Colorado parents, students denounce ‘transgender’ sports policy they say endangers girls
Caroline MolloyColorado students and parents are pushing back against state athletics rules that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports, arguing the policy endangers female athletes and erases protections for women.
The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) currently permits athletes to compete based on self-declared “gender identity” rather than biological sex. Its policy states that a “ transgender student shall participate in accordance with their gender identity,” defining gender identity as “an individual’s internal sense of gender.”
Critics say the rule trades biological reality for ideology and leaves female athletes unprotected.
“The current CHSAA policy does not protect the fundamental rights of our female high school athletes in Colorado,” Sarah Kent, the mother of a senior volleyball player at Liberty High School in Fort Collins, told CatholicVote. “Our daughters are being deprived of the fair and equal opportunity to participate in high school athletics that Title IX was designed to protect.”
Kent said the CHSAA rule leaves schools little flexibility in how to respond when concerns about fairness or safety arise.
Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, told CatholicVote she first raised awareness about reports of a biological male competing on a girls’ high school team in northern Colorado. She said she has spent months supporting girls in the Thompson Valley School District who have repeatedly pleaded with their school board to address the issue.
“The school board is incredibly woke — six to one — and has just refused to address it,” Lee told CatholicVote.
She said the situation stems from Colorado statute CRS 22-1-143, which requires districts to adopt policies allowing students to participate in sports according to “gender identity.”
“That statute is a blatant violation of Title IX and of President Trump’s executive order,” she said. “It’s put girls all over the state and their families and school administrators in a really difficult position where they’re unable to advocate for girls’ safety, fairness, and dignity.”
President Donald Trump’s order, signed Feb. 5, affirmed that Title IX protections do not permit men to compete in women’s sports and instructed schools and athletic associations to revert to the law’s original interpretation.
Lee noted that one Colorado district has already defied both the state statute and CHSAA policy by designating single-sex spaces.
