The most progressive state policy on HS transgender athletes can be found in ... North Carolina?

Transgender high school students in at least five states are being threatened by a surge of restrictive legislation that some worry could be the next wave of so-called bathroom bills. But this time, instead of paving a path toward discrimination, North Carolina could be an example of the right way to navigate a flammable issue.

Republicans in New Hampshire, Washington, Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri have introduced or drafted measures aimed at preventing public school athletes from competing in categories different than their biological sex, the Wall Street Journal reported this week. Other states with Republican-led legislatures are sure to follow, but at this point, there appear to be no imminent bills on transgender athletes in North Carolina.

Here, as in most states, such policies for public high schools and middle schools are set by the state athletic association. But despite being a state that in 2016 led the way on discriminatory legislation regarding bathrooms, North Carolina’s policy on transgender athletes is among the most progressive in the country.

That 2019 policy allows participation in athletics for all students “regardless of gender or gender identification.” Students whose gender identity differs from their birth certificate merely need to provide documentation from parents or guardians, along with a medical health professional, that demonstrate the student’s consistent gender identification. Those documents need to include a list of treatments and medication relative to gender identity. The request, which is filed through the student’s school, is evaluated by the NCHSAA Gender Identification Committee.

The policy’s provisions address at least some concerns regarding transgender athletes. Ensuring a student’s consistent gender identification protects against unlikely possibility that high school boys would pretend to identify as female in an attempt to gain a possible competitive advantage. But this is where the issue gets thorny. Some states take a more formal step than North Carolina regarding medical treatments and transgender athletes, requiring that they complete a one-year period of testosterone-suppression treatment before being allowed to compete in women’s sports. In Connecticut, which like North Carolina requires no such treatments, a conservative group filed a complaint last year with the U.S. Department of Education on behalf of three female high-school athletes who lost in track competitions to two transgender athletes.

Critics of the Connecticut policy point to the NCAA and International Olympic Committee, which also require require transitioning athletes to lower their testosterone for a year before competing. But the stakes are much higher at the college and Olympic level, where scholarships and endorsements ride on competitive results.

We understand the frustration of athletes and parents who believe it’s unfair to compete against someone who may be biologically superior, but we urge N.C. lawmakers not to simply ban transgender athletes from competing in categories that don’t match their birth certificate. We also encourage them to weigh the unlikelihood a competitive issue would arise in North Carolina against the impact of requiring one year of testosterone suppression would have on transgender high schoolers. Decisions to undergo such treatment should not be based on athletic eligibility, and requiring it would mean at least a lost year of competition for most athletes, whom experts say shouldn’t undergo hormonal treatments before age 16.

At the least, our legislators should let the issue take its inevitable journey through the Dept. of Education and the courts rather than leaping to enact legislation that not only shines a stigmatizing light on the transgender community, but once again puts North Carolina at the front of the wrong cause.

This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 12:35 PM.