Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Superintendent Peter Hills is joining us.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Now.
Speaker 3 (00:02):
Hey, first of all, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Thank you, Mandy.
Speaker 4 (00:06):
I listen to you, especially when I'm driving to Denver,
so it's fun to get a chance to sit down.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
And talk a little bit.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Well, well, I appreciate that, and if I'm ever in
D forty nine, I will I will waive at the
D forty nine superintendents. Well, so let's talk about what
you guys are doing and why you're doing it. Lay
it out for me.
Speaker 4 (00:24):
You know what, The schools host sports because they're great
opportunities for leadership development and learning, perseverance.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
And all of that. And sports are physical contests.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
So if you're gonna host physical contests, they should be
classified and governed by a physical standard. And the science
of physical standards for human for human people is biology.
So we're using a biological standard to cover a physical subject.
To make sure that girls have all of the access
and opportunities that they deserve, and to make sure that
(00:55):
boys and girls have all the privacy that they that
they deserve. Want to preserve opportunity and dignity. That's really
the bottom line.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
So what has Colorado done in terms of what is
the legislature done that makes it more challenging to make
this happen.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
Well, I think the main thing that they have done
is they have absolutely conflated biological sex with gender identity
and expression, and they're not the same.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
So both the Colorado Anti Discrimination Act and now the amendment.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
That's in the Constitution, but chass's bylaws as well, they
all conflate these two things that are very very distinct.
And it doesn't it doesn't create any unsafe condition or
violation of privacy for some adult somewhere to express a
gender identity that's different than their biology. But it does
(01:47):
create unsafe and non private conditions if you base your
sports travel, your sports practices, team composition, competitions, all that,
if you base that on gender expression, then you invite.
Speaker 3 (01:59):
In equity exactly.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
First of all, I'm completely on your side and the
side of D forty nine. I think I think it's
absolutely insane. And I just said this that we're telling
these student female student athletes that once again, the feelings
of someone weren't male are more important than yours.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
That that's what it comes down to.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And I don't mean to be harsher or ugly or
or any of those things, But for me, the notion
that girls should be made to feel wildly uncomfortable. As
we've I've now seen so many college aged women finally
come forward and talk about changing, you know, for swimming
it next to you a fully intact male who's decided
(02:39):
that he's female. I mean, that's just fundamentally wrong. It's
a violation.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
That's in particular, I think that's the violation of privacy
and dignity because it sends a message that you're head
of your personal integrity or your personal privacy is not
as important as taking this social placeolitical stance exactly.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
And so what do you expect to have happen in
the near term. Give me the sort of the arc
of this suit.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
So let me use CHASA as an example.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
That's our State Activities Association, and they have a by
law that addresses this very directly.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
It says that if you let.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Males compete directly against girls, boys against girls, males against females.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
When you do that, you limit female.
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Participation and you undermine the intent, which is the intent
title mind.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
You undermine the intent to have more girls participation. Right,
So they have that already in their by law. But
they also have this statement that we welcome students and in.
Speaker 4 (03:41):
Fact require districts to permit students to compete based on
their expressed identity. And so CHASSA has a built in
complete incoherence. I think there's incoherence between even our Anti
Discrimination Act, our Constitution, the Federal Constitution. And so I
think these things that are at all they are craving
(04:02):
some degree of reconciliation. Something needs to make them cohere again,
and I think that that something is going to be
a legal declaration that either states have the right to
make this decision if they want to, or the Constitution,
via the supremacy Clause, gives the Supreme Court the authority
(04:23):
to say gender and biological identity are not exactly the same,
and for these kinds of classifications, biology is the correct standard.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
So but don't you think that that that sort of
squishiness is a feature, not a bug, right? I mean,
it just gives them plausible deniability no matter what sort
of situation arises. So I actually think that that's on purpose.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Of course.
Speaker 4 (04:49):
I mean it's a feature if your purpose is to
be anti objective. It's kind of a postmodern approach. There
are there is no objective truth. It's all subjective.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
But biology is not subjective.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
If we want subjective, we're going to go to sociology
and psychology. We don't want subjective, we want objective. And
so yes, it's a feature if that's the system you're
trying to design.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
I would say though, that.
Speaker 4 (05:15):
Our system of our constitutional republic, which depends on a
federal system with a supremacy clause in the Constitution, there
there is a mechanism to seek clarity and to then
promulgate that clarity. And so that's why we filed this lawsuit,
is because we believe that we should have the right
(05:36):
to escape this incoherence and operate from a point of clarity.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
So in the meantime, though there's nothing, there's Chass as
far as I know, has said they haven't seen the suit,
so they don't want to comment on it yet. Maybe
that's changed since I last checked. But what does this
mean in the near term, if anything, for girls in
Colorado playing in girl.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
Sports, Well, we absolutely hope that the leadership District forty
nine is modeling will be contagious.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
We hope that other districts that maybe don't.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Have our size or our resources will will consider what
we're doing, maybe even adopt similar policies. We believe that
there is a majority position, that a majority of the districts,
that a majority of the parents and students agree with
the position that we have taken. We don't actually think
this is a radical position at all. We think it's
(06:29):
a common sense position. And so if more of the
member districts around Colorado would stand up for girls' rights
the way we are standing up for girls rights, that
would put increasing pressure on CHASSA as a membership organization
to follow the part of their own bylaws that says
we cannot limit female participation just to serve a political end.
