A dominant championship run from a high school athlete has prompted a school in Utah to investigate whether the player is transgender.
Parents of the second and third place finishers in last year’s girls’ state tournament have asked the Utah High School Activities Association (UHSAA) to ascertain the actual gender of an athlete competing on the winning team who “outclassed” the rest of the competition.
In response to the parents’ complaint, UHSAA legal representative David Spatafore informed the Utah legislature’s Education Interim Committee on Wednesday that he asked the school of the athlete in question to investigate without alerting the player or the player’s family.
After reviewing the athlete’s enrollment records going back to kindergarten, the school said the player had “always been a female.”
However, as Spatafore told the committee, this is not the only complaint they’ve received regarding this player. For example, one complaint alleged “that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough.”
Spatafore told the committee that the UHSAA took “every one of those complaints seriously. We followed up on all of those complaints with the school and the school system.”
“Quite frankly, this is new ground for us,” Spatafore added. “I’m not going to say that we have it down pat, because I have no clue. I don’t think any of us in the office have a clue if we have it down pat. What we want to do is we just want to try to do our job.”
Utah banned biological males from competing in girls’ sports at the end of the 2022 session. However, the ACLU of Utah has partnered with other advocacy groups and filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation on behalf of two transgender students.
Currently, a U.S. Third District judge is determining whether to grant an injunction blocking enforcement of the law.
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