On Tuesday night, a split vote on the New Hanover County School board effectively banned middle school athletes from playing sports according to their gender identity.
The board’s old policy, passed in 2021, allowed transgender and nonbinary students to participate on whatever team they chose. The new policy requires those students to play on teams according to their birth certificate, unless it violates state law.
Prior to the vote, the board heard from a longer-than-usual list of public speakers, including a transgender student, who directly addressed one of the board’s most conservative members.
"Your campaign website states that you want your children to be kept safe and get a useful education at school," the student said. "The fear you express for children is the fear I, a transgender student, face every single day. I ask you as an elected official, 'shouldn't you have the same level of worry for all students or are yours more important or better than students like me?'”
The vote was 4-3, but not directly along party lines. The board’s two democrats were joined by a more moderate Republican – who expressed concerns, including the effect on all LGBTQ students, and the potential for Title IX complaints lawsuits.
The board’s recently elected harder-right members stayed largely quiet during the meeting. Only one member spoke at length, arguing that the policy change was about fairness – not politics or religion.
The board did yield to concerns about making the new policy effective immediately — delaying its implementation until next school year.