Oppose Harmful & Unnecessary Sex Testing in Interscholastic Sports (AB 89)

We request your opposition to California AB 89 which would require school districts and CIF to institute invasive sex testing with the goal of barring students deemed “biologically male” from participating on a girls’ sports team. This bill will cause harm in a number of ways.   First, testing requests will have a significant impact on all girls who do not meet stereotypical ideals of femininity. This can have an outsized effect on mental health in formative years given that the questioning of biological sex in athletes often relies heavily on gender stereotyping. This has also been shown to disproportionately impact young athletes of color.    Second, forcing young athletes to undergo sex testing is inherently invasive. It will be highly disruptive and will subject them to distressing and unnecessary medical procedures. Given the increased harm, it is notable that the scientific community agrees that existing sex testing is problematic, as assigning sex to human bodies is complex. Problematic testing has resulted in the restriction of athletes from women’s sports, including those who have been labeled as biologically female from birth, due to factors like elevated testosterone levels or atypical chromosome patterns. These factors neither automatically indicate the sex of an athlete nor automatically provide an athlete with a competitive advantage.    Finally, while we know that young cisgender athletes will be significantly impacted by the imposition of invasive sex testing standards, young transgender women will face the highest levels of emotional and mental distress at a time when they are already experiencing increased bullying and suicidal ideation. As this bill specifically targets "biological male performance in girls’ sports," the text of the bill itself denies the existence of young transgender women. AB 89 would continue to worsen these struggles.