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Tag: Gender in sports

  • Skiing’s governing body approves gender eligibility testing policy

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    GENEVA — Skiing’s governing body approved a gene testing policy for gender eligibility in women’s events Wednesday, but delayed a decision on letting some Russian athletes try to qualify with neutral status for next year’s Winter Olympics.

    The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said it will work with national team officials on implementing the policy, which follows the lead taken by track and field’s World Athletics.

    “The eligibility conditions laid out in the policy are grounded on the presence or absence of the so-called SRY gene, the sex-determining gene present on humans’ Y chromosome,” FIS said in a statement.

    It was not clear to what extent athletes with the SRY gene have previously competed in women’s events in FIS disciplines, which include Alpine and cross-country skiing, ski jumping, snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

    Both FIS president Johan Eliasch and World Athletics leader Sebastian Coe campaigned as candidates in the International Olympic Committee election this year promising to protect the female category.

    “This policy is the cornerstone of our commitment to protect women’s sport,” Eliasch said Wednesday in a FIS statement, “and we are convinced that there is only one fair and transparent way to do that: by relying on science and biological facts.”

    The IOC now has its first female president, two-time Olympic champion swimmer Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe, who has overseen creating a working group of experts to look at gender issues in sports.

    An issue for athletes in France and Norway, which are both strong in winter sports, is that both countries have national laws prohibiting gene testing for nonmedical reasons.

    Ahead of the track and field world championships in Tokyo this month, French and Norwegian athletes were tested after arriving in Japan.

    FIS did not publish a timetable for a testing program. The Milan-Cortina d’Ampezzo Winter Games open Feb. 6.

    FIS barred Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022. The war began four days after the closing ceremony at the Beijing Winter Games, where Russian athletes won 32 medals, including five gold, and the Belarus team won two silvers.

    The FIS ruling council on Wednesday discussed but did not reach a decision on extending the ban or approving a neutral status policy for individual athletes ahead of the next Olympics. The council next meets Oct. 21.

    The IOC has barred Russia and Belarus from team sports at Summer Games and Winter Games. Governing bodies of Olympic sports were advised to look at giving some of the countries’ athletes neutral status — if they had not publicly supported the war, and were not linked to military and state security services.

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    AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/winter-olympics

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  • Vitriol about female boxer Imane Khelif fuels concern of backlash against LGBTQ+ and women athletes

    Vitriol about female boxer Imane Khelif fuels concern of backlash against LGBTQ+ and women athletes

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    PARIS — LGBTQ+ athletes, officials and observers have warned that a deluge of hateful comments misidentifying female boxer Imane Khelif in the Paris Olympics as transgender or a man could pose dangers for the LGBTQ+ community and female athletes.

    The concerns come as famous figures — from former U.S. President Donald Trump to “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling — have railed against the Algerian boxer after her Italian competitor Angela Carini quit their bout Thursday. They and other social media comments falsely claimed Khelif was a man fighting a woman.

    The comments have rippled across social media, pulling Khelif and Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting into the larger social contention about women in sports.

    The International Olympic Committee spokesperson Mark Adams said Friday that Khelif “was born female, was registered female, lived her life as a female, boxed as a female, has a female passport.”

    He warned “not turn it into some kind of witch hunt.”

    Some athletes and LGBTQ+ observers worry that hateful comments from critics — and the IOC failing to address a larger global conversation before the Olympics — have already started to vilify transgender, nonbinary and other LGBTQ+ people at an event championing inclusion. It comes as expanding interpretations of gender identity have spurred a larger political tug-of-war, often centered around sports.

    While the Paris Olympics has pushed an agenda of openness and a record 193 openly LGBTQ+ athletes are competing, a performance by drag queens during the opening ceremony faced intense backlash from religious conservatives and others contending that it mocked the Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper.” Some performers and the opening ceremony’s artistic director say they have received threats.

    Nikki Hiltz, one of the world’s top middle-distance runners competing in the women’s category for the U.S. Olympic team, has faced such hateful comments first hand. Assigned female at birth, Hiltz identifies as nonbinary.

    “Transphobia is going crazy at these Olympics,” Hiltz wrote on a post on Instagram responding to the boxing debate. “Anti-trans rhetoric is anti-woman. These people aren’t ‘protecting women’s sport,’ they are enforcing rigid gender norms, and anyone who doesn’t fit into those norms is targeted and vilified.”

    The controversy is rooted in claims by the International Boxing Association that Khelif and Lin failed unspecified and untransparent eligibility tests for women’s competition, which the IOC called “a sudden and arbitrary decision” from a governing body it has banned from the Olympics since 2019.

    While some sports have detailed guidelines about transgender athletes and hormone levels in competitions, boxing is relying on rules dating to the 2016 Olympics that say the threshold for eligibility is what appears on an athlete’s passport amid a larger rift between the IBA and the IOC.

    “The current aggression against these two athletes is based entirely on this arbitrary decision (by the IBA), which was taken without any proper procedure,” said Adams of the IOC. “These dangerous, misogynistic and baseless attacks can lead to misinformation.”

    Athletes have faced “quite a few cases of online aggression,” said Adams of the IOC. He said it is the responsibility of the Olympic body to “look after” the athletes and “make sure that they’re safe.”

    Though some like Cyd Zeigler, co-founder of Outsports, a site that tracks LGBTQ+ participation in the Olympics, say failures by the IOC to provide clarity before the Games has hurt both female athletes and LGBTQ+ competitors, both of whom have long fought for recognition.

    “The issue is not the athlete trying to compete, it’s whoever is making the policy,” Zeigler said. “The awful part of this is the vitriol over the last two days has been aimed at these athletes.”

    Zeigler said the backlash is likely to stifle LGBTQ+ public participation in the Games in the future despite activists saying the Olympics have taken major strides in recent years.

    “By trying to bury the issue they knew was coming, transphobic (people) begin to direct the conversation,” Zeigler said. “We can have conversations about the inclusion of trans athletes. There are thoughtful conversations to have. It is the vitriol, the nasty, horrible, graphic, ghastly language that gets used around this that eats at me.”

    Former athletes like Belgium’s Charline Van Snick, 33, a former judo medalist in the 2012 Games, said the testing and comments about Khelif and Hamori’s bodies are undoing years of work by female athletes to push back against stigma.

    While many say they have seen major progress in recent years, Ilona Maher, a star of the U.S. women’s rugby team, broke out in tears in a social media post before the Olympics following comments claiming she was a man.

    “There are some women with more testosterone, or different kinds of body,” Van Snick said. “In judo, you are fighting, and you have to stay a woman, what is accepted of a woman. If you look too much like a man, they say, ‘Oh, she’s a man.’ But I’m a woman” who could beat a man in the sport.

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    Associated Press videojournalist Lujain Jo contributed from Paris.

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  • New York county’s latest trans athlete ban draws lawsuits from attorney general, civil rights group

    New York county’s latest trans athlete ban draws lawsuits from attorney general, civil rights group

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    MINEOLA, N.Y. — The New York attorney general and the New York Civil Liberties Union on Monday sued a county on Long Island over its latest move to ban transgender females from playing on women’s sports teams at county facilities.

    The separate lawsuits came on the same day Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, a Republican, signed the policy into law. Months earlier, a judge had blocked a similar rule Blakeman put in place through an executive order.

    Both cases argue the ban violates state anti-discrimination laws.

    “With this law, Nassau County is once again attempting to exclude transgender girls and women from participating in sporting events while claiming to support fairness,” Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, said in a statement.

    Blakeman in February signed an executive order to implement the policy but it was eventually blocked by a judge. Then in June, the Nassau County Legislature, which is controlled by Republicans, voted to reinstate the ban.

    The rule would bar trans athletes from playing at facilities owned by the county, unless they compete on teams matching the gender they were assigned at birth or on coed teams. It would apply to about 100 sporting facilities in the county.

    Blakeman said in a statement, “I am very disappointed that the Attorney General would attempt to frustrate Nassau County’s desire to protect the integrity of women’s sports, ensure the safety of its participants and provide a safe environment for girls and women to compete.”

    The New York Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit was filed on behalf of a women’s roller derby league, the Long Island Roller Rebels, which had successfully sued to block Blakeman’s original executive order.

    “It is abundantly clear that any attempt to ban trans women and girls from sports is prohibited by our state’s antidiscrimination laws. It was true when we successfully struck down County Executive Blakeman’s transphobic policy and it is true now,” Gabriella Larios, staff attorney at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said in a statement.

