resolution<\/a>, which passed in March of that year, argued the presence of trans students in school sports would put other girl athletes at a competitive disadvantage.<\/p>\nIt pointed to the city\u2019s history of gender inequality for female athletes over more than a century. The group noted that as recently as 2009 the New York Civil Liberties Union threatened to sue the city Department of Education for scheduling girls\u2019 soccer in spring, while boys played in fall \u2014\u00a0giving boys more opportunities for scholarships and development, according to the resolution.<\/p>\n
The education councils are influential but are essentially advisory, and former Schools Chancellor David Banks immediately rejected the proposal. But even the passage of the resolution came as a surprise to many.<\/p>\n
Amy Nagopaleen \u2014 a writer, activist and mother of a trans student in the city\u2019s public school system \u2014 said Friday that the concern over trans girls in sports was manufactured.<\/p>\n
“There’s actually no problem in the public schools,\u201d she said in an interview. \u201cThere are no complaints about trans athletes at any of the schools. No one ever came forward to publicly say that they were treated unfairly or displaced by a trans athlete.\u201d<\/p>\n
After more than a year of protests, and another school board election, the same council \u2014 which ousted some of its previous members after the backlash \u2014 voted to rescind the resolution altogether on Wednesday, with a seven-to-three vote and two abstentions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t really us convincing the people who voted for it, it was an infusion of new blood on the council that got us to finally rescind it,\u201d said Gavin Healy, who has been a part of the council for years.<\/p>\n
Healy, a lecturer at Columbia University, said the bulk of the Manhattan district supports the trans community. But he also recognized the debate would not end with this week\u2019s vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s indicative of other problems we have in our society, and in our country, today,\u201d Healy said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t the last attack we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chyann Tull, a spokesperson for the city\u2019s education department said the city \u201chas always been dedicated to supporting and affirming students of every gender identity, across our school communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tull added, \u201cWe will continue to focus on maintaining safe, inclusive, and welcoming environments for every student.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following the backlash from the resolution, Nagopaleen, and other members of the organization Aunties and Friends for Liberation, began mobilizing to get more people to vote in local education council elections throughout the city.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an unpopular resolution \u2014 most parents didn\u2019t know it had been passed, \u201c she said. \u201cBut community education councils are almost invisible in city politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Manhattan school board has rescinded a vote last year that propelled New York City into the fractious…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":225873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-225872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-city","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkcity","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115202060761012010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}