Transgender students in Alaska are now barred from competing in girls' sports after the state's oversight board adopted a new rule Monday.
The Alaska School Activities Association, which is in charge of high school sports in the Last Frontier, passed the rule 5-3 to implement an August decision by the state board of education.
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The move comes as lawmakers in Alaska have failed on several occasions to pass a law to the same effect.
"If a separate high school athletics team is established for female students, participation shall be limited to females who were assigned female at birth," the new regulation reads.
The rule is an explicit reversal of Alaska's past norm, which said that the ASAA would "rely on a gender determination made by the student's member school where the determination is based upon prior written and objective criteria adopted by the school; ASAA will not make separate gender identity determinations."
Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK) has been supportive of such restrictions and appointed the education board that passed the initial rule.
At a similar time when the board passed the rule, Dunleavy met with detransitioner-activist Chloe Cole, who testified before Alaska's legislature in August.
"Chloe had surgery performed on her and was given puberty blockers and testosterone when she was a child questioning her identity — the solution her health care professionals advised her parents to choose," the governor said on X, the social media outlet once known as Twitter. "She came to Alaska to warn other of the dangers of falling prey to this pseudoscience that has lifelong debilitating impacts on children."
He has also proposed legislation that would bar students from using school restrooms that do not align with their biological sex and require school staff to inform parents when students begin saying they identify with a different gender. The proposal failed in the legislature, however.
According to the Anchorage Daily News, ASAA Executive Director Billy Strickland said Alaska has one known instance of a transgender student competing at the "championship level," but proponents of the bans say they protect girls both by providing opportunities for success and by mitigating severe sports injuries.
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Opponents are reviewing the rules to wage a potential legal challenge, citing discrimination on the basis of gender identity — which is protected under Title IX per Justice Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion in Bostock v. Clayton County.
The Anchorage School District, the state's largest district that covers about 30% of students, has expressed dismay about the new rule, telling the Daily News: "We are disappointed in ASAA’s decision today. Our hope was this matter would have been tabled. We will be reviewing the decision and the impacts it will have on our students."