The Alaska Board of Education is now taking public comments on a proposal to prohibit biological males who identify as female from competing against high school girl athletes. The 30-day public comment period ends on July 21.

Those who previously testified or commented will need to resubmit their concerns if they want their testimony included in the public comments before the board votes on the proposal.

Advocates for the proposal that it is needed because it is fundamentally unfair to force high school girls to compete against physically stronger biological males who claim they are female.

Submit all email comments to deed.commissioner@alaska.gov or mail a letter to:

Commissioner’s Office, Department of Education and Early Development

Attn: Regulations Review

333 Willoughby Ave., 9th Floor, State Office Building

P.O. Box 110500, Juneau, Alaska 99811-0500

Oral comments can also be delivered during a July 26 online Zoom hearing. To join the upcoming Zoom meeting click here or call (253) 215-8782.

After the public comment period ends, the Department of Education and Early Development will either adopt the proposed regulation changes without further notice, or decide to take no action. The language of the final regulation may be different from that of the proposed regulation. Before becoming law, a review of regulations is done by the Department of Law, after which the package is sent to the Lt. Governor’s Office for a final inspection. The regulation becomes effective 30 days after the Lt. Governor signs off.

If adopted, the proposed changes would direct the Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA), which oversees high school athletic competitions in Alaska, to bar gender-confused biological males from participating in female-only competitions. It would also require the ASAA to offer a co-ed division, in which girls could attempt to compete against males if they choose to do so.

Currently, each individual school is allowed to make a “gender determination” regarding a student’s sex. ASAA simply accepts – without challenge – whatever each school determines, which means gender-confused biological males who claim to be female have been allowed to compete against girls. Anchorage and Fairbanks are the two largest districts that allow for this, while the Mat-Su expressly prohibits biological males from competing on all-girls teams.

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