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  • Republican states challenge new Title IX rules protecting LGBTQ+ students

    Republican states challenge new Title IX rules protecting LGBTQ+ students

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    WASHINGTON — Another six Republican states are piling on to challenge the Biden administration’s newly expanded campus sexual assault rules, saying they overstep the president’s authority and undermine the Title IX anti-discrimination law.

    A federal lawsuit, led by Tennessee and West Virginia, on Tuesday asks a judge to halt and overturn the new policy. The suit is joined by Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Virginia. It follows other legal challenges filed by Monday by nine other states including Alabama, Louisiana and Texas.

    The lawsuits are the first to challenge the administration’s new Title IX rules, which expand protections to LGBTQ+ students and add new safeguards for victims of sexual assault. The policy was finalized in April and takes effect in August.

    Central to the dispute is a new provision expanding Title IX to LGBTQ+ students. The 1972 law forbids discrimination based on sex in education. Under the new rules, Title IX will also protect against discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

    The states involved say it amounts to an illegal rewriting of the landmark legislation.

    They argue it will clash with their own laws, including those restricting which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students can use, banning them from using facilities that align with their new gender identity.

    “The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms.”

    The administration’s new rules broadly protect against discrimination based on sex, but they don’t offer guidance around transgender athletes. The Education Department has promised a separate rule on that issue later.

    Yet in their suits, Republican states argue that the latest update could be interpreted to apply to athletics.

    “Men who identify as women will, among other things, have the right to compete within programs and activities that Congress made available to women so they can fairly and fully pursue academic and athletic excellence — turning Title IX’s protections on their head,” says the suit led by Tennessee and West Virginia.

    As a legal basis for the new rules, the Education Department cited a 2020 Supreme Court case protecting gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.

    The new suit challenges that justification, saying the Supreme Court declined to address scenarios implicated by Title IX, “such as a school that does not allow a transgender student to use the restroom or participate in sports associated with the student’s gender identity.”

    Among other things, the suits also take exception to the policy changes dictating how schools and colleges must handle complaints of sexual assault.

    The administration’s new rules were proposed nearly two years ago, with a public comment period that drew 240,000 responses, a record for the Education Department.

    The policy rolls back many of the changes implemented during the Trump administration, which added more protections for students accused of sexual misconduct.

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    A previous version of this story misidentified which states led the new lawsuit. It was led by West Virginia and Tennessee and filed in Kentucky.

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    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas are at AP.org.

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  • Christian school that objected to transgender athlete sues Vermont after it’s banned from competing

    Christian school that objected to transgender athlete sues Vermont after it’s banned from competing

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    A Vermont Christian school that withdrew its girls basketball team from a playoff game because a transgender student was playing on the opposing team is suing Vermont for barring it from state tournaments and a state tuition program.

    Mid Vermont Christian School of Quechee forfeited the Feb. 21 game, saying it believed that the transgender player jeopardized “the fairness of the game and the safety of our players.”

    The executive council of the Vermont Principals’ Association, which governs school sports and activities, ruled in March that Mid Vermont Christian had violated the council’s policies on race, gender and disability awareness, and therefore was ineligible to participate in future tournaments.

    The school filed a federal lawsuit in Burlington on Tuesday, saying the Vermont Agency of Education’s refusal to designate it as an approved independent school amounted to discrimination against religious schools.

    A separate entity, the Vermont State Board of Education, requires independent schools to post on their websites and provide to the board a statement of nondiscrimination that is consistent with the state’s public accommodation and fair employment laws, and submit a signed assurance by the head of the school that it complies with the public accommodation law.

    If a school is not approved, it cannot participate in Vermont’s town tuition program, which pays for students in communities that do not have a public school to attend other public schools or approved private schools of their choice. Approval is also needed for an independent school to have students take college courses through a state program.

    “Mid Vermont Christian and its students are being irreparably harmed” by being excluded from the programs, as well as from middle school and high school sports, the lawsuit states.

    A spokesman for the state Agency of Education declined to comment when reached by phone on Wednesday. The head of the Vermont Principals’ Association said in an email that the organization had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment at this time.

    In a separate case, the Agency of Education and several school districts last year agreed to pay tuition costs and legal fees to five families to settle two lawsuits challenging the state’s practice of not paying for students whose towns don’t have a public school to attend religious schools.

    The two sides agreed to dismiss the lawsuits after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that Maine schools cannot exclude religious schools from a program that offers tuition aid for private education.

    In 2020, a divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a Montana case that states can’t cut religious schools out of programs that send public money to private education.

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  • California governor vetoes bill requiring custody courts to weigh affirmation of gender identity

    California governor vetoes bill requiring custody courts to weigh affirmation of gender identity

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill that would have required judges to consider whether a parent affirms their child’s gender identity when making custody and visitation decisions.

    In announcing his veto Friday night, Newsom released a statement saying he has “a deep commitment to advancing the rights of transgender Californians” that has guided his decisions while in office.

    “That said, I urge caution when the Executive and Legislative branches of state government attempt to dictate — in prescriptive terms that single out one characteristic — legal standards for the Judicial branch to apply. Other-minded elected officials, in California and other states, could very well use this strategy to diminish the civil rights of vulnerable communities,” the governor’s statement said.

    The bill would have made gender affirmation one factor among many that courts already have to consider in custody proceedings, including whether a parent has been abusive and how much contact the child has with the parents.

    The bill would not have required judges to prioritize whether a parent affirms their child’s gender identity over other factors. What affirmation looks like varies depending on the particular child and their age, said Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Democrat who introduced the bill. She has an adult son who came out as transgender when he was a teenager.

    Wilson said Friday that she was disappointed by the governor’s veto.

    “I’ve been disheartened over the last few years as I watched the rising hate and heard the vitriol toward the trans community. My intent with this bill was to give them a voice, particularly in the family court system where a non-affirming parent could have a detrimental impact on the mental health and well-being of a child,” Wilson said in a statement.

    Newsom said existing laws already require courts to consider health, safety and welfare when determining the best interests of a child in custody cases, including the parent’s affirmation of the child’s gender identity.

    Every Republican in the Senate voted against the bill, with state Sen. Kelly Seyarto, who represents Murrieta in Southern California, arguing that lawmakers were interfering too much with how parents choose to raise their children.

    “Inserting this into the mix is going to pit one parent against the other and make things worse,” Seyarto said at the time.

    The veto comes amid intense political battles across the country over transgender rights, including efforts to impose bans on gender-affirming care, bar trans athletes from girls and women’s sports, and require schools to notify parents if their children ask to use different pronouns or changes their gender identity.

    Also Friday, Newsom vetoed a bill to require human drivers on board self-driving trucks and another measure that would have barred state prison officials from sharing information about incarcerated immigrants with federal officials.

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  • In Kentucky governor’s race, Democrat presses the case on GOP challenger’s abortion stance

    In Kentucky governor’s race, Democrat presses the case on GOP challenger’s abortion stance

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    LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky’s debate over abortion access intensified Wednesday as the Democratic governor pounded away at his rival’s longstanding support for the state’s existing abortion ban shortly after Republican challenger Daniel Cameron had signaled new willingness to accept exceptions for rape and incest.

    Gov. Andy Beshear’s campaign tried to keep Cameron on the defensive with a pointed TV ad featuring a young woman from Owensboro who reveals her childhood trauma while slamming the GOP nominee.

    “Anyone who believes there should be no exceptions for rape and incest could never understand what it’s like to stand in my shoes,” Hadley Duvall says in the ad coming out Wednesday on statewide TV.

    It’s the latest salvo in a campaign that has gotten more contentious over hot-button social issues.

    Cameron and his allies have blasted Beshear for vetoing transgender bills — one that banned gender-affirming care for young transgender people and another that barred transgender girls and women from participating in school sports matching their gender identity. Both vetoes were overridden by the GOP-dominated legislature.

    Cameron pushed back aggressively Wednesday against the Beshear campaign, while criticizing the governor for opposing a number of anti-abortion measures.

    “He lectures us on partisanship and unity, then runs disgusting, false attacks. I have said if the legislature were to bring me a bill with exceptions, I would sign it,” Cameron said in a statement.

