[photo credit - Steve Ahlquist, RIFuture.news]

Hello and Happy Pride Month!

We have a couple updates to share with you today:

1) This past Monday, June 16th, community members devoted to equality for trans youth showed up to the Rhode Island Interscholastic League's Principals' Committee on Athletics meeting.  Thanks to Steve Ahlquist's reporting, you can read a transcript and watch full coverage of the interaction here.  This was the first such meeting since the one we disrupted at the end of March.  At this meeting, we had planned only to distribute material ahead of time and to hold up signs and banners in the room.  However, Director Lunney and Chairperson Warner opened the meeting by inviting us to speak.  

The conversation became confusing and infuriating because RIIL maintained the inconsistent position that the gender eligibility policy didn't actually change at all, but that the League could not possibly go back to the old language.  They refused to acknowledge that their new policy represents a withdrawal of support for trans and gender diverse kids.  When questioned directly about what motivated the policy change in the first place, RIIL gave very vague answers, some of which don't align with information we have already gathered on this matter.  Ultimately, their attempts to appease our group while making no concessions and revealing no information led them to make incoherent claims like "nothing was changed" or that the policy is "not a policy".

While Monday's meeting was frustrating, it has given us some new avenues to pursue in our continuing efforts to get RIIL to do the right thing and change the policy back.

2) A victory!  On Tuesday night, the North Kingstown School Committee voted to send a letter to RIIL, urging the League to reconsider its decision and to engage in dialogue with relevant stakeholders in order to maintain a policy that looks out for everybody, including trans youth.  You can view a draft of the letter that was voted on here.

Here are some things you can do to keep this campaign moving forward:

• Continue to share the petition ... we're almost at 1,000 signatures!
• Principals' and athletic directors' voices carry the most weight with the League.  As seen in our second update above, school committees also have a really important voice here.  If you have a good relationship with a principal, athletic director, or school committee member who you think may be supportive please reach out to us at risports4all@blackstoneacademy.org or 508-521-9539.
• We believe that campaigns need to center and receive direction from those directly affected by the issues they are focused on.  However, we understand how vulnerable trans youth, particularly youth athletes, are to attacks from right-wing fearmongers.  If you know of families who are affected by this issue and want to play an active role in this work, please pass our contact info (risports4all@blackstoneacademy.org / 508-521-9539) along to them.