Dear Representative,
I am writing regarding initiative IL26-638 protecting girls sports, which was filed on June 2, 2025. 308,911 signatures were required, yet 444,434 were collected, so I guess many of my fellow statesmen want it. It was certified January 21, 2026 by the Education Committee.
This initiative states that students who are already mandated to submit proof of a physical exam from their pediatrician, that shows they are healthy enough to play school sports, must also include proof they are biological females, in order to play on girls’ sports teams.
>>>Read the text to Initiative IL26-638
I have two issues with this initiative.
- This initiative only picks on the female players. Apparently, females can still play on the boy’s teams. Also, nothing in the initiative is written about which bathrooms or locker rooms anyone would use.
- No one defined what a girl is. What if a student has, a vagina, but she has chromosomes of a male or testes that have not dropped? There are a number of ways in which intersex people develop naturally that have not been addressed in this initiative.
I have no interest in belittling the needs of cis females. After watching the interviews of a few cis female athletes, I can empathize with them to a point. Since they can only see the world from the viewpoint they have been allowed to see. High school sports play such a huge role in the careers of everyone who plays them; it’s so defining that we can’t possibly teach students to cooperate or share resources or even to put up a curtain for certain students to have privacy, or send specific students from practice early, so they can be done in the shower before the rest of the students ever get in there.
Politicians tend to see only one way to work; fight. There is competition in sports, but there are also skill and talent, team building and communication. These elements are available in politics also. We do not have to win at all costs. High school sports should be more about skill, talent, team building and communication. Sex and gender are a component because these things are developing during this time of these student’s lives, but they don’t have to be paramount. Conservatives want to say that biology defines sex, but that is true at a very elementary level. Gender is defined by many things, not just genitalia, but chromosomes, our emotions, and the way we think. I heard one microbiologist say that the chromosomes that do anything at development before birth to decide whether or not I had a penis or a vagina aren’t doing anything right now. I thought they had an interesting perspective.
Right now, we want to encourage healthy human development. All students deserve this. If everyone is yelling, is anyone listening? What does this initiative do to make the field level for all students?
Sincerely,
Summer D Clemenson
~
1
20
20
20
Please wait...
