JALSA Submits Testimony In Opposition to Transphobic School Sports Bills
May 6, 2025
Dear Chairs Lewis and Gordon:
The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) is a membership-based non-profit organization based in Boston, with thousands of members and supporters statewide. Guided by Jewish teachings and values, we are devoted to the defense of civil rights, the preservation of constitutional liberties, and the passionate pursuit of social, economic, racial, and environmental justice for all people.
JALSA wishes to offer its testimony in vocal opposition to: H.584, the misleadingly titled An Act to Ensure Fairness and Safety in School Sports, and H.737, the misleadingly titled An Act Relative to Defending the Autonomy and Integrity of Student Athletes and Coaches. These bills do nothing to ensure fairness or safety and do nothing to defend anyone’s autonomy or integrity. They are needlessly divisive legislation, which will result in harming marginalized populations and attack schoolchildren.
Importantly, legislation like H.584 and H.737 run directly counter to our Jewish values, which demand that we ensure the equality of our transgender neighbors and classmates. The fundamental Jewish value of B'tzelem Elohim declares we are all worthy of inherent dignity and equality in our shared humanity. An appropriate legal analog is the mandate of equal protection under the law. To target transgender youth in this way runs counter to our shared moral and legal values.
Jewish scripture directly addresses the importance of respect for transgender and non-binary individuals. In a section of the Talmud and Mishnah, dating back to the third century C.E., rabbis acknowledge gender identity is a spectrum. In Bikkurim 4:1, the discussion reads: “An androgynous person, who presents both male and female physical traits, is in some ways like men and in some ways like women. In some ways, they are like both men and women, and in other ways, like neither men nor women.”(i) This respect for gender fluidity appeared in written form nearly two millennia ago. It exemplifies another fundamental Jewish value, Kavod HaBriyot, respect for the basic human dignity of all people.
Further, the myth has been debunked that transgender women possess inherent physical advantages to cisgender women. For example, analyses published last year by the British Journal of Sports Medicine and by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sports undermine the myth of an inherent trans advantage in women’s sports.(ii)
Additionally, a 2020 report published by the National Institutes of Health tragically found that “data indicate that 82% of transgender individuals have considered killing themselves and 40% have attempted suicide, with suicidality highest among transgender youth.”(iii) Couple that startling reality with research by the Trevor Project finding that “anti-transgender laws significantly increased incidents of past-year suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth by as much as 72%.”(iv) Legislation like H.584 and H.737 target, isolate, and erode the rights of transgender youth, making them demonstrably less safe.
In summary, these bills will not protect anyone but only serve to divide, while actively making already vulnerable and marginalized youth even less safe. And, when one group of children can be targeted and isolated, it makes all school communities and all youth less safe.
JALSA strongly urges the members of the Joint Committee on Education to oppose the divisive and counterfactual H.584 and H.737.
Further, JALSA also wishes to express support for H.650/S.436, An Act relative to affirming and maintaining equal access to public education for all children. Every child deserves to be able to access public education; and, passage of this bill will protect all children at a time when immigrant communities are under attack.
Sincerely,
Cindy Rowe
President and CEO
Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action
(i) https://rac.org/blog/what-torah-teaches-us-about-gender-fluidity-and-transgender-justice
(ii) https://www.gendergp.com/new-report-confirms-trans-athletes-do-not-have-biomedical-advantage-in-elite-sport/
(iii) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32345113/
(iv) https://www.thetrevorproject.org/blog/anti-transgender-laws-cause-up-to-72-increase-in-suicide-attempts-among-transgender-and-nonbinary-youth-study-shows/