Oklahoma now requires ‘biological sex affidavits’ for student-athletes
Oklahoma public schools are now requiring student-athletes to show proof of gender identity at birth before they can compete in sports.
The required “biological sex affidavits” coincide with Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s signing of the Save Women’s Sports Act, which calls for all sports through the collegiate level to group athletes according to their “biological sex.”
“When it comes to sports and athletics, girls should compete against girls; boys should compete against boys,” Stitt said at the signing in March. “And let’s be very clear: That’s all this bill says.”
The Oklahoma law requires that student-athletes 17 and younger present the affidavit, signed by a parent or legal guardian acknowledging his or her child’s sex, prior to the beginning of the academic year.
Student-athletes who are 18 or older must also sign an affidavit while providing “any change in the status of the biological sex of the student” within 30 days of such a change.
The affidavits, which were distributed starting in July, recently gained national attention after abortion rights activist Erin Manson shared a photo of one on Twitter.
“This has nothing to do with encouraging girls to be athletes,” Matson wrote. “This is totalitarianism. It is the white nationalist agenda. The anti-LGBTQ agenda. The anti-abortion agenda. It is all the same agenda.”
Several states have joined Oklahoma in creating laws that ban biological males from women’s sports, including South Carolina, Idaho, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, West Virginia, Montana, Alabama, Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Iowa, Arizona, Utah, and Kentucky.
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