NC’s high school sports leader wants to find ways to include transgender athletes

In 2019, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association adopted a policy that allowed transgender students to compete in high school sports as the gender with which they identify.

In the four years the policy has been in place, 18 students submitted gender identity request forms to be evaluated by a committee created by the policy; 16 were approved. Of those 16, two were transgender girls.

Now, NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker wonders if the entire committee and policy will need to be rethought.

House Bill 574, dubbed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” would prohibit transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports in middle and high school, as well as in colleges and universities; transgender boys still would be permitted to participate. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill July 5. Republicans have a supermajority in the General Assembly and are poised to override the veto.

The proposed law is the latest in a wave of legislation across the country aimed at restricting transgender athletes from participating in girls and women’s sports. North Carolina’s high school sports policy gained national attention last fall after a volleyball player in Murphy, in western North Carolina, said she suffered a concussion when a ball spiked by a transgender opponent hit her face.

The Charlotte Observer spoke with Tucker recently about how the NCHSAA will adapt to the proposed new law and how North Carolina got here.

Tucker’s comments have been edited for clarity and brevity.

Can you explain how the Gender Identity Committee works, and what changes you were looking at?

We had the situation back in the fall of last year where the young lady was hit in the face by a spike from a student who was a transgender player. So the Gender Identity Committee, along with me and my staff, we had some discussion about their process and about, as we move forward, what we would need to do. So we were prepared to institute some different things, but obviously all of that’s on hold right now.

The committee talked about things like: How do you determine if a student-athlete has a competitive advantage? Should we factor way more on the side of the physical attributes, or attributes of the student at the time of the request? So those were the kinds of things that they were discussing.

How much do you think the incident with the volleyball player put a spotlight on this topic?

To be honest with you, if we hadn’t had that incident in the fall of last year, I think our discussion right now would be totally different. Because obviously that just raised the awareness in North Carolina. It just shot over the edge. And the student involved in that case is a senior; that individual has now graduated.

The individual had played four years, was in her fourth year and not a lot had gone on prior to that incident. I think there were folks in that area who believed that this individual was transgender, and had maybe made a comment or two along the way, but it hadn’t risen to the level that it became the newsworthy item that it did.

Would you say you were rethinking the gender identity policy because of that?

Not rethink it. Just look at the steps, and look at the process. What additional things do we need to do to try to ensure safety?

If you are going to participate in athletics, injuries are inherent. So sustaining a concussion — if I participate in athletics, there is the likelihood that I could sustain a concussion, even if I play basketball. Even if I run track; if I fall incorrectly and I hit my head on the ground. Or I play soccer and I head the ball, I can sustain a concussion.

There are a lot of things that you could do in any sport, so we understand that side of it.

So I think the idea would be, OK, what are our processes and what happened during that situation that would indicate what else do we need to do?

What specific changes were you looking at?

One of the things that we needed to do is to yearly evaluate those students who have requested (to play as their gender identity). That is maybe when we have to have some additional verifications provided from students year to year.

Because they get stronger. They get faster. Are they taking suppressants now or are they taking enhancers? How is that factoring in? So those were the kinds of things that they were thinking about.

What comes next for the NCHSAA?

Obviously if it becomes law, the NCHSAA follows the law.

Are transgender athletes simply going to be forbidden from playing high school sports, now?

I’m always wanting us to try to find those ways to provide opportunities for all student-athletes to be included. If the bill passes, I don’t know what direction our Board of Directors would go, but as the commissioner, I’m trying to see are there some other ways that we can provide opportunities for transgender students?

Perhaps it will be that we need to look for emerging sports. Right now we do not sanction bowling, for example. So maybe bowling is something that our membership ought to consider. Maybe there are some other opportunities where we can have participation and participating as a transgender student does not pose the same issues as we have listened to over the last few few months.

I believe so strongly in education-based athletics, that’s why I want every student to have an opportunity to participate. Moving forward, we’ve got to find those activities in sports whereby all students can participate if they choose.

If you’re comfortable, are you able to say how you, personally, feel about this legislation?

Speaking as the commissioner, I believe that all students who go through the front doors of our schools ought to have the opportunity to participate, if they choose. And I believe that it is always incumbent upon us to try to find ways to help our students who participate — who go to our schools, who enrolled in our member schools — to find a way for them to be included.

I believe in inclusion. Obviously, I’m an African American female. I grew up in the segregated South until the mid-’60s. So I understand inclusion, I understand what it is to be discriminated against.

But I also understand that we want equity and fairness. I understand. And I have listened to dads who have girls and their concern about them playing against students who were born male. I can see that side of it. But it doesn’t set aside that personally, I am for inclusion.