Boys Playing On Girls Teams Debated In Pennsylvania
On one side, representatives from the office of newly elected Pennsylvania attorney general Kathleen Kane will explain their position that boys should continue to be allowed to play on girls sports teams because prohibiting them from doing so would violate the state’s Equal Rights Amendment. Ratified in 1972, the ERA states that gender can’t be used as a basis for distinction.
On the other side, the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association and Mary Grenen, a Pittsburgh attorney and mother of Allison Grenen, a former field hockey player at Fox Chapel High School, will argue that boys should not be allowed to play on girls sports teams because it denies opportunity for girls, creates a competitive advantage and increases risk of injury, among other reasons.
They will also argue that the current interpretation of the nearly four-decades-old ERA, at least in regard to high school athletic participation, is out of touch and in desperate need of an overhaul.