    Duvall, now in her early 20s, looks directly into the camera and talks about having been raped by her stepfather when she was 12 years old. Duvall became pregnant as a seventh grader but eventually miscarried. The stepfather was convicted of rape and is in prison.

    The Associated Press does not normally identify sexual assault victims, but Duvall chose to be identified and has spoken out publicly about what she experienced and its connection to the debate over abortion.

    Beshear has gone on offense on an issue that anti-abortion Republicans long claimed as theirs in this largely conservative state. Cameron is challenging Beshear in one of the nation’s most closely watched campaigns in 2023. Beshear’s campaign turned up the pressure after Cameron appeared to back off from his entrenched position of supporting the state’s abortion ban as currently written, with few exceptions.

    During a Monday radio interview, Cameron revealed that he would support amending the abortion law to add exceptions allowing for the termination of pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

    In a campaign statement later that day, however, Cameron appeared to try to mollify both abortion hardliners and people who support adding the rape and incest exceptions.

    “Daniel Cameron is the pro-life candidate for governor and supports the Human Life Protection Act” — the current abortion ban, the statement said. ”But if the situation in Kentucky were to change and the legislature brought him a bill to add exceptions for rape and incest, he would, of course, sign it.”

    His shift could be another indication that more Republicans see the abortion issue as a political liability since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a nationwide right to abortion last year. Since then, voters have protected abortion rights via ballot measures in several states, including Kentucky.

    Duvall said she doesn’t think Cameron’s shift is genuine.

    “I want to ask him where he’s been all along on the matter,” Duvall said in an interview Wednesday. “Seven weeks before an election is a little too late to change your views on something so intense.”

    Cameron’s comments drew an avalanche of coverage in the Bluegrass State. A headline in the Louisville newspaper referred to Cameron’s “flip-flops” on rape and incest exceptions. An opinion piece in the Lexington paper pointed to Cameron’s “confusing views.”

    Democrats derided Cameron’s apparent shift as politically motivated, pointing to polling they say shows the race tilting in Beshear’s favor. They recounted Cameron’s defense of the abortion ban in court as the state’s attorney general and his public pronouncements of support for the existing ban.

    Beshear’s campaign doubled down Wednesday with the new commercial, which features Duvall addressing the Republican nominee directly.

    “This is to you, Daniel Cameron,” she says. “To tell a 12-year-old girl she must have the baby of her stepfather who raped her is unthinkable. I’m speaking out because women and girls need to have options.”

    Since last year, Cameron had steadfastly defended the current Kentucky law that bans all abortions except when carried out to save a pregnant woman’s life or to prevent a disabling injury. During a Republican primary debate in March, Cameron expressed support for the law as currently written.

    Cameron also touted his anti-abortion credentials more openly during the spring primary campaign. But since winning the gubernatorial nomination, Cameron and his allies generally have downplayed the abortion issue while focusing on other topics, including crime rates and transgender rights.

    Beshear, an abortion rights supporter, has consistently called the state’s abortion ban an “extremist” law that he says the “vast majority” of Kentuckians disagree with, pointing to the lack of exceptions for rape and incest. Cameron’s campaign says Beshear accommodated abortion-rights groups by opposing a series of abortion measures, including one to ban abortions in Kentucky after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Beshear noted at the time that the 15-week ban lacked exceptions for pregnancies caused by rape or incest.

    The new ad continues Beshear’s reelection strategy of tying Cameron to the abortion ban. A previous Beshear ad featured a prosecutor denouncing the law’s lack of exceptions for rape or incest.

    Now Duvall is telling her own story.

    “Maybe I can help other people find their voice,” Duvall said. “Because I know when I was trying to find mine, I was trying to find other people like me that I could lean on, that I could ask about. It’s not an easy thing to talk about.”

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  • Trump skips Iowa gathering of evangelical Christians. His rivals hope for a chance to gain ground

    Trump skips Iowa gathering of evangelical Christians. His rivals hope for a chance to gain ground

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    DES MOINES, Iowa — Some of Donald Trump ‘s top rivals for the Republican presidential nomination will address a gathering of influential Iowa evangelical Christians on Saturday night, hoping to woo them away from the former president at an event he is skipping.

    Former Vice President Mike Pence planned to attend the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual banquet and town hall in Des Moines along with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Also on the schedule of speakers were Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, as well as Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd.

    Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who has not endorsed a candidate, was expected.

    The crowd will largely consist of devout and well-connected social conservatives whose ranks are large enough to play a decisive role in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Republican caucuses in January. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz used strong appeals to evangelical Republicans to win the GOP’s 2016 caucuses.

    This time, however, Trump’s rivals face a much tougher task as he has built a large GOP primary lead

    Despite skipping the event and many of the gatherings that attract most of the candidates, Trump has maintained his popularity with evangelical Christians and social conservatives in Iowa and elsewhere. They were delighted to see his three picks for the U.S. Supreme Court vote to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision last year and erase a federally guaranteed right to abortion.

    “No president has ever fought for Christians as hard as I have and I will keep fighting for Christians as hard as I can for four more years in the White House,” Trump said at the Family Research Council’s annual Pray Vote Stand conference in Washington on Friday night. He added, ““Every promise I made to Christians as a candidate, I delivered.”

    Abortion often dominates the discussion at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition events, but organizers say this year will also feature talk about combating what they call gender ideology and championing bans preventing transgender athletes from competing in girls sports.

    “You are going to face blowback, you’re going to face attacks, you’re going to face smears, and it’s the faith in God that gives you the strength to stand firm against the lies against the deceit against the opposition,” DeSantis said in remarks at the Family Research Council event.

    As President Joe Biden runs for reelection, the Democrat and top members of his party are championing abortion rights, promising to codify the guarantees of Roe v. Wade. But getting such a measure through a divided Congress is almost impossible.

    Biden has also proposed federal rules to prohibit schools from categorically banning transgender athletes in school sports. His proposal would allow schools to institute limits designed to ensure fairness or prevent sports-related injuries.

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  • California sues district that requires parents be notified if their kids change pronouns

    California sues district that requires parents be notified if their kids change pronouns

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    California’s attorney general has sued a Southern California school district over its new policy that requires schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns

    ByAMY TAXIN Associated Press

    SANTA ANA, Calif. — California’s attorney general sued a Southern California school district Monday over its recently adopted policy that requires schools to notify parents if their children change their gender identification or pronouns.

    Attorney General Rob Bonta said he filed a lawsuit against the Chino Valley Unified School District over the policy that mandated this notification, calling it a “forced outing” of transgender students that violates their civil rights.

    “It tramples on students’ rights,” Bonta told reporters. He said he is seeking a court order to immediately halt the policy from taking effect.

    The move comes after Chino Valley Unified, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, adopted the policy following a shift in leadership on the school board. Other Southern California districts have adopted similar policies and Bonta said he believes they will also be affected by this litigation, though they are not named in the suit.

    The suit argues the policy discriminates against transgender and gender non-conforming students and violates the state constitution which requires equal protect for all students regardless of their gender expression, identity or sexual orientation. It also argues the policy violates students’ privacy rights.

    The policies have sparked divisions in communities between those who say parents have a right to know the decisions their children are making at school and those who say that such policies would forcibly out transgender students to their parents and threaten the well-being of some of the most vulnerable students.

    Andi Johnston, a spokesperson for Chino Valley Unified, said the district is working with its attorneys to review the lawsuit. Before the filing, district officials had been working to provide Bonta’s office with requested documents and records in response to a subpoena served earlier this month, Johnston said.

    The fight over the proposed school district policies in Southern California come as states across the country are battling over transgender rights through efforts to impose bans on gender-affirming care, bar trans athletes from girls and women’s sports, and require schools to “out” trans and nonbinary students to their parents.

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  • North Carolina laws curtailing transgender rights prompt less backlash than 2016 ‘bathroom bill’

    North Carolina laws curtailing transgender rights prompt less backlash than 2016 ‘bathroom bill’

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    RALEIGH, N.C. — Seven years ago, North Carolina became ground zero in the nationwide fight over transgender rights with the passage of a “bathroom bill” that galvanized culture warriors, canceled business projects and sporting events and influenced a gubernatorial race.

    And while a similarly Republican-controlled legislature’s enactment this week of a trio of laws aimed at transgender youth generated passion from advocates and legislators, the public pushback against these policies has been light compared to 2016 and House Bill 2. And the corporate world largely has taken a pass on getting involved.

