Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
I did some more searching and found more information.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/06/08/transgender-nattaphon-wangyot-alaska-track/
http://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/06/01/haines-transgender-teen-breaks-barriers-at-state-track-meet/
Good for Ice and that's a really nice Super Intendant.
My earlier suspicions were true. This all got stirred up by the Hate Group.
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/06/08/transgender-nattaphon-wangyot-alaska-track/
A transgender high school track athlete in Alaska made history – and created controversy – after competing in the girls’ state meet championships.
Anchorage CBS affiliate KTVA-TV reported that Nattaphon Wangyot of Haines High School qualified for the girls 1-2-3A 11-meter and 200-meter finals. The 18-year-old runner was born male and identifies as female.
Wangyot, who move from Thailand to Haines in 2014, told the Chilkat Valley News that she doesn’t have a competitive advantage over other girls because she takes female hormones and other drugs to suppress her body’s testosterone.
“The people who are going to think, ‘It’s not fair to play with the boys’ – well, you don’t know that. It’s not easy,” she told the Valley News. “It’s not like I was up and ‘OK, I’m a girl right now.’”
Saskia Harrison of Hutchison High School in Fairbanks, who missed the cut, didn’t think it was competitively fair that Wangyot competed on the girls side.
“I’m glad that this person is comfortable with who they are and they’re able to be happy in who they are, but I don’t think it’s competitively, completely 100 percent fair,” Harrison told KTVA.
Jim Minnery, president of the Alaska Family Action, protested along with a dozen others to Wangyot running.
“We are here today as a voice from the community to ensure that female athletes are not denied the playing opportunities and scholarships otherwise available to them and to make the playing field even again,” Minnery told the Alaska Dispatch News. “Allowing students to play on teams of the opposite sex disproportionately impacts female students, who will lose spots on a track, soccer and volleyball teams to male students who identify as female.”
KTVA reported the Alaska Schools Activities Association implemented a policy to allow school districts to decide if a transgender athlete can compete in a sport as the gender they identify with, and not their birth gender.
“We didn’t want to necessarily create a situation where we were going to bring in a committee and those types of things just because it’s just not practical here,” Billy Strickland, the association’s executive director, told KTVA.
Wangyot finished third in the 200-meter dash at 27.3 seconds and fifth in the 100 at 13.36 seconds in the Class 3A girls’ sprints.
Wangyot told Alaska Public Media that she’s trying to ignore the negative reactions she got to running in the girls’ state meet.
“Just be yourself. It’s your life,” she said. “Nobody can control that. We have freedom. Everybody can talk everything bad to you, but just ignore it. Sometimes it’s so hard to do that, but it’s gonna be cool and really good in the future of your life.”
Wangyot also played volleyball and basketball for Haines High School.
http://www.alaskapublic.org/2016/06/01/haines-transgender-teen-breaks-barriers-at-state-track-meet/
A Haines teenager was likely the first transgender student to compete at a statewide high school athletic competition. Nattaphon Wangyot was born male, but has identified as female since she was about five years old. Her participation in last weekend’s track meet in Anchorage drew a lot of attention, both positive and negative.
Wangyot goes by the nickname ‘Ice.’ Her mother, Tukta Panyawong, said the nickname comes from when she was pregnant with Ice, back in Thailand, and she used to chew on ice cubes.
Panyawong said the nickname fits, especially in the aftermath of the track meet. She says her daughter has been cool under pressure.
“You know, if some people say bad to you and you do bad to them, it’s not going to end easy,” Ice said. “So if they say bad to you, just smile at them and let it go.”
There’s a lot Ice has to let go. She’s read comments from news stories about the track competition. Some are supportive and positive, but Ice says others are ‘hateful.’ But, she says, the hateful comments make her stronger.
“Some hateful people make me stronger and stronger,” Ice said. “So I want to say ‘thank you’ for everybody.”
It isn’t just online commentators who have a problem with Ice competing against other girls. On Friday, the conservative Christian group Alaska Family Action held a press conference.
“It is not fair and it is not right for our female athletes, and we have a responsibility to protect our girls,” said Stephanie Leigh Golmon Williams, as reported by KTVA.
The group said male-to-female transgender students have an advantage over biologically female athletes. Ice disagrees. She says she takes medication that suppresses male hormones and increases female hormones.
Alaska Family Action was protesting the Alaska School Activities Association’s recently adopted policy on transgender athletes. The policy lets local schools decide whether transgender students can compete according to the gender they identify with.
“The bigger gist of how this policy was developed is ASAA feels that schools are in the best position of dealing with individual students and know which individual students consistently identify with a different gender and can apply that better than we can, thousands of miles away from the actual student,” said ASAA director Billy Strickland.
“Yeah, we’re not gonna discriminate based on gender identity. That’s the just the long and the short of it,” said Haines School District Interim Superintendent Rich Carlson.
Ice moved to Haines from Thailand in 2014. But she didn’t start participating in sports until this year, her senior year. That kicked the district into action. The school board added gender identity to its non-discrimination policy and it updated administrative guidelines. Now the district’s stance is that transgender students can compete in sports according to the gender they consistently identify with.
When asked about Haines School District being a part of Alaska History, Ice responded, “We are. We are. I don’t think we ever set out to be that, but we are. And I feel pretty good about how we handled this.”
Carlson was expecting some push-back to Ice competing at the state track meet. But when he heard about the press conference protesting the transgender policy, Carlson got on a plane to Anchorage.
“I wanted to be there, frankly, to protect Ice,” Carlson said.
Ice said in all her races, her coaches tell her to ignore everything and just focus on running.
“You should focus on the track, what you gonna do right now,” Ice said. “Ignore how I’m hurt, how in pain. So I should focus on the running.”
Now, she’s trying to ignore the negative reactions to her involvement in the track meet and focus on the support she’s gotten. And she wants to share that message with people in similar situations.
“Just to be yourself. It’s your life,” Ice said. “Nobody can control that. We have freedom. Everybody can talk everything bad to you, but just ignore it. Sometimes it’s so hard to do that, but it’s gonna be cool and really good in the future of your life.”
Ice ended up placing in both the events she competed in. She won third place in the small schools’ women’s 200-meter sprint, and fifth place in the 100-meter race.
Good for Ice and that's a really nice Super Intendant.
My earlier suspicions were true. This all got stirred up by the Hate Group.
h boy why didn't I read your tag earlier. You're probably just trolling.
