The Rhode Island Interscholastic League obeys in advance and weakens protections for transgender, gender diverse and transitioning student-athletes
The RIIL Principals Committee on Athletics meets on Monday, March 24, at 1:30 PM, in the RIIL Offices at 875 Centerville Rd. Building 3, Warwick, RI 02886. Public attendance is welcome.
A link to a petition demanding that the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL) restore its former policy, which honored the dignity, worth, and belonging of all student-athletes, can be found here.
The RIIL Principals Committee on Athletics meets on Monday, March 24, at 1:30 PM, in the RIIL Offices at 875 Centerville Rd. Building 3, Warwick, RI 02886. Public attendance is welcome.
The Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL), established on March 9, 1899, is a group of school principals that sets all rules for statewide high school athletic participation and competition. The RIIL’s mission “is to provide educational opportunities for students through interscholastic athletics and to provide governance and leadership for its member schools in the implementation of athletic programs.”
Up until March 7th, the RIIL had a very reasonable policy on transgender, gender diverse, and transitioning students that explicitly stated that students could participate in “athletic programs consistent with their gender.” The RIIL was, on paper at least, “committed to providing all student-athletes with equal opportunities to participate in RIIL athletic programs consistent with their gender identity.”
However, this fairly comprehensive and inclusive language has been altered in the new policy, which can be found here:
I contacted the RIIL’s Executive Director, Michal Lunney, by telephone and email but have not received a response.
The Center for Freedom and Prosperity, a far-right think tank and lobbyist organization with ties to Moms for Liberty and other extremist groups, issued a press release claiming at least partial credit for the change.
“In a major victory for advocates seeking to protect women’s K-12 sports in the Ocean State, the Rhode Island Interscholastic League (RIIL), under threat of legal action and public pressure, has radically altered its rules and regulations that allow biological boys to compete in girls’ K-12 sports,” said the Center in a recent press release…
“While RIIL’s revised policies still allow schools to determine the gender of students wishing to compete in RIIL-sanctioned competitions, the pro-trans-gender [sic] regulation has been dramatically weakened and no longer provides legal cover for schools. The revised regulation now shifts legal responsibility to schools, requiring that they determine how to comply with state and federal law in this regard, putting individual schools and school districts at even greater legal peril.”
“While we welcome this important step, RIIL still has not completely protected girls’s sports and the safety of female athletes,” commented Mike Stenhouse, CEO of the Center. “This clever legal maneuver is not enough. Ultimately, RIIL needs to completely prohibit biological boys from ever being able to compete in girls’ sports.”
The press release goes on to praise anti-trans Christian Nationalist Robert Chiaradio, who has visited school boards and school committees across Rhode Island in a mostly unsuccessful effort to overturn policies that protect the rights and safety of transgender, gender diverse, and transitioning students, calling him a “crusader.”
The Center filed a federal civil rights complaint with the Office for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Education on March 6th, naming RIIL, the Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE)’s Commissioner of Education Angélica Infante-Green, and the Barrington, Chariho, Cumberland, East Greenwich, North Kingstown, and Providence school districts as respondents deserving an investigation for violations of Title IX and federal law.
[Ironically, the Department of Education is under threat from President Donald Trump, whose executive orders on transgender rights seem to be electrifying the actions of local hate groups and Christian Nationalists.]
Attorney Gregory Piccirilli crafted the Center’s complaint. Piccirilli also works as the attorney advising the Foster-Glocester Regional School District. Piccirilli is a member of the Law Centre sub-committee of the Board of Directors for the Rhode Island Center for Freedom of Prosperity. He works with sub-committee chair Giovanni D. Cicione and Attorney Suzanne McGee Cienki.
A link to a petition demanding that the Rhode Island Interscholastic League restore its former policy, which honored the dignity, worth, and belonging of all student-athletes, can be found here.
The RIIL Principals Committee on Athletics meets on Monday, March 24, at 1:30 PM, in the RIIL Offices at 875 Centerville Rd. Building 3, Warwick, RI 02886. Public attendance is welcome.
The RIIL demonstrtated real cowardice.
What kind of example are they setting for kids when they give in to a fascist bully? The worst kind.