Michigan Republicans call on MHSAA to change policy on transgender athletes
In a press conference on Thursday, Michigan Republican lawmakers called on the Michigan High School Athletic Association to change its policy and comply with federal directives that prohibit transgender females from participating in women's sports.
The executive order, titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," was signed by President Trump in early February. Educational institutions that do not comply could lose federal funding.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit athletic body comprised of more than 1,500 public and private high schools and junior or middle schools. The organization is not supported by tax dollars or government funding.
In a letter to the MHSAA sent earlier this week, Republican Michigan Sen. Joseph Bellino wrote, "Every girl deserves a fair opportunity to compete, and every parent deserves to know their kids are being protected."
Currently, the MHSAA has a policy allowing transgender girls to participate on girls teams through a waiver process. There isn't a waiver process to allow transgender boys to play on boys teams.
"A lot of the information is generally how a student is identified on official documents," said Geoff Kimmerly, director of communications for the MHSAA. "We look at those student-by-student because every student's details are certainly specific, and a decision is made from there."
Kimmerly said that in the last five or six years, the MHSAA has only had two such waivers and has not received a waiver for the 2024-25 winter season nor 2025 spring season. Out of the more than 170,000 high school athletes in Michigan, Kimmerly says, "it's a very small percentage."
However, Republican lawmakers are urging the association to comply with the executive orders from the Trump administration.
"To me, it's fascinating that they're not compiling quicker," said Republican Michigan Rep. Jason Woolford. "What's important to me is the 112,000 female athletes that are in the state of Michigan that are playing."
Kimmerly said the MHSAA is happy to comply with whatever the law states, but for the moment that's still being decided.
"Our issue at this point is we have an executive order; we also have the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act," he said. "There are some conflicts between the two, and we've just been waiting for those to be sorted out."
