Pennsylvania School Board Bans Trans Athletes Despite Having None. But Who Can Actually Play?

This story originally appeared on The Advocate.Two school boards in Pennsylvania approved policies restricting transgender athletes from participating in sports that align with their gender identity.The Conestoga Valley School District board approved its policy Monday night in a 7-1 vote. Under the policy, students’ eligibility for school athletic teams will be determined by their sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity.In a unanimous vote Monday, Elanco School Board members passed a policy that classifies school-sponsored sports as “male, female or coed” activities and bases eligibility on a student’s reproductive characteristics at birth. Under the rules, students assigned male at birth cannot join girls’ teams, while the policy does not clearly state whether students assigned female at birth face the same restriction when seeking to compete on boys’ teams.That distinction leaves questions about how the rules will apply to some transgender students.Related: Supreme Court trans sports ruling sparks red state crackdown and blue state resistanceElanco Superintendent Michael Snopkowski said the policy was not developed to target a particular group, LancasterOnline reports. But when pressed about the implications for transgender boys, he said the policy was “written as it was written,” without offering more information.In the Conestoga Valley School District, the debate has cost “extensive time and money,” Idette Groff, the lone board member who voted against the policy, said in September.The board has discussed restricting transgender students’ athletic participation on four occasions since 2023, with legal consultations adding to the time and expense involved.“Because I’m big on process, as everyone knows, I can’t vote for a policy that is so poorly constructed,” Groff said, explaining that her objection concerned the policy’s drafting rather than the underlying issue.The district enrolls 3,800 students and has no trans