Illinois Republican lawmakers sent a letter* to the Illinois High School Association asking it to explain how for its plan to amend policy to adhere to Trump’s executive order aimed at “keeping men out of women’s sports.” | Kirsten Stickney/For the Sun-Times
By Violet Miller | Chicago Sun*Times
Trans athletes can continue to participate in high school sports competitions, the Illinois High School Association said this week as it affirmed its current policy in the face of demands to exclude trans athletes by the Trump administration and Illinois Republican lawmakers.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at “keeping men out of women’s sports” and threatened to withhold federal funding from schools that didn’t do as he wanted. His administration this week sued Maine for not complying.
The IHSA’s announcement came in a letter issued to Republican lawmakers. It said that Attorney General Kwame Raoul and the Illinois Department of Human Rights had informed the agency that it was required to maintain a policy in lockstep with state law. It also clarified that its trans athletes policy only applied to the state series competition it sponsors, and that individual schools could determine whether transgender students participated during the regular season.
“Compliance with the Executive Order could place the IHSA out of compliance with the Illinois Human Rights Act and vice versa,” IHSA Board President Dan Tulley and Executive Director Craig Anderson wrote in a statement. “The IHSA simply desires to comply with the law and takes no position on which of the foregoing is correct. Given the conflict described above, however, we are left in an untenable position.”
Illinois law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, requiring schools to protect transgender students’ right to use facilities and participate in events and programs that match their gender identity.
Read more here.
*The letter Illinois Republican lawmakers sent to the Illinois High School Association can be found here.
