georgia Equality (Georgia’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group) response:

Quite frankly, the secretive and hasty process by which this was done is despicable. All Georgia students should have equal access to school sports, and efforts to change policies that facilitate that should be done in a transparent and open way. Today’s actions of the GHSA Executive Committee will do real harm to trans kids in Georgia that just want to be themselves and fit in.
“At no point during the general assembly's debate of bills that would have had a similarly devastating impact, were the supporters of this change able to present a single example of how allowing transgender students to participate in athletes harmed other students in Georgia. In fact, the legislation that did pass called for a commission to study this issue and recommend action if appropriate. It is disturbing that this body would act in a rash manner without careful consideration of the implications of this policy change on the well-being of all students or without the thoughtful study that such a complicated and sensitive issue warrants.

Jeff Graham, executive director of Georgia Equality