(06:53):
So our hope is that CHASA, under pressure from its members,
will will adopt a common sense of approach to preserving
the difference between boys and girls and the privacy rights
of boys and girls.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
You know, I'm right there with you in hoping. But
let's just say my confidence is not super high that
SHASSA will do anything to clarify and sort this self out.
I think that they are going to be very happy
to let the courts decide one way or the other,
to let them off the hook. So how long are
we looking what is the process here in terms.
Speaker 4 (07:26):
Of time, So you're right, I think your observation in
terms of chassa. They're going to be cautious and they
are slow playing this. They could actually have already waived
service and accepted our email and they can go see
the complaint. I mean, I know that they're saying they
haven't seen it. That's a little disingenuous. They haven't explicitly
(07:48):
informally accepted legal service, but they know what it says, right,
And the reason they're slow playing is that they're in
a bind. They're in a bind of their own making,
but they're in a bind. And so I expect that
this is the need to proceed through the federal court system,
through the Colorado District, probably the tenth Circuit.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
We would hope to get a.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
Supreme Court ruling that clarifies for the nation whether or
not states may replace biology with sociology, or whether the
simple fact and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment requires states to honor our human biology and our
(08:28):
rights that are distinct but co extensive between males and females,
boys and girls, men and women.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I know the D forty nine already passed a policy
that said boys can't play in girls sports. Let's talk
about that for just a moment, because the big criticism
I've heard, and I think it's a fair criticism, is
how do you enforce this? What is the enforcement mechanism
to make this happen?
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, it's actually really really simple.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
When students register in our school district, they tell us
if they're a boy or a girl. When they register
to join at they tell us if they're a boy
or a girl.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
When they compete, they're a boy or a girl. When
they get a sports physical, they're a boy or a girl.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
So we have all these data sources and if they
all agree and we're able.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
To say, oh, that boy's a boy.
Speaker 4 (09:15):
Then that boy can play boy sports or co ed sports.
So it's only a fair criticism if the if their classification.
Speaker 2 (09:24):
Is a mystery. But it's not a mystery.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Ninety nine point nine one percent of our students declare
that they're a boy or a girl when they regishare
with the district, usually for kindergarten. So I mean the
majority of our students are telling us boy girl before.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
They come to kindergarten.
Speaker 4 (09:41):
So it's really not that hard for a coach or
an athletic director to say, well, this student wants to
play on the boys team.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
This student is a boy. Everything we have says they're
a boy. They want to play in the boys team.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
Green light, go ahead. Now, there is an incredibly rare
small portion of our population who may have a genuine
chromosotal or medical condition, and if a parent and their
child brought us a request and accommodation based on some
particular condition, we would evaluate that on.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
A case by case basis.
Speaker 4 (10:15):
But for the vast majority of our students, that's not
going to be necessary.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
I was going to ask, has D forty nine begun working,
or have you come up with a solution of any
sort for trans girls who want to participate in sports.
Speaker 4 (10:31):
So you know, I was looking at the NCAA policy
just the other day and it says very clearly they've actually,
i would say, contracted back to common sense. And their
answer is that they base it on birth biology, and
that makes sense. And then they actually have some rules
where girls, for example, who are taking testosterone therapy hormone therapy,
(10:57):
they then become disqualified.
Speaker 2 (10:59):
And that's the kind of a thing.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
There are conditions where a parent with a medical professional
might make a decision to address gender dysphoria or to
address a chromosotal condition or some other medical condition. In
that case, then we would make a case by case evaluation.
But what we really aim to stop is a boy
(11:24):
or young man who's been competing as a boy who decides,
you know, I think I'd like to have even more success,
So I'm going to decide I'm a.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Girl and compete with girls.
Speaker 4 (11:33):
And that has happened all over our country. It has
happened in Colorado, but under our policy, that won't happen.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
What happens, and it's the last question marmoset out of time,
what happens if the students from a D forty nine
team are playing against another team that contains a trans girl.
Speaker 4 (11:53):
So one of the things I'm grateful for is I'm
only superintendent in District forty nine. But the reason we
sued CHASSA is because CHASSA is the statewide Activities Association,
and all of us who are members have to adhere
to chas's bylaws or we're not allowed to compete in
any kind of interscholastic competition, contest, certainly not play off
some championships and so I can't decide what Denver Public
(12:18):
Schools is going to do or what Grand Junction might do.
Speaker 2 (12:21):
I can only lead the way in District forty nine.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
But we believe that by pursuing a statewide and even
a federal declaration, we believe that we will go upstream
from the situation you just described and not put our
student athletes in that position in the first place. So, Mandy,
our hope is really to change the narrative and get
it back to common sense.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Paul Hilts is the superintendent of D forty nine in
the Springs, and they are the ones suing the federal
government and super you know what, I'm sorry, Peter Hills.
I keep calling you, Paul. I'm making you the wrong apasse.
I apologize Peter over and over again. But this mom
just sent in as the Colorado Springs girl mom in
(13:07):
D twenty. I'm so grateful that forty nine is starting
this movement, praying hard that it catches on like he hopes.
Thank you, sir for standing up for our girls. And
I will leave it at that. Thank you so much
Peter for joining me today.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
We appreciate it. Have a good afternoon, all right.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
That is Superintendent Peter Hilts,