NYC’s Losing Scorecard on Inclusivity and Sports
Having trouble reaching your local state senator, borough president or council member in Manhattan? Concerned about crime, rogue e-bikes, exploding batteries, failing schools, two hour commutes for high schoolers, crumbling buildings, or a cost-of-living like nowhere else in the nation? Well here’s a tip: say “fairness in girls sports” three times fast and every well-educated, media-salivating, male politician in earshot will appear before you. Remember that next time you can’t get a call back for concerns about a person shot on the subway during after school commuting hours.
Case-in-point, members of the District 2 Community Education Council put forth a simple, respectful resolution on Wednesday night, asking the district and city to re-examine the rules around gender identity and sports. Members asked that a broad range of experts be consulted in light of changing guidance by professional sports bodies worldwide.
Well… cue the activists, well-coiffed, little-seen state senator, and a celebrity to boot, trailed by media taking a break from subway crime and endless protests. Nothing says privilege more than media elbowing in on a local parent meeting where the big reveal is a resolution asking for expert review of a policy.
But here is the problem, and even possibly where CEC D2 might have missed the mark: when the DOE, elected officials, and activists unleash their virtrol on anyone daring to wade into the subject of “fairness” for girls in sport — ask for proof that they care.
Because in lawsuit after lawsuit over the past 10-15 years, it’s clear that these leaders only care about winning: the argument, the game, and the ideological fight, leaving many more than just the parents of District 2 in their wake.
The Current Rules
In case you need a quick primer, in 2019, New York City edited its guidance on gender identity and sports. Any child can play on a team consistent with the gender they identify with in that school year. You don’t need to dig far into the detail before seeing where things get squirmy, for instance a suggestion to “email for specific guidance on wrestling.” Oh, right, so that is different? Because, of course, we are talking about identity and not biology, and even the most “inclusive” official may be uncomfortable with certain biological realities.
But to take a step further back is to see a poor track record by the city in advocating for fairness to girls in sports, and a disappointing turn of events considering the past. Because, the fact is, this issue isn’t one of inclusion it’s one of competitiveness, and of sports, and men.
Did you know that less than 10 years ago, in 2015, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights found that New York City's high schools failed to provide equal opportunities to female athletes? Resolution details can be found here (but hard to find a wrap up of the work done).
The Game’s Fixed
The only problem with the CEC’s resolution this week was that it assumed a good faith discussion with an education department/city that actually care for fairness in sports. Because if girls feel unsafe, or unmatched by biological males (and yes it’s happening in NYC), a quick tug of the thread leads to many other questions…so let’s start:
Where are the trans boys?
Never have the media, the quick-trigger sanctimonious, or the media-obsessed politicians pondered a reasonable follow-on question: are trans boys being welcomed onto boys teams or is this about something more than inclusion? In the ultra competitive, limited-space world of NYC public school sports, shouldn’t someone ask if trans boys are being elevated, celebrated and included in schools sports in the city? We’ve asked and not received a single response. Doesn’t anyone wonder about this? Because the concerns families have about biological girls should include trans boys.
What about all those lawsuits?
There have been multiple complaints, and even lawsuits (…at the federal level too), in NYC regarding fairness, particularly for girls, but also for minority kids in sports. Highlights include:
In 2006, New York City Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum released a report titled "Making the Team: Gender Inequality in New York City PSAL Sports Teams." It’s a remarkably thorough report highlighting the shamefully limited opportunities for girls in public school sports. It’s hard to believe how far we’ve travelled from then to now.
In 2009 the PSAL moved girls' soccer from the spring to the fall season after the threat of a lawsuit from the New York Civil Liberties Union. The complaint asserted how unfair it was to girls to play outside of a “normal” season which would affect their opportunities to be scouted for college, etc.
In 2010, the National Women's Law Center filed a lawsuit with the Office for Civil Rights of the United States Department of Education…and won. The suit claimed that the NYCDOE provided inadequate opportunities for female high school sports compared to those for males. In 2015, the NYCDOE was found to have, in fact, violated Title IX.
A number of other civil rights cases have been filed over the past 10 years, most recently, a large class action settlement against the NYCDOE and Public School Athletic League (PSAL) after finding that Black and Latinx students were denied access to the same athletic opportunities as students of other races.
And let’s not even get started about the sports opportunities lost to kids during Covid, including extended time where sports were prohibited while other schools, even in the state, returned to play.
Or how housing migrant men on Randall’s Island removed 350,000 sq feet of opportunity for kids already at a disadvantage to their peers in the tri-state area. A shocking number of hours (more than 8,000) were lost with little support from the very politicians that got camera-ready for the CEC meeting this week showing little track record of actually supporting kids and sports.
Finally, even since this piece was first published, there has been news of an additional civil rights complaint on behalf of Black and Latino students, and students forced to forfeit a game in East Harlem because migrants refused to leave a field.
What’s the Point?
Well, first, the appearance of inclusivity is convenient lest anyone dig a bit deeper and try to get at the crux of the problem. Because had even one leader called for a deeper look into fairness overall, this story might have gone a different way. NYC does not have a great track record in advocating for girls in sports (or as we know now minority children either) — and all should be ashamed for letting leaders off the hook for just this fact.
Girls drop out of sport at an alarming rate compared to boys. They are more likely to avoid getting breast cancer later in life, or succumb to pregnancy as teens if they continue with physical activity. They have more confidence and suffer less abuse at the hands of men too. Ironic isn’t it? The benefits are biological and the implications are the very same abuse that the women even asking for a simple review of a policy are facing for having spoken up.
Fact is, if the answer seems simple, or the lines easily drawn, then you aren’t looking hard enough for the truth. Tweets are cheap, but inclusion, fairness and goodness take bravery and hard work.