    What can the change in attitudes be attributed to? Top legislators said this week’s measures, approved when they overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s vetoes, already have taken effect in other states and resonate with the public.

    That compares to 2016, when then-GOP Gov. Pat McCrory faced significant backlash for signing a bill that banned cities from enacting new anti-discrimination ordinances and required transgender people to use public restrooms that corresponded with the sex on their birth certificate.

    “Since that time, because that first dip in the pool of fear has happened, it’s been used over and over successfully in other states,” said Katie Jenifer, policy director at the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Equality North Carolina.

    Republican Senate leader Phil Berger acknowledged Thursday that the “bathroom bill” is widely regarded as the blueprint for the present wave of legislation affecting trans people nationwide. He called it the “tip of the spear” in the ongoing debate.

    When the law passed, major sports tournaments, businesses and conventions pulled out of North Carolina, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue before the policy was eventually rolled back in 2017 and settled in federal court in 2019.

    Republicans now hold veto-proof majorities in both chambers for the first time since 2018, which has opened the door to some LGBTQ+ restrictions that had not previously gained traction in the state. And, Berger added, “the business community has for the most part decided that they’re going to concentrate on their business and not delve into those matters of policy.”

    Businesses have not shown up for trans people in the same way they did in 2016, Jenifer said, noting that the community used to have “a really big ally” in the National Collegiate Athletics Association, which moved several championship games to other states in protest of the “bathroom bill.”

    Conservative politicians have since turned the tables, spreading fear of a transgender contagion and boycotting companies that partner with trans celebrities. Most notably, Bud Light sales plunged because of conservative backlash to a sales campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

    Politicians now have a clearer path to pass these laws without fear of losing revenue, Jenifer said, because it has become riskier for businesses to support trans rights.

    Although the Republican General Assembly had drawn up the bathroom bill, it was McCrory who became the public face of the legislation. Cooper, then the attorney general, blamed McCrory for the negative publicity and business announcements during their gubernatorial campaign. Cooper ended up winning by just 10,000 votes.

    The fact that legislators in other states have since passed similar prohibitions without significant political repercussions gave North Carolina Republicans more confidence — and cover — to advance the measures, said Western Carolina University professor Christopher Cooper, who is not related to the governor.

    “It’s happened other places, and they didn’t lose their jobs,” he said.

    Legislation enacted Wednesday bars medical professionals from providing hormones, puberty-blocking drugs and surgical gender-transition procedures to anyone under 18, with limited exceptions. The House and Senate also enacted laws prohibiting instruction about gender identity and sexuality in K-4 public school classrooms and banning transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams from middle and high school through college.

    The governor and several Democratic lawmakers warned repeatedly of a similar economic fallout as the bills moved through the legislature.

    In his July veto message for the three bills, Cooper said Republicans are “damaging our state’s reputation and economy like they did with the harmful bathroom bill.”

    Sen. Jay Chaudhuri of Wake County drew a similar comparison Wednesday during floor debate. He criticized Republicans for prioritizing legislation that he said limits the ability of doctors and parents to take care of vulnerable children, when they’re more than a month behind on passing a budget.

    “We talk about running our state like a business, but we’re costing our taxpayers $42,000 a day because we don’t have a budget,” Chaudhuri said.

    Republicans are cognizant of the attempts to link the new laws to the original bathroom bill, but they argue public opinion has changed and more people consider these measures necessary.

    House Speaker Tim Moore said Thursday he saw little connection between the 2016 law and those enacted this week, when he said lawmakers acted in defense of children and fair competition.

    And when the Senate voted in April for a version of the sports measure, Majority Leader Paul Newton of Cabarrus County responded to what he called a “vague threat” by opponents that businesses would retaliate against North Carolina for the bill like they did in 2016.

    “I just do not believe that is true. No. 1, this is not HB 2,” he said, referring to the so-called bathroom bill. “And No. 2, this is common sense.”

    A former Duke Energy executive, Newton pitched the bill as a benefit to business leaders thinking of expanding to the state: “If you come to North Carolina and you have daughters, we’re guaranteeing that they are treated fairly,” he said.

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  • More states expect schools to keep trans girls off girls teams as K-12 classes resume

    More states expect schools to keep trans girls off girls teams as K-12 classes resume

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    TOPEKA, Kan. — As children across the U.S. head back to classes and practices for fall sports, four more states are expecting their K-12 schools to keep transgender girls off their girls teams.

    Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming had new laws in place restricting transgender athletes before classes resumed, and a Missouri law takes effect at the end of this month, bringing the number of states with restrictions to 23.

    North Carolina could enact a ban later this month, and Ohio could follow in the fall. A few laws, including ones in Arizona and West Virginia, are on hold because of federal lawsuits.

    This year’s new restrictions are part of a larger wave of legislation across the U.S. against transgender rights. Republican legislators in some states have banned gender-affirming care for minors, restricted transgender people’s use of school and public restrooms, limited what public schools can teach about gender and sexuality and barred schools from requiring the use of a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.

    The sports laws have been imposed since 2020, and most are aimed at transgender girls. A majority cover less formal intramural contests organized within a single school’s student body as well as contests among different schools, and some restrict transgender boys as well. Almost all say other students and their parents can sue schools that don’t enforce the restrictions.

    Lawmakers expect a child’s earliest birth certificate to determine which sports teams they can join. Principals and coaches are expected to be the enforcers.

    “Those are uncomfortable conversations,” said Jeanne Woodbury, interim executive director of the LGBGT+ rights group Equality Arizona. “Everyone is going through that process.”

    She added: “For trans kids, it’s never been a walk in the park, but now they have this law to contend with on top of everything else.”

    In Oklahoma, where a law has been in place since 2022, athletes or their parents must file an annual affidavit “acknowledging the biological sex of the student at birth.”

    Kansas and other states expect school officials to review a child’s earliest birth certificate if questions arise about an athlete’s eligibility.

    Bill Faflick, executive director of the Kansas State High School Activities Association, said his state’s law has been greeted by a “matter of fact” acceptance in rules seminars for administrators and coaches.

    “It has not been met with any resistance and has not been met with any outpouring of support or opposition, one way or the other,” Faflick said.

    Even before the laws against transgender girls on girls teams passed, some states largely blocked the practice by handling questions or concerns on a case-by-case level at the school or state athletic association level.

    Supporters of the restrictions argue that they’re protecting fair competition and scholarship opportunities for young women that took decades to win. They say that well before puberty, boys have physical advantages over girls in speed, strength and lung capacity.

    “It’s a puzzlement to me that more people aren’t feeling sympathy for the girls whose sports careers are ruined,” said Tom Horne, the elected Republican state school superintendent in Arizona, who is defending his state’s law in federal court.

    Doctors, parents, and LGBTQ+ rights advocates counter that boys’ physical advantages come with a surge in testosterone during puberty — changes gender-affirming care blocks.

    Critics also argue that transgender athletes are so few that schools and associations governing school sports can handle their individual cases without a state law.

    For example, in Kansas, the State High School Activities Association recorded 11 transgender athletes during the 2022-23 school year, and three were trans girls. Before Florida’s law took effect in 2021, its High School Athletic Association had cleared 13 transgender students to play in the previous eight years.

    Becky Pepper-Jackson appeared to be the only transgender girl seeking to play girls’ sports in West Virginia in 2021 when the then-11-year-old and her mother, Heather Jackson, sued the state over its law.

    Because of their lawsuit, the West Virginia law is on hold, and Becky, now a 13-year-old entering eighth grade, threw the discus and the shot put in seven track meets this spring.

    The state is trying to persuade a federal appeals court to let it enforce its law, and in a filing last month, it cited the longer distances Becky threw this year as a reason. The state said any time another girl finished behind Becky in either event — more than 180 times — the other athlete had been unfairly “displaced.”

    Jackson said the state knows her daughter only “on paper,” and Becky improved by training relentlessly at home with her own equipment.

    “As a parent, all we want for our children is for them to be successful and happy, period,” Jackson told The Associated Press. “That should be an opportunity for everybody, every time, everywhere in this country.”

    Educators and LGBTQ+ rights advocates argue that transgender kids aren’t the only athletes likely to feel the effects of the laws. Some worry that parents will challenge the right to play of cisgendered girls who are taller or more muscular than their peers — or just a whole lot better.

