Rather than take the principled stand voting a solid NO to allowing males to compete in sports against female athletes in New York school sports, the New York Board of Regents punted the issue - again.
The proposal would require schools to allow transgender girls and boys to try out for any sports team if their school did not offer separate teams in that sport for girls and boys. By extension, schools would also be required to allow male or female athletes to use the locker rooms of the opposite sex.
With this cowardly move, the Board of Regents indefinitely leaves children and their families who participate in school sports flapping in the wind with regard to basic fairness in sports - not to mention safety on the playing field and in the locker room.
The Board of Regents and Governor Hochul have the opportunity in the December 9-10 Regents' meeting to resolve this issue, but it seems they will kick the can down the road yet again.
“Exactly like Congestion Pricing, this governor cannot be trusted. She has more angles than the Pentagon,” says Gerry Kassar Chairman of the New York State Conservative Party.
It remains to be seen what the Governor and Regents have in mind as their next move to advance their radical progressive agenda, but ending this now with a NO vote is not on the list. It is more likely that they are looking for ways to pass it in the future when with the political cover the governor and legislature need in this new post-election political environment.
Kassar further said, “The unelected State Board of Regents should leave girl's sports alone. The radical policy enactment would effectively end girls' sports as we know it. Poll after poll has shown that the public wants traditional, girls-only sports protected in New York, but the gender-bending social engineers in Albany are oddly determined to erase all distinctions between the sexes (good luck with that.) Frankly, it's hard to believe we're even having this conversation. The future of girls' sports is on the line. The public deserves to know that."
Bob Vecchio, Executive Director of the Nassau Suffolk School Boards Association says, "We support local control for Boards of Education to decide about mixed competition in their district."
Ed Cox, Chair of the New York GOP said this proposal is part of “radical progressives' relentless assault on fairness and opportunity” and that it “undermines fairness, safety, and the opportunities of female athletes. It's a radical move that flies in the face of science and common sense. Since 1975, every member of the Board of Regents has been chosen on a partisan basis by the Assembly Speaker. The Democratic Party and state teacher unions essentially control the election of Regents members - their actions should surprise no one.”
The NY Department of Education proposed the plan and recommended that the Regents support it back in September when the vote was postponed for the first time. At that time, the Regents cited hundreds of comments on the proposal that needed to be considered. No reason was given for a second delay in voting.
The Board of Regents comprises 17 members elected by the Democrat-led State Legislature for 5-year terms: 1 from each of the State's 13 judicial districts and 4 members who serve at large