The State of New Jersey will now allow student athletes to compete with the gender of their choice without medical consultation, according to a new policy released by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) on Wednesday.
Previously, students wishing to compete with students of the opposite gender would be required to show medical proof of gender dysphoria.
However, since rules discriminate, they’ve decided to get rid of them.
A few restrictions remain. Kind of.
First, students cannot compete with both the boys and the girls at the same time. They have to choose. This requirement clearly reflects animus towards students who identify as both male and female so we should expect it to go away soon.
Second, a school may appeal a student’s eligibility if they feel it would “adversely affect competition or safety.” However, the appeal may not consider whether a student experiences gender dysphoria. Presumably, this rule is to provide some recourse in the event that a young Andre the Giant decided to join the girls wrestling team instead of the boys.
Third, students can’t change their gender in the middle of the season. I suspect this bigoted rule will also soon go away. After all, who are we to tell anyone that there is a “right” time to start living as their authentic selves.
Students who identify as transgender are also explicitly permitted to use banned substances prohibited for every other athlete if it is used in connection with “hormone treatment.”
Perhaps the most revealing statement in the new rules is the last one. “If a transgender student, at some point during their high school career, no longer identifies as a transgender student, this policy shall not apply.”
In other words, if you want these rule to apply to you, they do. Which is another way of saying, there are no rules.
The rules clearly acknowledges the fluidity and unpredictability of gender confusion and, by eliminating the requirement that a medical opinion be involved, gives complete control of the situation to students.
There is no other educational situation I am aware of in which the adults, by rule, have divested themselves of any authority or influence.
Whether it will happen with any regularity or not remains to be seen, but these rules clearly allow a student to compete as a boy in the fall and spring, but as a girl in the winter.
As a result, peer pressure will be the only thing that stands between order and chaos in New Jersey high school athletics. Presumably, most boys would be too embarrassed to declare themselves female solely to gain a competitive advantage. However, the moment the social climate in a school changes so that it is either acceptable–or simply funny–there will be no recourse.
In the end, the winners will be the adults who get to puff our chests out and pat each other on the back for how tolerant we are.
The losers will be the girls who just wanted the chance to play sports with other girls and the trail of confused young adults, many of whom will do irreparable harm to themselves because they’re being parented by the internet, who one day will look back and wonder where all the adults were when they needed them.
