VHSL Buckles and Decides to Exclude Athletes
- Vanessa Hall
- Feb 13
- 3 min read
In a surprising reversal, the Virginia High School League (VHSL), announced on Monday, February 8th that it was capitulating to Trump’s Executive Order (EO) and will now exclude transgender students from women’s high school sports teams. Only days earlier, they had reaffirmed their long-standing policy permitting transgender athletes to play sports according to their gender identity.
This change comes as a blow to athletes, coaches, and families across the state, particularly after the VHSL held firm to their 2014 trans inclusive policy in the face of Governor Youngkin’s 2023 exclusionary “Model Policies” that effectively attempted to eliminate transgender and nonbinary students from sports and public education in the state.
There are over 177,000 students across Virginia that participate in sports and academic extracurriculars governed by VHSL policies. Yet only “five students applied during the 2024-2025 school year for waivers to play on teams that did not match their sex assigned at birth.” It is unknown how many other transgender or nonbinary athletes may be participating in VHSL sports, but this ban will cause immense harm to them, their families, and their school communities.
Despite a lack of evidence of harm and a miniscule number of trans athletes, VHSL decided to exclude trans athletes from participating in VHSL-run activities. Of course, now transgender and nonbinary students will think twice about participating in any VHSL-run activities, knowing that VHSL not only does not support them, but will gladly exclude them when things get tough.
Of course, the harm caused by this exclusive policy does not end there. Girls’ sports have already been hyper-scrutinized by anti-trans groups and individuals. In some cases, girls have been harassed and even threatened because they did not comply with narrow gender stereotypes of what a “girl looks like.”
Such an exclusionary policy empowers people (a.k.a. “trans-inspectors") to dispute the gender of an athlete, which is concerning when female athletes are often more muscular and may be less traditionally feminine than their counterparts, particularly when they are competing. A sweaty girl with a hockey stick in her hand may be targeted by trans-inspectors because they think she looks “more masculine” than what they consider acceptable, no matter her gender identity.
The National Women’s Law Center argues that the President’s EO “reinforces sexism and abuse in sports.” They say that:
Sports bans are a gateway into policing how we all look and act. Enforcement of these bans threatens to sweep up any girl or woman athlete who is perceived as “too masculine” or “too good” at their sport to be a “real” woman or girl, leading to invasive questioning and medical testing to verify their gender, harassment, and violence.
This has already happened across the country. Last fall, a Utah state board of education member made a “social media post [that] implied that a basketball player was transgender, leading to such intense harassment that the district sought police protection for the child.” All because the girl wore baggy clothing and wore her hair short.
The VHSL’s policy change increases threats to all students, especially those whose gender expression may be less comprehensible to adults whose expectations for gender expression may be more parochial or dated. In particular, this impacts students who are LGBTQIA+ and/or non-white. Only last summer, Imane Khelif, the Algerian boxer, was subjected to slurs and harassment due to her gender presentation as a muscular athlete. Girls who are perceived as “too masculine” have been subjected to criticism and sometimes threats.
Girl athletes have always had to walk a tightrope of admiration and disapproval, but now there will be an extra element of suspicion and violence, since the very nature of girl athletes often defies gender stereotypes.
Please consider signing the petition now to ask the VHSL to affirm and strengthen policies that promote inclusivity, ensuring that all students, regardless of identity, have equal access to participate in high school athletics.
