Trans sports ban has Lafourche and Terrebonne schools thinking about inclusivity, safety

A school board member wants the transgender law banning men from competing in women's sports placed in the school policy but is open to coed sports.

In June of 2022, Louisiana legislators passed a law defining athletes' sex based on their birth certificates and barring those assigned as males from competing in women's sports held by schools that receive state funds. It does not address women who are transitioning into males.

According to superintendents from both Terrebonne and Lafourche school districts, the districts are enforcing the law. No athletes currently are competing in sports opposite to the sex on their birth certificates, they said.

Lafourche School Board Member Jamie Marlbrough wants this law printed in the school district's policy but is also open to creating coed sports. She said men have an advantage over women in sports, but she also would like a space that is inclusive for trans athletes. She said her concern was women getting injured by male athletes competing against them.

"I can understand that feeling of not belonging and all of that, but physically, it can hurt my daughter," Marlbrough said via phone call. Asked how she planned to accomplish safety and inclusivity, she responded, "You do it with co-curricular sports, where they know they are taking that risk."

Asked if she would bring up coed sports at the next school board meeting, Marlbrough said she wasn't committed to the idea of coed sports because she had to check on whether the school district can afford the coed sports and if there will be enough participation. But she wants to hold a public discussion on the issue.

Louisiana legislators passed a similar bill on trans athletes the year prior, but it was vetoed by Gov. John Bel Edwards. State Sen. Beth Mizell proposed the bill again, and the issue received much more attention when trans swimmer Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania won an NCAA Division I national championship in the 500-meter freestyle.

Although Edwards did not veto the bill this year, he also did not sign it. This allowed it to become law under Louisiana statutes.

Proponents of the law say that it protects the integrity of women's sports by ensuring that those born as males, who are built differently, do not enter women's sports with an unfair advantage. At the high school level, however, it becomes complicated as to whether a child has an advantage yet. This is because a male child does not actually have an advantage until testosterone begins to be produced, Dr. Tiffany Najberg said.

Najberg is a practicing physician who specializes in transition medicine and is also trans. Najberg said testosterone does confer an advantage in some sports but said there are examples, such as competitive shooting, where it wouldn't come into play.

"I think there also are other factors too, like whether testosterone plays a factor in it," she said. "For example, why would you even need to exclude trans folk from an archery team?"

Najberg said the law was far too broad in its approach because there is a great deal of nuance in not just the science, but also in the many types of sports.

Trans athletes under 18 receive hormone blockers that are meant to postpone puberty, she said, because the physical effects of male puberty, such as voice deepening and shoulder broadening, can never be reversed without surgery. The blockers give the person time to consider if they want to go through with a transition or not.

More: Andrew Price School: A once-hidden history casts doubt on a congressman’s legacy

More: First look: Jeff Landry escalates media blitz in Louisiana governor's race TV ad wars

A recent graduate from H.L. Bourgeois High, Paegan Chaisson, 18, was born female and has recently begun taking male hormones that will create changes to his body.

Chaisson opposed the law because he said it was a slippery slope. This law, he said, opened the door to other laws targeting the trans community.

"It opens the gate for more discrimination because the trans women are only the start," Chaisson said. "They're easier to target because they can be seen as a threat to cis-women, but it's going to lead to laws against trans men as well, and it's going to lead to more laws to more things for all of us."

"Cis" is an abbreviation for cisgender, which means the person identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth, in this instance a woman who was assigned female on her birth certificate.

Marlbrough said biology isn't something that could be changed, and she feared that if men competed against women, there was a danger of women getting hurt. With a coed sport, at least the person was making an informed decision and accepting the risk.

"We can't change biology, and that's very unfortunate for some people that are transitioning, and because of that it can become a risk of harming someone when it comes to sports," she said. "So why did we not start a coed league like I am talking about? Why did we just leave it to this and then make it divisive?"

Chaisson said referees already are in place to protect the athletes. But he understands the concern because trans athletes face similar fears. Many trans athletes, he said, fear getting purposely injured by others and not being protected by those in charge.

Before beginning any hormones, he considered joining high school wrestling but instead competed in martial arts outside of school. He said trans students often stick to non-school sports to avoid feeling unwelcome or unsafe in school settings.

"You feel unwelcome, you feel trapped, and especially if you're going to something like wrestling… that just gives them the chance to hurt you," he said.

The whole issue revolves around testosterone, Chaisson said, and how it allows those who have it to put on bulk faster and more easily than those who don't. Instead of a law that targets people who were assigned at birth, he would be more open to a law that centered around the hormone.

"All that could be prevented if we had laws/rules not about being trans, but being on hormones," he said. "Because as much as I love my trans brothers and sisters, if you are a bulky trans woman who is not on hormones, who is not on estrogen, and you have all that testosterone and all that muscle, you should not be on the girl's team depending on the sport - especially on the contact sports or the fighting sports."

It really depends on the sport and how much the effects of testosterone offer an advantage, Chaisson said, and no one, regardless of their physical advantages should try to hurt another athlete.

This article originally appeared on Daily Comet: Trans sports law has Lafourche school board member pondering coed sports