A $37,000 Newspaper Ad Just Attacked Transgender Athletes

Sprawled across an entire page of the Minnesota Star Tribune on Monday was a controversial advertisement that read, in part:

“A male wants to shower beside your 14-year-old daughter. Are YOU ok with that?”

Dramatically illustrated with shadowy showerheads and followed up with fine print, the ad is targeting a high school student and was paid for by Minnesota Child Protection League, a conservative group with an anti-LGBT history. The ad was purchased for $37,000 to stir opposition to a new inclusive policy proposed for Minnesota high schools athletics that would allow transgender students to play on the team of the gender with which they identify.

That also means using the same locker-room and shower facilities as everyone else on the squad.

“Fundamental fairness, as well as most local, state and federal rules and regulations, requires schools to provide transgender student athletes with equal opportunities to participate in athletics,” states the policy, which was proposed by the Minnesota State High School League.

The nonprofit oversees high school sports across the state and is expected to vote on the new guidelines this week. If the policy is approved, at away games, transgender athletes would also get the go-ahead to share restrooms and hotel rooms with the gender with which they identify.

In America an estimated 225,000 students, ranging from pre-K through college, identify as transgender, according to LGBT and education experts. Providing equal access to gym class and competitive sports is not just a school obligation but also a crucial part of students’ health and development, said Ría Mar Tabacco, ACLU attorney with the LGBT & AIDS Project.

Jae Bates, 18, knows firsthand what being a transgender athlete is like. Now a college freshman at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., Bates came out as a transgender person the summer before his junior year in high school. During his first two years at Minnesota’s Hopkins High School, Bates competed on the girls' track and field team. After he came out he changed his name, and his coach offered him the choice of practicing with either the men or the women on the track team.

“My high school and my team in general was probably one of the better places to come out, and I knew that, and so I felt comfortable staying on the team," said Bates.

But nationally, he is in the minority. There aren’t many out transgender students in Minnesota, said Bates, and most of those who are often quit athletics to avoid discrimination or harassment. While the proposed high school policy gives visibility to the transgender community, said Bates, it’s not a law, and schools will have freedom to decide how or when they enforce the guidelines.

“It kind of defeats the point,” said Bates. “It’s really more of a symbolic policy than anything, and of course conservative schools are always going to be trying to do what they want to do.”

Right now what conservative groups want to do is shoot down the policy. The Minnesota Catholic Conference has criticized the proposal for failing to accommodate students and schools that may have “religious or conscientious objections” to their transgender peers, and has said the proposed changes disregard the “privacy and safety” of non-transgender students.

Minnesota Child Protection League went so far as to say the new policy will “put students at risk of sexual assault” and that “girls will be at greater risk of injury on the court/field when competing against biological boys.”

"The parents that we're talking to are up in arms. They didn't know that this was going on,” Michele Lentz, state coordinator of the Child Protection League, told Minnesota Public Radio. “They didn't know that this policy was being considered, and they're appalled."

Although the dramatic newspaper advertisement was intended to stir up opposition to the policy, it may be backfiring, said Monica Meyer, executive director of LGBT group OutFront Minnesota. A lot of people saw the ad as harmful, and since its publication parents have come out vehemently supporting a trans-inclusive policy, said Meyer.

“I think the ad was so divisive that it inspired a bunch of people to respond...in support of the policy,” she said.

Many of those people took to Twitter, expressing their disgust for conservatives, the Minnesota Star Tribune, or their state. Prior to the policy, Minnesota had no guidelines regulating the treatment of transgender student athletes. Although the MSHSL's work is “encouraging,” the draft version of the policy was “fairly restrictive,” said ACLU’s Mar Tabacco.

An early version stated that a female who is transitioning to male and has begun hormone treatments (i.e., receiving testosterone) is only eligible to play on male teams, and a female who’s not receiving hormones can play on either team. A male-to-female athlete must present documentation of hormone suppression therapy to play on the female sports team. Those mandatory hormone requirements have been toned down in the newest version of the policy released on Tuesday.

“Other states, including California, allow students to participate in physical education or athletic activities consistent with their gender identity regardless of medical treatment,” Mar Tabacco wrote in an email.

In August 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law barring public schools from discriminating against students based on their gender identity or expression, and allowing students to participate in “sex-segregated” sports and activities. Other states, including Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Washington, have also adopted transgender-inclusive policies that clear the way for transgender homecoming princesses and the success of high school athletes. 

Colleges across the country have also taken the initiative to extend their own welcome to transgender students. Most notably, women's school Mills College in California became the first single-sex university to welcome transgender students earlier this year. Even the federal government is encouraging transgender inclusivity; the U.S. Department of Education released a guidance report earlier this year expanding Title IX guidelines to protect students against discrimination based on gender identity or failing to conform to gender stereotypes.

Now the ball is in Minnesota’s court. Even if approved, the proposed policy would be open to local interpretation, said Meyer, but at least the state is discussing the issue.

“Mandatory or not...it’s definitely a step forward for the high school league to be talking about the policy and putting forward this policy,” she said.

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Original article from TakePart