You can support a Washington state amendment to protect girls' sports

Dori Whitford is a long-time high school track and cross country coach in Spokane, Washington. She’s experienced firsthand both the life-changing benefits of women’s sports, and the damage that’s been done and is being done to girls and girls’ sports. She’s on the front lines of the fight to maintain the integrity of girls’ sports in Washington, and is trying to get the word out about two amendments to the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association’s policies that would restrict the female category to those born female or allow a third division where transgender athletes could compete. She’s spoken at school board meetings and coaches meetings, and wrote a letter to the editor of the Spokesman-Review, who declined to publish her letter because she used the term biological boy to describe a biological boy. The editor said they followed the AP Style Guide which, the Guide says, “oversimplifies sex and gender, and is a misleading shorthand for sex assigned at birth.” This is Dori’s story, including some ways you can support girls’ sports in Washington at the end.

Dori started running in elementary school in 1970 thanks in part to an encouraging teacher who encouraged girls in sports. Given a head start, she “literally rolled into sports on the Title 9 wave.”

In 1983, she started coaching cross country, track, basketball, and volleyball in Spokane, Washington, and has coached track and cross country every year since then. “Through this time, I have been astounded at the level the girls have risen to. I will never tire of watching girls compete fiercely in whatever sport they choose. When I still taught and female athletes walked into my classroom, they walked with a confidence that sports gave them. Title 9 has done amazing things,” Whitford wrote in an email.

She’s been hearing about boys in girls’ sports for at least ten years. “Imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I discovered it is here, and it is firmly entrenched. My first experience of a biological boy competing against my girls’ team happened three track seasons ago. Since then, I have been doing a lot of research and trying to understand this. I have read just about everything there is to read on both sides. Usually if I do this on an issue, I can at least see the other side’s perspective. That is not true in this case. They talk about equity being needed, however, for the girls who are being FORCED to run against BOYS, this is not equitable. I hear people say that high school sports are really just about learning compassion for others and learning to work with all kinds of people. They say it shouldn’t be about the competition in high school. I have devoted 42 years of my life to bringing out the best in athletes. Yes, we learn life lessons along the way. Yes, we practice compassion and kindness. And yes, we allow people to be themselves and treat them with respect. High school is the last time many athletes can play organized sports. However, there are those kids who are serious about their sport. They want to take it to the next level. They are wired to win. I have seen girls run themselves into the ground to pass the person in front of them. I cannot imagine the boys’ football coach telling the team they should focus on compassion and learning to work with all kinds of people, and that competition isn’t that important.

“I have heard the argument that we should just focus on the humanity in this case rather than the science. Of course, we all should focus on humanity. However, this does not include allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports. It is not fair to biological females. It is also not fair to the transgender athletes who are booed. This is an adult problem that needs to be solved sooner than later.

“I hope that I never have to watch a race such as the 2A 400 m state championship race again. I watched Lauren Mathew of West Valley Spokane run a 56.75 (an outstanding time—good enough to win the 3A division or finish second in the 4A) and lose to a biological boy. However, the most painful thing in the moment was the crowd booing Veronica Garcia, the transgender athlete. I don’t think it was intended to be an attack on Veronica as much as a statement of profound frustration at the adults who have created this mess. Veronica’s time of 55.75 won a girls’ state title. In the league championship JV boys’ race, where he should have run, he would have finished second.

“In a recent opinion piece in the Spokesman-Review, Vanessa Delgado wrote, “...athletes of all gender identities have had physical differences that provide an “advantage” in competition, including height, weight, hand/foot size, arm/leg length, handedness, flexibility, and stamina, that are not related to gender identity or sex assigned at birth.” That is an absolutely ridiculous statement! She needs to remove the quotes around advantage because those are advantages! By placing quotes around the word, it says they aren’t really an advantage.

“I hear the argument that we need to worry about the mental health of transgender athletes, that if we take away the chance for them to compete against the girls, they have nowhere to compete. YES, they do. They can compete with other biological males. Your sex, not your gender, determines your athletic abilities. That is why Title 9 was enacted into law. That is why the basketball for girls is smaller, the hurdles are shorter, and shot, discus and javelin are different sizes. This is a recognition that there is a difference between the SEXES.

