COMMENTARY: Why the transgender student-athlete report is groundbreaking
Pat Griffin - Professor Emerita, UMass, Amherst
October 8th, 2010
http://sdgln.com/health/2010/10/06/commentary-transgender-student-athlete-think-tank-report-released (http://sdgln.com/health/2010/10/06/commentary-transgender-student-athlete-think-tank-report-released)
I am really proud to announce the public release of the report from the October, 2009 Transgender Student-Athlete Think Tank that the Women's Sports Foundation and the National Center for Lesbian Rights co-sponsored. Helen Carroll, the director of the NCLR Sports Project and I wrote the report with the support of many other folks with far greater expertise on this topic than we have. You can access the report HERE.
Helen and I have worked on this report for past nine months and the birthing process has been challenging, educational and inspiring. It also represents my final task as director of It Takes A Team. I'm very proud of what we have to offer the intercollegiate and interscholastic athletic world in this groundbreaking report.
ON a cursory review of the report, it seems excellent and long overdue. High Schools, Middle Schools and colleges need to have guidelines already in place to anticipate the needs of trans kids wanting to compete. It also will quell the media hype when one or two parents start to complain that their child is disadvantaged in some competition because of a trans kid.
I wonder how many school districts and athletic conferences will sign onto this idea?