Female athletes file complaint over transgender policy

“We never got anywhere with the CIAC,” Stanescu said Tuesday in an interview with The Courant. “The genders are segregated for a reason. They might as well just say women don’t exist as a category.”

The participation in high school sports by transgender girls Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, both of whom are sprinters and were identified in the complaint, has sparked debate in Connecticut as they continue to compete and excel in state track events. The CIAC follows the state statute, which defines gender as gender identity and not the biological sex of the person. Athletes are required to update school records to have their paperwork reflect the gender with which they identify. The CIAC also mandates that school officials verify the athlete’s gender identification and ensure “that the expression of the student’s gender identity is bona fide and not for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage in competitive athletics.”

CIAC executive director Glenn Lungarini said Tuesday that the governing body had not been contacted by the Office for Civil Rights but would cooperate fully with any investigation. Lungarini defended the CIAC’s gender policy, noting that the organization reviewed the language with the Office of Civil Rights in Boston to ensure Title IX compliance and discussed the policy with Connecticut’s Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.