skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, March 18, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Report says a second Trump term would add 4 billion tons of climate pollution; Trump predicts a bloodbath for the country if he is defeated in November's election; Nevada leaders discuss future of IVF, abortion in the Silver State; and anglers seek trawler buffer zone as Atlantic herring stock declines.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

It's a Full-Court Press for Opponents of MI Trans Sports Ban

play audio
Play

Friday, April 9, 2021   

LANSING, Mich. - Opponents of Michigan's proposed trans sports ban are working to educate people about what they see as its dangers.

Senate Bill 218 would prohibit trans high school students from playing on teams associated with their gender identity, verses their sex assigned at birth.

A key concern among the bill's supporters is that trans athletes -- particularly those born male who identify as female -- would have a competitive advantage. As a transgender youth in Ann Arbor, Eli Herrmann contended there's no scientific evidence to back up that claim.

Herrman, who is co-facilitator of the Michigan Organization on Adolescent and Sexual Health Youth Advisory Council on Transgender Youth, noted that trans youth already feel shunned by the homophobic culture of sports.

"Many trans people just don't want to be a part of that," said Herrman. "I don't know any trans people in my school that partake in sports; I'm the only person. So, it is not as if, very suddenly, we're going to see hundreds of trans people."

Some argue measures like SB 218 promote women's rights. However, more than two dozen national women's rights and gender-justice organizations publicly support full and equal access in athletics for transgender people.

SB 218 has not yet had a committee hearing.

Herrmann plays on the boys soccer team, and said he thinks sports help validate a young person's identity and skills. He added trans people can't control how they were born, and just want to live their lives, like everyone else.

"There is a lot of hate, and sports can be a place for kids to escape," said Herrman. "Taking that away from someone who is young, who might not have a supportive family, might not have a supportive school - that can leave a person in an extremely dark place, and I've seen it before."

Advocacy Director at MOASH, Shakti Rambarran, noted the Michigan High School Athletic Association has called the bill "unnecessary." She said she thinks it would create more problems than it would solve.

"Realistically, what this bill is trying to do is invalidate trans youth and their experiences, and perpetuate transphobic stereotypes," said Rambarran. "It is unacceptable and unnecessary."

More than four dozen groups signed an opposition letter sent to Sen. Lana Theis - R-Brighton - who introduced the bill. It is co-sponsored by a dozen other GOP senators.

MOASH is joining Neutral Zone in hosting a town hall with legislators and youth to discuss the measure later this month.

Disclosure: Michigan Organization on Adolescent Sexual Health contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues, LGBTQIA Issues, Reproductive Health, Youth Issues. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.


get more stories like this via email
more stories
Corporate partners sign contracts to offer a graduate assistantship and pay the students. In turn, MSU pays the graduate assistant's tuition, fees and salary, so the assistantship is directly tied to the academic experience. (pressmaster/Adobe Stock)

play sound

By Victoria Lim for WorkingNation.Broadcast version by Farah Siddiqi for Missouri News Service reporting for the WorkingNation-Public News Service Col…


Social Issues

play sound

A new report brands Connecticut's tax system as "regressive" for low- to middle-income residents and uses a report from the state to make its point…

Environment

play sound

Backers of a new federal rule said it will increase fairness for livestock and poultry producers, in North Carolina and across the country. The U.S…


A study by the advocacy group Inseparable showed one in five adults said at any given time, they consider their mental health to be either 'fair' or 'poor.' (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Mental health care advocates are encouraging federal agencies to adopt a proposed update to regulations which would expand access to psychological car…

Social Issues

play sound

With hotter summers bringing hotter working conditions, the Maryland Department of Labor is implementing a heat stress standard to protect workers …

Social Issues

play sound

By Jimmy Cloutier for OpenSecrets.Broadcast version by Roz Brown for Texas News Service reporting for the OpenSecrets-Public News Service Collaboratio…

Environment

play sound

Recreational fishermen in New England say commercial trawlers are threatening the survival of smaller businesses relying on a healthy stock of Atlanti…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021