    One of athletes who sued Idaho over its 2020 law was a 17-year-old cisgendered girl, listed only as Jane Doe. The lawsuit said she had an “athletic build” and wanted to avoid ”invasive or uncomfortable” gender tests.

    “It’s going to create this feeling in some people that, ‘I can go question someone’s gender, and it’s my right to do that,’” said G.A. Buie, executive director of United School Administrators of Kansas, an association representing public school leaders.

    Parents, doctors and LGBTQ+ rights advocates say restrictions on transgender athletes are less about sports and more about trying to make transgender kids disappear from society.

    “What lawmakers fail to understand is that transgender people, nonbinary people, intersex people, have always been here,” said Anne Lieberman, policy and programs director for Athlete Ally, a group that advocates for transgender athletes. “Unless it is known that a student is trans, it is very hard to keep somebody from playing sports.”

    ___

    Follow John Hanna at Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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  • Kentucky candidates trade barbs at Fancy Farm picnic, the state’s premier political event

    Kentucky candidates trade barbs at Fancy Farm picnic, the state’s premier political event

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    FANCY FARM, Ky. — In front of a raucous crowd at Kentucky’s premier political event on Saturday, the Democratic incumbent governor talked about the state’s high-flying economy while his Republican challenger hammered away on social issues.

    Both sides stuck largely to scripts written in the early months of their general election showdown as they campaigned at the Fancy Farm picnic, traditionally seen as the jumping-off point for fall elections in Kentucky. This year, however, both Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear and Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron have been going at it for weeks, pounding away at many of the same notes they struck Saturday.

    Beshear declared Saturday that he’s led Kentucky’s economy on a “historic winning streak” worthy of a second term, while Cameron slammed the incumbent on social issues and said he was out of touch with Kentucky values.

    Political speaking is as much a tradition at the picnic as the barbecue. The crowd was divided between Republicans and Democrats, and both sides tried to outdo the other with chants. Candidates up and down the statewide ballot got their turns at the podium, but the focus was on the rivals for governor.

    With a statewide television audience watching, Beshear and Cameron drew distinct contrasts in the high-stakes encounter with about three months to go before the election. They endured the summer heat and cascades of boos and taunts from partisans backing their rival — a rite of passage for statewide candidates in Kentucky.

    The Kentucky governor’s race is one of the nation’s most closely watched contests and could provide clues heading into 2024 campaigns for the White House and Congress.

    Beshear touted his stewardship of the state’s economy, pointing to job creation from record-high economic development and record-low unemployment rates. The incumbent Democrat tried to tamp down partisanship in his pitch for a second term in the GOP-trending Bluegrass State.

    “When you’re on a historic winning streak, you don’t fire the coach,” the governor said. “You don’t sub out the quarterback. You keep that team on the field.”

    Reprising another of his main campaign themes, Cameron tried linking Beshear to President Joe Biden, who was trounced by Donald Trump in Kentucky in 2020 and remains unpopular in the state. Cameron has focused his strategy on social issues — most notably on legislation aimed at transgender people that the governor vetoed — to fire up conservative voters.

    “His record is one of failure, and it flies in the face of true Kentucky values,” Cameron said.

    Beshear has vowed not to cede so-called family values issues to his Republican opponent, accusing Cameron and his allies of running a strategy based on dividing Kentuckians.

    “Let’s remember we’re told not just to talk about our faith, but to actually live it out,” the governor. “I’m reminded of the Golden Rule, which is that we love our neighbor as our self.”

    Beshear — who has presided over a series of disasters, from the COVID-19 pandemic to tornadoes and floods — pointed to his efforts to bring aid to stricken regions to rebuild homes and infrastructure.

    Cameron took aim at Beshear’s pandemic policies that he said favored corporations over small businesses.

    “He closed down Main Street and bent over backwards for Wall Street,” Cameron said.

    Beshear has countered that his pandemic restrictions saved lives.

    Cameron continued blasting the governor’s decision to allow the early release of some nonviolent inmates during the early stages of the pandemic. Previously, Cameron has said some went on to commit new crimes. Beshear previously noted governors from both parties took the same action to release low-level, nonviolent inmates near the end of their sentences to help ease the spread of the virus in prisons.

    While his challenger chipped away on crime and social issues, Beshear was locked in on the economy. He said the state is again headed toward one of its best years for economic development.

    “We can turn these three great years of economic development into 30 years of prosperity,” he said.

    The governor also touted massive infrastructure projects moving ahead, including a new Ohio River bridge for northern Kentucky and a highway expansion in the state’s Appalachian region.

    “People here know there’s no Democrat or Republican bridges. That a good job isn’t red or blue,” Beshear said. “And the most important thing for a governor is getting the job done.”

    Meanwhile, the drumbeat of GOP criticism of Beshear on social issues continued. The governor has come under attack from GOP groups for vetoing legislation aimed at transgender people. Cameron noted Beshear vetoed a bill that barred transgender girls and women from participating in school sports matching their gender identity. The state’s Republican-dominated legislature overrode the veto.

    “Governor, I know you guys are obsessed with pronouns these days. But come November, yours are going to be: has and been,” Cameron said.

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  • School board in Missouri, now controlled by conservatives, revokes anti-racism resolution

    School board in Missouri, now controlled by conservatives, revokes anti-racism resolution

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    O’FALLON, Mo. — In the national reckoning that followed the police killing of George Floyd three years ago, about 2,000 protesters took to the streets in a St. Louis suburb and urged the mostly white Francis Howell School District to address racial discrimination. The school board responded with a resolution promising to do better.

    Now the board, led by new conservative board members elected since last year, has revoked that anti-racism resolution and copies of it will be removed from school buildings.

    The resolution passed in August 2020 “pledges to our learning community that we will speak firmly against any racism, discrimination, and senseless violence against people regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability.

    “We will promote racial healing, especially for our Black and brown students and families,” the resolution states. “We will no longer be silent.”

    The board’s decision follows a trend that began with backlash against COVID-19 pandemic policies in places around the nation. School board elections have become intense political battlegrounds, with political action groups successfully electing candidates promising to take action against teachings on race and sexuality, remove books deemed offensive and stop transgender-inclusive sports teams.

    The Francis Howell district is among Missouri’s largest, with 17,000 students, about 87% of whom are white. The vote, which came during an often contentious meeting Thursday, rescinded resolutions 75 days after “a majority of current Board of Education members were not signatories to the resolution or did not otherwise vote to adopt the resolution.”

    While a few others also will be canceled, the anti-racism resolution was clearly the focus. Dozens of people opposed to its revocation packed the board meeting, many holding signs reading, “Forward, not backward.”

    Kimberly Thompson, who is Black, attended Francis Howell schools in the 1970s and 1980s, and her two children graduated from the district. She described several instances of racism and urged the board to stand by its 2020 commitment.

    “This resolution means hope to me, hope of a better Francis Howell School District,” Thompson said. “It means setting expectations for behavior for students and staff regardless of their personal opinions.”

    The board’s vice president, Randy Cook, said phrases in the resolution such as “systemic racism” aren’t defined and mean different things to different people. Another board member, Jane Puszkar, said the resolution served no purpose.

    “What has it really done,” she asked. “How effective has it really been?”

    Since the resolution was adopted, the makeup of the board has flipped. Just two board members remain from 2020. Five new members elected in April 2022 and April 2023 had the backing of the conservative political action committee Francis Howell Families.

    In 2021, the PAC described the anti-racism resolution as “woke activism” and drafted an alternative resolution to oppose “all acts of racial discrimination, including the act of promoting tenets of the racially-divisive Critical Race Theory, labels of white privilege, enforced equity of outcomes, identity politics, intersectionalism, and Marxism.”

    Cook, who was elected in 2022 and sponsored the revocation, said there is no plan to adopt that alternative or any other.

    “In my opinion, the school board doesn’t need to be in the business of dividing the community,” Cook said. “We just need to stick to the business of educating students here and stay out of the national politics.”

    Many districts are dealing with debates over topics mislabeled as critical race theory. School administrators say the scholarly theory centered on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions is not taught in K-12 schools.

    Others assert that school systems are misspending money, perpetuating divisions and shaming white children by pursuing initiatives they view as critical race theory in disguise.

    In 2021, the Ohio State Board of Education rescinded an anti-racism and equity resolution that also was adopted after Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020. It was replaced with a statement promoting academic excellence without respect to “race, ethnicity or creed.”

