The largest school district in Manhattan has approved a resolution that could ban male students who identify as "transgender" from playing in girls' sports.
Community Education Council District 2, which covers Manhattan from the Lower East Side to the Upper East Side, passed the measure with an 8-3 vote.
The resolution requires the city’s Department of Education to do a public review of the policy allowing boys to play girls' sports.
In attendance at the contentious meeting was actress Elliot Page, a biological female who identifies as male.
The New York Post reports:Jared Danker, a gay man who works for the DOE and a District 2 parent, said the resolution would “marginalize and discriminate against a group of students who need our affirmation and support.”
NYC Council member Erik Bottcher, who spoke on behalf of himself and three state lawmakers, also condemned the resolution.
“We are outraged that you’re considering a resolution targeting transgender girls and sports. It is utterly shocking that such a regressive and harmful resolution is being proposed in the school district in the middle of Manhattan,” he said.
The resolution is mostly symbolic, as it only serves as a request to DOE brass to hold a review of the existing policy that the department already backs.
The resolution was sponsored by CEC member Maud Maron, who ran for Congress as a Democrat last year — but called for protecting girls' sports.
“If we have a proper and real conversation, one of the outcomes could be that nothing changes and that we all discover that these guidelines are just perfect as they are,” Maron said of the resolution, according to the Post report. “But another one of the possibilities is that we realize that the excluded voices had something really important to offer and they should have been heard from in the beginning.”
The Department of Education issued a statement on Wednesday defending the city's rules allowing students to play on whatever teams align with their "gender identity."
“At New York City Public Schools, all students have the right to have their gender, gender identity, and gender expression recognized and respected,” the DOE's statement read. “In our schools, every student can participate in sports and competitive athletics in accordance with their gender identity, and we prohibit any exclusion of students based on their gender identity or expression.”
