On March 20, the Community Education Council District 2 in Manhattan voted in favor of a quality calling for the creation of a new committee to examine and possibly reject trans participation in school activities, causing sharp opposition from state and local elected officials and social clubs.
The Community Education Council, which is run by its own independent agency, is in charge of providing families with an outlet to discuss school-related issues in a common platform. Community Education Council District 2 claims that there are 32 of these government regions in the area and that they serve as partnerships between the people and the government.
The councils address a variety of issues, including one that dealt with early election at schools and college health, but the larger focus was on a solution that clashed with section 9 of the New York City Department of Education’s Guidelines on Gender, which states that students “must been permitted to participate in physical education, extracurricular sports, and competitive sport activities, and contact sports in accordance with the student’s gender asserted at school.
The resolution echoed false assertions made by anti-trans, right-wing politicians who support anti-trans sports policies, saying the state’s sex guidelines “had an instant and much- reaching impact on classroom instruction” and “present challenges to youth athletes and coaches.”
Members voted 8- 3 in favor of the resolution, which was sponsored by Maud Maron— who is already known for anti- LGBTQ rhetoric — as well as Allyson Bowen, Sabena Serinese, and Len Silverman.
New York City Public Schools should convene a new committee in accordance with the resolution’s recommendations to include members like” NYC PSAL female athletes, parents, coaches, relevant medical professionals, and evolutionary biology experts.” The committee would be “authorized to propose amendments, changes, and additions to the Gender Guidelines, which are the result of an inclusive, evidence- based process concerning the impact on female athletes when the category of sex is replaced by gender identity”.
The vote, which was dubbed Resolution# 248, was non-binding and elected officials claimed that transgender athletes are protected by New York State and City law to play sports in accordance with their gender identity.
Councilmember Erik Bottcher, State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, Assemblymembers Deborah Glick, and Tony Simone, all four out of Manhattan, released a joint statement outright denouncing the resolution.
We are outraged that CEC D2 is considering a resolution targeting transgender girls in sports, the lawmakers said.” As LGBTQ elected officials representing vibrant and diverse districts in Manhattan that are covered by Community Education Council District 2 ( CEC D2 ). It is utterly revolting that a proposed such a harmful and regressive resolution is being proposed in a school district that encompasses much of Manhattan, including the neighborhoods of Hell’s Kitchen, Chelsea, and Greenwich Village, which are the birthplace of the most recent LGBTQ civil rights movement, and those that are the biggest LGBTQ communities in the country.
The elected officials also requested that the New York City Department of Education uphold the rules that currently permit transgender athletes to play sports according to their gender identity. Gay City News received a request for comment from the city’s Department of Education on March 21, but a department spokesperson told Politico that” we prohibit any exclusion of students based on their gender identity or expression.
According to the elected officials ‘ joint statement,” Resolution# 248 is based on the false premise that the gender identity policy negatively affects female athletes” and is based on the misguided notion that including transgender athletes in sports lessens the experience of other student athletes. Additionally, this resolution “abstains not only against the principles of fairness and inclusion, but also perpetuates harmful stereotypes and bias against a population that is already the target of vicious discrimination and harassment.”
Another out lawmaker, State Assemblymember Jessica González- Rojas of Queens, also condemned the resolution.
In a post on X, González-Rojas wrote,” I recently learned about the completed suicide of a young trans person in my neighborhood.” What @CECDistrict 2 has done is risky and puts young people’s lives in danger.
Additionally, Community Education Council 2 was attacked before the vote by the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, a city-wide LGBTQ political organization.
The club’s members, who are committed to the rights of LGBTQ New Yorkers, are “deeply concerned” by attacks on young LGBTQ people across the country and “daunted by the derogatory and harmful rhetoric used in other geographies to visit New York City,” the club wrote in a written statement. ” Trans kids are kids and deserve the right to develop and develop into themselves without fear of prejudice and hatred.”
One of the parents who spoke at the meeting in opposition to the resolution, according to CBS News, was Chase Strangio, a transgender attorney who works as the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project’s deputy director. Elliot Page, an actor, accompanied Strangio.
” I’ve seen young people die by suicide because of relentless bullying”, Strangio said, according to CBS News.
Community Education Council District 2 took to X to express the resolution’s accuracy in the press release, but it did not specify what was inaccurate. It also urged people to read the resolution.
New York has gradually figured its way into the national conversation about trans sports inclusion as a number of red states have passed laws prohibiting trans student athletes from playing sports in accordance with their gender identity. In late February, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman issued an anti-trans executive order that prohibited trans athletes from competing in county facilities, which was most recently followed by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sent Blakeman a cease and desist letter on March 1st, requesting that he rescind the order or face legal action. Blakeman, for his part, responded by suing James in federal court, while a women’s roller derby league known as the the Long Island Roller Rebels filed their own suit against Blakeman.