“Last year at a coaches' meeting, a female coach who coaches girls, said that since there are so few boys in girls' races (she didn't use the word boy) it doesn't have a big effect. I said, ‘So let me get this straight. Because there are so few, then the girls who are affected are expendable?’ In front of 50-100 other coaches, she said, ‘Yes.’ UNBELIEVABLE. Her reasoning was that she worries about transgender athletes’ mental health. First of all, as you know, encouraging a lie doesn't help their mental health. And as I’ve seen on my own team, competing against boys is devastating to girls’ mental health. A couple years ago, I had a girl who lost sleep for weeks at a time and had nightly panic attacks when she had to race a biological boy. One of my girls was having an issue with confidence. She had to race a boy, and he outkicked her. It devastated her, and she never raced well again. She had been planning to run in college the next year and decided against it because she never wanted to experience that again. This year, one of my girls said it best after being outkicked by a boy—she gets that we are supposed to be classy and be kind to everyone, and treat everyone with value, but she said, ‘When racing him, I feel hopeless and helpless. I can’t help but feel like the adults are so busy showing these people [have] value, they aren’t valuing us. I feel like I don’t matter. I feel like I have no value.’”

In the two years that Dori has been speaking up at school board meetings and coaches meetings and, really, with anyone who will listen, she’s run into three major points that require education.

One is that this is even happening, that boys are indeed competing in girls’ sports, and using girls’ locker rooms. That’s due in large part to the fact that mainstream media rarely covers it when it happens, and when they do, as when Veronica Garcia won the girls’ state track title, they use deceptive terms like transgender athlete or transgender girl, so it’s difficult for the average person to know that Garcia is male. Beyond that, Dori says, most people are convinced that a “transgender athlete” has actually changed sex in some way, through hormones or surgery. They don’t realize that A) that’s not possible, that that is the A#1 lie of gender ideology, and B) that high school athletes are not required to do anything at all other than declare they are the opposite sex. So, other than choosing typically female names, these are boys who think they are girls. This is admittedly so outrageous that most Washington residents can’t believe unadulterated boys, with fully male bodies are being allowed to compete in girls’ sports.

Two, Dori has been advocating for a one of two proposed amendments to the WIAA rules that would restrict girls’ sports to females only, or create a third division. “The way our mainstream news has presented it, it sounds like it’s [the amendments] a done deal. If I tell people that the battle is just beginning, they actually tell me that I don't know what I am talking about.” In fact, there is a comment period from now through early April when representatives from each school district in Washington will vote to approve or deny the amendment. See below for ways you can support this amendment.

And three, the WIAA and others involved are reluctant to pass an amendment that protects girls’ sports on the basis of sex because they feel they would be vulnerable to lawsuits because they would then be in violation of the Washington state law that allows sports participation based on gender identity. This gets tricky, even for those with a law degree. According to a letter from ICONS, a women’s sports advocacy group, to WIAA voting members:

“Blaming state law for your policy does not shield you from liability. A federal district court judge in Connecticut recently denied a motion to dismiss the case brought by female athletes against the athletic association and member schools for violations of Title IX. The Connecticut case is nearly identical to the situation in Washington with similar state laws and athletic policies at issue, female athletes displaced at the state championship level by males, and school and athletic officials who ignored their complaints. The judge in Connecticut addressed the question of state law as follows:

‘Title IX’s regulatory scheme expressly provides that funding recipients’ obligation to comply with Title IX is not obviated or alleviated by any State or local law or other requirement that conflicts with Title IX.’ 34 C.F.R. § 106.6. Therefore, if the defendants were to confront a situation in which they could not comply with both Title IX and state law, Title IX would preempt state law.’ (footnote 18, pp 37-38)

“Title IX protects on the basis of sex. In response to the failures of some sport governing bodies, twenty-five state legislatures have already stepped up to pass state laws to affirm Title IX’s protections and ensure that males are not allowed to compete on school teams designated for women and girls. In Washington, lawmakers have delegated their responsibility (and shifted the blame and liability) to you and your policy. Female athletes are now counting on you to update that policy to comply with Title IX and protect their rights to fair competition and safety.”

Dori encouraged every Washington resident to educate themselves and contact their school Athletic Director, school board members, principal, or superintendent. AND, she said, “people need to understand it is THEIR school even if they don't have kids, or no longer have kids in the schools. They pay taxes! And schools are making our future society!”

Dori is far from alone in her efforts. A group of Washington women—school board members—have created a website, SaveGirlsSportsWA, that educates about what’s happening in Washington, and ways to act to support girls’ sports. There are fact sheets, letter templates, legal analysis, and names and email addresses of WIAA’s 53 voting representatives. Though it’s aimed at Washington residents, out of staters can email those voting reps as concerned individuals. After all, if you live in one of the 25 states that have not protected girls’ sports, this is a fight that will be coming to you, hopefully sooner than later.