The Advocacy Department is currently working on several cases involving situations where coaches and administrators have refused to allow their male athletes to compete against females.
One situation involves middle school wrestling. While the league is coed, several schools in the league refuse to allow their boys to compete against the female wrestlers. A Superintendent of one of the schools said the school “does not want to put our young men in a situation where they would be inappropriately touching a young lady.” A father of one of the daughters discriminated against has filed a lawsuit and a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.
A similarly “unbelievable” situation occurred in a co-ed youth hockey league. While the league is co-ed, and an all-girls team competes in the league, one of the boys' teams refused to play against the girls claiming that it would hurt the development of the boys' game. Instead, the boys' team opted to switch to a division that did not have an all-girls team.
The Foundation strongly supports the right of girls and women to compete with and against boys and men in situations in which a women's team is not offered in that sport. For more details on our position please read
Co-ed Participation - Girls Playing on Boys' Teams and Male Versus Female Competition: The Foundation Position.