    Racial issues remain especially sensitive in the St. Louis region, nine years after a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown during a street confrontation. Officer Darren Wilson was not charged and the shooting led to months of often violent protests, becoming a catalyst for the national Black Lives Matter movement.

    Revoking the Francis Howell resolution “sets a precedent for what’s to come,” St. Charles County NAACP President Zebrina Looney warned.

    “I think this is only the beginning for what this new board is set out to do,” Looney said.

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  • Federal judge blocks Arizona law banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports teams

    Federal judge blocks Arizona law banning transgender athletes from girls’ sports teams

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    TUCSON, Ariz. — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arizona from enforcing a law banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ school sports teams.

    The judge in Tucson granted a preliminary injunction to allow processing of a lawsuit filed on behalf of two transgender girls against the state’s “Save Women’s Sports Act,” which was passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature last year.

    The lawsuit argues the law violates federal Title IX, the law barring sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds, and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

    Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne, who is a defendant in the case, said the decision will be appealed.

    “This will ultimately be decided by the United States Supreme Court, and they will rule in our favor,” Horne said in a statement.

    Arizona is one of several states and some school districts that have passed laws limiting access to school sports teams or other facilities to students on the basis of the sex they were assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.

    The Arizona plaintiffs include a 15-year-old volleyball player and an 11-year-old who wants to play girls’ soccer, basketball and cross-country. In court filings, they have been named Jane Doe and Megan Roe.

    Parents of both children said they were pleased with the court’s decision.

    “We are relieved that the judge saw past the misconceptions and harmful rhetoric used to demonize transgender girls. Our daughter is looking forward to making new friends and playing the sports that she loves,” Jane Doe’s parents said in a statement from the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is helping to represent them.

    Arizona officials have said the law passes federal muster because it aims at fairness.

    “Title IX was aimed at giving girls equal opportunities for playing sports. When a biological boy plays in a girls’ sport, it disadvantages the girls,” Horne told The Associated Press when the lawsuit was filed in April. “There have been lots of news stories about girls who worked hard to excel at their sports, found they could not when they had to compete against biological boys and were devastated by that.”

    In issuing the preliminary injunction, however, Judge Jennifer G. Zipps said there was no evidence that allowing the children, who have been prescribed puberty blockers for gender dysphoria, to play on girls’ teams would have an athletic advantage or prove a safety risk to other players.

    Rather, the judge said the children will “suffer severe and irreparable mental, physical, and emotional harm if the Act applies to them because they cannot play on boys’ sports teams” which would be “painful and humiliating.”

    “There is a consensus among medical organizations that gender identity is innate and cannot be changed through psychological or medical treatments,” the ruling said.

    “Plaintiffs’ mental health is dependent on living as girls in all aspects of their lives,” the judge wrote.

    LGBTQ+ rights advocates say bills like the one passed in Arizona and hundreds more across the U.S. are anti-transgender attacks disguised as protections for children and that they use transgender people as political pawns to galvanize GOP voters ahead of an election year.

    Courts have blocked some measures in several states, including last week in Wisconsin.

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  • World cycling’s governing body bans female transgender athletes from women’s events

    World cycling’s governing body bans female transgender athletes from women’s events

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    AIGLE, Switzerland — Female transgender athletes who transitioned after male puberty will no longer be able to compete in women’s races, world cycling governing body the UCI said Friday.

    The International Cycling Union joined the governing bodies in track and field and swimming as top-tier Olympic sports addressing in this way the issue of transgender athletes and fairness in women’s events.

    The UCI’s decision came after American rider Austin Killips became the first openly transgender woman to win an official cycling event in May.

    “From now on, female transgender athletes who have transitioned after (male) puberty will be prohibited from participating in women’s events on the UCI international calendar — in all categories — in the various disciplines,” the international federation said in a statement.

    The UCI said the ban, starting on Monday, was necessary to “ensure equal opportunities.”

    Killips rode to victory in the fifth stage of the Tour of the Gila, one of the marquee U.S. stage races. Her victory provoked a negative reaction by some cycling fans and former racers despite the 27-year-old athlete having adhered to a policy put in place by the UCI last year requiring transgender athletes to have serum testosterone levels of 2.5 nanomoles per liter or less for at least 24 months before competing in women’s events.

    The UCI said Friday it “has taken note of the state of scientific knowledge, which does not confirm that at least two years of gender-affirming hormone therapy with a target plasma testosterone concentration of 2.5 nmol/L is sufficient to completely eliminate the benefits of testosterone during puberty in men.”

    It also noted the difficulty to “draw precise conclusions about the effects” of gender-confirming hormone therapy.

    “Given the current state of scientific knowledge, it is also impossible to rule out the possibility that biomechanical factors such as the shape and arrangement of the bones in their limbs may constitute a lasting advantage for female transgender athletes,” the UCI added.

    In May, the UCI — led by its French president David Lappartient, an International Olympic Committee member — said it expected to make a decision in August. The newly expanded world championships are being held from Aug. 3-13 in Glasgow, Scotland.

    Instead, a decision which the UCI said in a statement was taken at an additional management board meeting held on July 5 was announced Friday — Bastille Day in France — during a key mountains stage in the Tour de France.

    Despite the ban, Lappartient said “the UCI would like to reaffirm that cycling — as a competitive sport, leisure activity or means of transport — is open to everyone, including transgender people, whom we encourage like everyone else to take part in our sport.”

    The UCI said its men’s category will be renamed “Men/Open” at international Masters events — which are below elite level for riders aged at least 30 — adding that “any athlete who does not meet the conditions for participation in women’s events will be admitted without restriction.”

    Lappartient insisted the UCI “fully respects and supports the right of individuals to choose the sex that corresponds to their gender identity, whatever sex they were assigned at birth. However, it has a duty to guarantee, above all, equal opportunities for all competitors in cycling competitions.”

    The UCI follows British Cycling in approving a similar transgender policy in May, which included plans to split competitive races into “open” and “female” categories. The female category was to remain for those whose sex was assigned female at birth and for transgender men yet to begin hormone therapy.

    Cycling’s decision closed another competitive route to the 2024 Paris Olympics for transgender athletes. Two years ago, transgender woman Laurel Hubbard competed at the Tokyo Olympics for New Zealand in the women’s over-87-kilogram class.

    ___

    AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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  • Transgender and nonbinary people are often sidelined at Pride. This year is different

    Transgender and nonbinary people are often sidelined at Pride. This year is different

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    HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Kara Murphy, a transgender woman helping to organize the Union County Pride in a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina, is heartened to see Pride celebrations across the country, big and small, shining a spotlight on transgender rights this year.

    “When we look and see who’s standing up for us, it kind of signals the strength of the movement,” she said.

    Whether it’s transgender grand marshals at the massive New York City Pride parade or a photo display of transgender victims of violence at the much smaller festival in Hastings, Nebraska, many celebrations this June are taking a public stand against state legislation targeting transgender people.

    Some Prides are putting transgender people front and center at events where they’ve often been sidelined because of a historical emphasis on gay and lesbian rights, along with the same sorts of prejudice and misinformation held by many straight, cisgender people about trans lives.

    The growing number of new laws and policies, including restrictions on gender-affirming care, public bathroom use and participation in sports, has prompted Pride organizers to more fully embrace a segment of the LGBTQ+ populace that hasn’t always felt included.

    While trans activists have always been integral to steps toward greater LGBTQ+ rights, “too often, the larger LGBTQ movement ignored or even actively erased the voices of trans and nonbinary folks,” Kierra Johnson, executive director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, said in an email.

    “Uplifting trans voices and fighting for trans liberation must be at the forefront of our movement” when the rights of transgender and nonbinary people are “under a coordinated attack,” Johnson said.

    “We are specifically standing by and being supportive of those who are transgender, because we understand that they’re under assault, that their rights are under assault,” said Jonathan Swindle, organizer of Pride in Corpus Christi, Texas. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott recently signed legislation that would make Texas the most populous state to ban gender-affirming treatments for minors. At least 20 others have similar bans.

    This year, Swindle said, steps to show solidarity include displaying the blue, pink and white transgender flag, offering Pride T-shirts in just pink and blue, involving trans advocacy groups at events, and offering resources for trans people, including legal help with changing gender designations.

