(Salt Lake City) A Utah high school athletic association secretly investigated an athlete — without telling the athlete or her parents — after receiving complaints from the parents of two girls she had won in competition wondering if the girl was transgender.
Posted at 10:17 p.m.
the Salt Lake Grandstand reported Thursday that the Utah High School Activities Association and the athlete’s high school determined she was indeed a young girl after reviewing her school records dating back to kindergarten.
Association spokesman David Spatafore told lawmakers the girl and her family were not told about the investigation to spare them embarrassment and “to keep the matter private”. reported the Grandstand.
The revelation came as at least 12 Republican-run states — including Utah — passed laws banning transgender women or girls from competing in sports. Proponents of the bans say transgender girls have an unfair advantage, as they were born as men with greater physical strength and could deny girls spots on sports teams.
There have been almost no instances of potential competitive advantages in K-12 sports in states that have enacted the bans, including Utah. The ban is being challenged in state court.
Mr Spatafore told a legislative hearing on transgender athletes on Wednesday that parents of athletes who finished second and third in a competition last year filed a complaint with the association after the girl won first place in an event “by a wide margin”, writes the Grandstand.
Spatafore said the association has looked into other complaints involving transgender athletes in its efforts to comply with the Utah law, which went into effect in July. Some complaints include “when an athlete doesn’t look feminine enough,” he said. None of the complaints have been verified.
Sue Robbins of the Utah Transgender Advisory Council of Equality says the association should publicly adopt a policy outlining how and when it can investigate student records.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, a Republican whose veto on the ban earlier this year was overturned by the legislature, said Thursday that the parents’ complaint about the girl who was under investigation had overstepped the bounds.
“My God, we live in this world where we have become sore losers, and we are looking for some reason why our child lost,” he said. He said he supported fairness in sport, but that “making such allegations is quite disturbing to me”.
Prior to the ban, Utah had a registered transgender female athlete competing on a high school girls’ team last year, Spatafore said.
In a lawsuit, three transgender girls and their parents claim that an outright ban passed by Utah’s Republican-dominated legislature wrongfully prevents their children from participating in sports.
Their attorneys argue that this violates provisions of the state Constitution that prohibit discrimination and guarantee equal rights and due process.