PA May Continue to Allow Boys to Compete in Girls' Sports
Despite 2025 Executive Orders
Thank you EK for alerting PA4SBR!
In a February 18, 2024, article for Broad + Liberty, Beth Ann Rosica reports on conflicting messages from the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) regarding its policy allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports.
Initially, PIAA announced in several PA media that it would comply with the 2025 Executive Orders (EO) banning this practice. You can find two such articles in Pittsburgh Post- Gazette and TribLive. However, PIAA later claimed that
“The Transgender Executive Order is NOT law. Currently, PIAA has made no changes to their by-laws [sic],” the agency responded. “We are still at status quo with how PIAA handles it with the High School [sic] principal determining the gender [sic] of the athlete,” (both emphasis and errors in the original).
As Rosica reports, PIAA’s claim is consistent with its 2024-2025 policy on trans-identifying athletes, pp 115-116.
“EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND TREATMENT POLICY The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association, Inc. (PIAA) is committed to the principles of equal opportunity and treatment for all individuals involved in interscholastic athletics. PIAA believes that all boys and girls, Coaches, Contest officials, and athletic administrators should have equal opportunity to participate in, Coach, officiate, and administer at all levels of interscholastic athletics and receive equal treatment, without regard to race, color, religion, gender [sic], age, national origin, or ethnic background. Alleged violations of this Equal Opportunity and Treatment Policy should be reported to the Executive Director, who will, either directly or through a designee, attempt to resolve the matter informally. Any person dissatisfied with the efforts of the Executive Director may seek relief from the District Committee having jurisdiction over the matter. Appeals of District Committee decisions may be taken to the Board of Directors.
“TRANSGENDER POLICY Where a student’s gender [sic] is questioned or uncertain, the decision of the Principal as to the student’s gender [sic] will be accepted by PIAA.”
When Rosica contacted PIAA for clarification, the organization replied that “PIAA is aware of the Executive Order signed Wednesday, February 5th [2025] pertaining to female sports by President Trump. We are tracking and assessing the law as it evolves and encourage all member schools to do the same. PIAA will comply with the law as established.” PIAA did not respond to Rosica’s further inquiries.
In 2023, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) changed the definition of sex to include “gender identity.” Most school districts in PA and possibly PIAA are relying on this regulation — which is not an actual law — to ignore both recent EOs on the definition of sex. In fact, PHRC’s unilateral changes are illegal. Only the PA General Assembly can establish policy for PHRC, an unelected body that enforces PA’s laws prohibiting discrimination. At this writing, “gender identity” is not included in PA anti-discrimination laws.
A diligent reporter, Rosica contacted PHRC for comment. She writes that the Commission replied “Regardless of what happens federally, protections on the basis of sex assigned at birth [sic], sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics exist in Pennsylvania. In 2023, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission released new regulations more clearly explaining the definition of sex,” said spokesperson Amanda Brothman.
Rosica reports that many school districts in PA are struggling with compliance with the recents EOs and PHRC in a “developing legal landscape.”
Meanwhile, at least one PA school district allows boys to compete in girls’ sports. The Germantown Friends School even boasts of a trans-identifying male, Emi Wong Shin, as a champion in girls’ track and field. The Colonial School District includes another trans-identifying male, Luce Allen, as breaking girls’ athletic records.
Of course, not only do these school districts violate the recent EOs, they allow trans-identifying males to steal opportunities, accolades, and awards that rightfully belong to girls.
Readers should contact PIAA and LOUDLY PROTEST their misogynist and illegal actions at PIAA Contact Us.
Thanks again to EK for bringing this to our attention.