    Smaller events are also planned that bring people together, but Swindle said those won’t be widely advertised because of security concerns and potential threats. This year, he said, “the static in the air and the temperament is so much different” from 2022, when Pride seemed more celebratory.

    One transgender board member, he noted, abruptly resigned last month and deactivated their social media accounts because they didn’t want to be in the public eye.

    “This year, it’s like no, we have to fight through our messaging, as well as reach the young generation to help them understand that it’s going to be OK,” Swindle said. “Yes, they’re doing this, but we will be there. There are resources for you.”

    Prides across the U.S. are using the annual event, often held in June to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall rebellion in New York City — an uprising partly led by trans women of color — to highlight their support for transgender people.

    Many are also supporting the drag community, which has also been the target of protests and legislation.

    In Reading, Pennsylvania, Pride organizer Enrique Castro Jr. said that instead of a parade, a march dedicated to both the trans and drag-performer communities is planned. In addition to displays of flags honoring those communities, there will be a rally afterward at which Dr. Ashley Grant, a specialist in gender-affirming care, will speak and march with the group to her clinic.

    The recent Pride in Hastings, a central Nebraska city of 25,000, was “edgier” than past years, acknowledged organizer Randal Kottwitz. With the theme “Rise Up” and dedicated to victims of trans violence, it included a speech by state Sen. Michela Cavanaugh, who told the crowd, “You are loved and you matter.” She led the unsuccessful fight against legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Jim Pillen that bans abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy and restricts gender-affirming medical care for people younger than 19.

    In New York City, where this year’s Pride theme is “Strength in Solidarity,” organizers selected representatives of the trans community to be among the grand marshals of the June 25 parade. There are also plans to have a float carrying transgender people of color.

    AC Dumlao, chief of staff for Athlete Ally, a group that advocates on behalf of LGBTQ and intersex athletes, and a transgender, nonbinary Filipino American, is one of the grand marshals. They welcome the attention at Pride this year.

    “It’s really important for me to take this opportunity and attention to spotlight kind of what is happening across the country,” said Dumlao, noting how nearly half of U.S. states have banned trans athletes from playing in school sports. With a draw of about 2 million spectators on hand, they said the often-televised parade is a great opportunity to spread the message that trans athletes have “always been here.”

    Murphy said the number of expected spectators at her Pride in North Carolina, planned for September, will be tiny in comparison with New York and won’t include a parade — but that the message will be no less meaningful.

    “You can do so much just person to person, just walking around, meeting people at Pride,” she said, noting how the festival becomes an opportunity for people to tap into an informal network of people who might know a therapist or doctor or have a trans child who is trying to make friends.

    “At this kind of a rural area, you don’t get the big demonstrations. You get the little assistance, person to person to person to person, that kind of starts to add up,” she said. “And yeah, if I could, we would have just a trans pride parade on Main Street if I could, but I can’t do that.”

    In Connecticut, where restrictions on transgender people are not being proposed, organizers of the Middletown Pride still placed a major focus on trans rights in this year’s events, which Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont attended.

    “Just seeing everything that’s happening in the legislation (elsewhere), we definitely wanted to make it a priority,” said Haley Stafford, event coordinator for the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce which helps to organize Middletown Pride. “Just because it’s not happening to us right now doesn’t mean that it can’t end up happening further down the line.”

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  • Biden invites thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals, singer Betty Who, to Pride Month celebration

    Biden invites thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals, singer Betty Who, to Pride Month celebration

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    WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has invited thousands of LGBTQ+ individuals to celebrate Pride Month in a high-profile show of support at a time when the community feels under attack like never before and the White House has little recourse to beat back a flood state-level legislation against them.

    Biden was announcing new initiatives to protect LGBTQ+ communities from attacks, help youth with mental health resources and homelessness and counter book bans, White House officials said.

    The White House was closely monitoring air quality due to hazardous smoke from Canadian wildfires to determine whether to proceed with plans for a Thursday night picnic featuring food, games, face painting and photos. Queen HD the DJ was handling the music; singer Betty Who was on tap to perform.

    Karine Jean-Pierre, the first openly gay White House press secretary, said Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses are strong supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and think that having a celebration is an important way to “lift up” their accomplishments and contributions.

    She said LGBTQ+ people need to know that Biden “has their back” and “will continue to fight for them. And that’s the message that we want to make sure that gets out there.”

    The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest advocacy organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer individuals, earlier this week declared a state of emergency for LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States and released a guidebook outlining laws it deems discriminatory in each state.

    Just a few days into June’s Pride Month, the campaign said it acted in response to an “unprecedented and dangerous” spike in discriminatory laws sweeping statehouses this year, with more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills introduced and more than 70 signed into law so far — more than double last year’s number.

    Kelley Robinson, the campaign’s president, called for a “swift and powerful” response by people in power, including in government, business and education.

    “This is a full-out crisis for our communities that demands a concerted response,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I think this is kind of a national call to action and a call to arms to stand up and fight back.”

    Biden was announcing that the Department of Homeland Security, working with the Justice and Health and Human Services departments, will partner with LGBTQ+ community organizations to provide safety resources and training to help thwart violent attacks.

    Separately, HHS and the Department of Housing and Urban Development will provide resources to help LGBTQ+ young people with mental health needs, support in foster care and homelessness.

    To confront a spike in book bans, Biden was announcing that the Department of Education’s civil rights office will appoint a new coordinator to work with schools to address that threat. The White House said banning books erodes democracy, deprives students of material needed for learning and can contribute to the stigma and isolation that LGBTQ+ youth feel because books about them are often the ones that are prohibited.

    Hundreds of bills have been proposed restricting the rights of transgender people, including limiting their access to certain forms of health care, and LGBTQ+ advocates say they’ve seen a record number of such measures in statehouses.

    The White House points out that Biden has a record of supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals, including appointing them to prominent positions in the federal government, such as Jean-Pierre.

    After the Supreme Court last year overturned a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, Biden signed legislation to protect marriage equality. He continues to urge Congress to send him the Equality Act, which would add civil rights protections for LGBTQ+ individuals to federal law.

    Polls show that public support for the rights of people who are gay and lesbian has expanded dramatically over the last two decades, with about 7 in 10 U.S. adults in polling by Gallup saying that marriages between same-sex adults should be legally valid and that gay and lesbian relationships are morally acceptable.

    But attitudes toward transgender people are complex: In polls conducted in 2022 by KFF and the Washington Post and by the Pew Research Center, majorities said they support laws prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in areas such as housing, jobs and schools.

    At the same time, both polls found that a majority of Americans think that whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by sex assigned at birth, and many also support restrictive policies aimed at people who are transgender, for example preventing transgender women and girls from participating in sports teams matching their gender identity, along with restrictions on access to medical treatment like puberty blockers and hormone treatment for transgender teens and children.

    The Log Cabin Republicans, which represents LGBTQ+ conservatives, criticized the Human Rights Campaign’s declaration of a “state of emergency” as a “PR stunt so ignorantly detached” from the community’s progress over the past decade.

    Charles Moran, the group’s president, noted the gay marriage legislation Biden signed, increased public support for equal rights for LGBTQ+ Americans and their higher visibility across society and accused the campaign of “destructively redefining” support for these individuals around trans surgeries for minors, biological men competing in women’s sports, and sex and gender identity lessons in kindergarten.

    “While these issues can be emotional and complex, they in no way pose an unprecedented ‘state of emergency’ to the LGBT community, which has persevered through far worse,” Moran said.

    ___

    Associated Press writers Emily Swanson in Washington and Hannah Schoenbaum in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

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  • Texas passes sexual conduct bill drag show artists fear will prompt crackdown

    Texas passes sexual conduct bill drag show artists fear will prompt crackdown

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    Texas lawmakers approved a bill expanding what is considered an illegal performance of sexual conduct in a move drag artists fear will be used to criminalize their shows

    ByJIM VERTUNO Associated Press

    AUSTIN, Texas — Texas would expand what is considered an illegal public performance of sexual conduct, under a bill approved late Sunday by state lawmakers that drag artists fear will be used to criminalize their shows.

    The bill approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature is part of a broader effort in Texas and other conservative states to crack down on drag shows and limit LGBTQ rights. Texas earlier this month became the largest state to ban gender-affirming care for minors, and lawmakers also approved another measure that would restrict transgender athletes in college sports.

    The Texas bill on sexual content in performances was initially meant to bar children from attending drag shows. It was changed to remove specific references to drag shows, but it also broadened the scope of what would be illegal.

    The bill would ban real or simulated groping, real or simulated arousal and display of a sex toy, if done in a “prurient” manner in front of a minor or on public property. And it includes a definition of sexual conduct that bars wearing accessories or prosthetics that enhance the female or male form in front of a minor or on public property.

    Violators could face up to a year in jail, and businesses hosting performances deemed illegal could be fined $10,000 for each violation.

    Some drag performers and LGBTQ activists call the new restrictions too vague and worry they will be unevenly targeted. Supporters of the bill say it’s needed to protect children from seeing sexually explicit content, although some critics worry the vague nature of the potential violations could ensnare suggestive performances at rock concerts, by professional sports cheerleading squads or even behavior in private homes.

    The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Abbott, who is expected to sign it into law.

    In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, earlier this month signed into law new restrictions on drag shows that would allow the state to revoke the food and beverage licenses of businesses that admit children to adult performances.

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  • Payback? Project funds axed after Kansas lawmaker defies governor on abortion, trans rights

    Payback? Project funds axed after Kansas lawmaker defies governor on abortion, trans rights

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    TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas’ Democratic governor vetoed state funding on Monday for a project long advocated by a Democratic lawmaker who broke ranks to override the governor’s vetoes and give Republicans crucial support for laws restricting abortion and rolling back transgender rights.

    Apparently, Rep. Marvin Robinson’s decision had consequences.

    Gov. Laura Kelly axed $250,000 in the next state budget for drafting a state plan to develop the Quindaro Ruins in Kansas City, Kansas, which Robinson represents. Quindaro was a short-lived town and a station on the Underground Railroad that helped enslaved people escape to Canada. A proposal to build a landfill there in the 1980s led to an investigation of the site and the discovery of multiple buildings’ foundations.

    Robinson, who is Black, advocated for the site’s restoration and development as a national historic landmark for several decades before he won an open House seat last year. Democratic leaders called on him to resign after he voted to override Kelly’s veto of a measure banning transgender female athletes from girls’ and women’s sports, giving Republicans the supermajoirty they needed.

    Robinson’s votes were also crucial to Republicans enacting two other new laws over Kelly vetoes amid a national push on culture war issues by GOP state lawmakers. One is a sweeping bathroom law that could also prevent transgender people from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses. The other will require abortion providers to tell patients that medication abortions can be stopped using a regimen that major medical groups see as ineffective and potentially dangerous.

    Kelly told lawmakers in her veto message Monday that the Quindaro site is a “fundamental piece of Kansas history,” but noted that Republicans added the money to the budget during their final days in session this year. Kelly said the idea had not been vetted, and her veto will stand because lawmakers have adjourned for the year.

    “Advocates should work through the proper channels to seek funding for this measure and ensure that it receives the recognition it deserves,” Kelly wrote in her message.

    The $250,000 Kelly vetoed compares to roughly $24 billion in spending lawmakers approved in the next state budget.

    Michael Austin, chair of the Kansas Black Republican Council, said Kelly had “callously” denied funs to an important project while offering “hollow rhetoric” to Black residents.

    House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita, Republican, said in a statement that preserving the Quindaro site should be a bipartisan priority “excluded from the wrath of political punishments.”

    State Rep. Patrick Penn, of Wichita, the Legislature’s only Black Republican member, told the House before it passed the budget measure that Robinson did not know that GOP lawmakers including funds for Quindaro. State Sen. J.R. Claeys, a Republican from central Kansas, told The Kansas City Star that he pursued the funding to give Robinson “a win in his first year” after fellow Democrats treated him poorly.

    Robinson did not respond to emails seeking comment on Kelly’s veto, and the telephone number listed for him did not allow people to leave messages.

    He voted 18 times this year to override Kelly vetoes of bills or budget items, starting with the measure on transgender athletes. The measure was a priority for GOP leaders, as was the abortion medication measure.

    Robinson’s vote to block Kelly’s veto of the bathroom measure vexed fellow Democrats because the new law is broader than those in other states. It applies outside public schools, extending to prisons, jails, rape crisis centers and domestic violence shelters. Supporters argued they were protecting cisgender women’s and girl’s privacy, health and safety.

    The new law recognizes only two sexes, male or female, and defines them based on reproductive anatomy at birth. Because of that, Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, said earlier this month that he believes it prevents transgender people from changing the gender markers on their driver’s licenses. A spokesperson for the state agency that issues the licenses says it is still reviewing the issue.

    Critics see the law as attempting the “erasure” of transgender people.

    “It just sounds like something to do to be nasty,” Luc Bensimon, a Black transgender Topeka resident and activist, said during a recent interview.

    Later, he added, “You know, it’s scary.”

    ___

    Follow John Hanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/apjdhanna

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  • States add laws on pronouns, sports for transgender students

    States add laws on pronouns, sports for transgender students

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    Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb this week signed into a law a requirement that schools notify a parent when their student asks to be called a different name or uses pronouns that correspond with their gender, not their sex.

    It’s the latest law to emerge from a focus in Republican-controlled states on restricting transgender students in the name of parental rights or protecting other students.

    LTBTQ+ advocates say the measures are harmful to students, especially those who are trans.

    Some things to know:

    PRONOUNS

    As the idea that people should be referred to by the pronouns they choose has taken root, there’s been a strong conservative political backlash — part of a broader backlash against acceptance of transgender people.

    On Thursday, Florida’s lawmakers gave final passage to a bill that would prevent students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that don’t correspond to someone’s sex. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to seek the Republican presidential nomination next year, has signaled he will sign the measure.

    Montana earlier this year passed a law that would block schools from punishing students who misgender or deadname peers — referring to them by the wrong gender or by names they previously used — so long as it doesn’t rise to the level of bullying. An earlier version of the legislation would have blocked schools from punishing students for purposely using peers’ wrong names or gender.

    Indiana’s version, which takes effect July 1, goes a step further, requiring schools to tell parents when their students ask to be called by a different name or by a pronoun that corresponds with their gender.

    It’s not the first state with a similar provision. Alabama adopted a law last year requiring schools to notify parents if a child discloses that they think they might be transgender and also blocking school staff from encouraging students to withhold that information from their parents.

    The pronoun restrictions aren’t catching on in all Republican-controlled states. North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum vetoed a bill that would have barred public school teachers and staff from using the pronouns a transgender student uses without a parent’s permission. The veto narrowly survived an override attempt last month.

    BLOCKING LESSONS ON GENDER IDENTITY

    DeSantis has been leading the charge against pronouns and other causes he incorrectly refers to as “woke.” Last year, his state became the first to adopt what critics call a “Don’t Say Gay” law barring schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

    Last month, Florida’s state school board expanded the ban on teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity to all grades, The bill passed this week that DeSantis is expected to sign would legally reinforce that, banning the instruction through eighth grade with exceptions for when it’s required by existing state standards or are part of reproductive health instruction classes that parents can choose for their students not to take.

    Some of the pronoun provisions, including Indiana’s, are included in broader prohibitions on teaching about gender identity similar to Florida’s law.

    PARENTAL RIGHTS

    Other states, including Arizona and Idaho, have passed laws in the last two years intended to give parents more control over their children’s education.

    They both require that information about their student’s health and education be made available to parents.

    In Idaho’s case, the law, which is to take effect July 1, requires parents be told of changes in students’ mental, emotional or physical well-being.

    Critics say that while the laws do not specifically list gender identity, they will end up outing transgender students to families who might not be accepting.

    BATHROOMS, SPORTS AND HEALTHCARE

    Other state policies aimed at curtailing the rights of transgender young people have been centerpieces of legislative sessions in red states, especially the past two years.

    At least nine states have adopted laws to keep transgender students out of bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identities.

    Laws adopted in at least 21 states would keep transgender girls and women from playing on girls and women’s sports teams. Courts have blocked enforcement of some of those. President Joe Biden’s administration last month proposed a rule that would find that broad bans on transgender sports participation would violate federal law.

    The U.S. House last month also approved a ban on transgender girls and women on girls and women’s sports teams, but it’s unlikely to be passed by the Democrat-controlled Senate.

    And at least 20 states have adopted laws or policies — including some blocked by courts — barring gender-affirming care, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery for minors. At least 10 states have taken action to protect access to the care.

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