colorado's trans sports ban doesn't say how a school checks a kid's sex. its backer says the best part is that every kid gets checked. the best part?

via the Colorado Blue Book, Chalkbeat Colorado and The Advocate

Here is how Colorado's Proposition 134 defines a girl, per the state's own voter guide: a person "whose biological reproductive system is organized around the production of ova, or egg cells."

Here is how it tells a school to check: it doesn't.

what prop 134 actually says

The measure, on the Nov. 3 ballot, would sort every school team in the state into male, female or coed and only let students play on the team matching their sex, with an exception for girls where no girls' team exists, according to its official ballot title. It covers elementary school through college, public and private, religious schools, intramurals and after-school programs. The nonpartisan Blue Book is blunt about the gap: the measure "does not impose a specific method for determining or demonstrating biological sex. Individual schools or school districts must determine their own verification procedures."

The Advocate headlined that gap as a fear of "forced genital exams." To be clear about what is on paper: the word "genital" appears nowhere in the measure or the Blue Book. What the Blue Book's argument against it says is that it "turns athletic eligibility into a body inspection" and that some athletes "may be forced to undergo invasive or expensive testing to prove their biological sex, while others may be able to simply provide a note from a doctor."

the backer's answer

Erin Lee, co-founder of Protect Kids Colorado, which is behind the measure, told Chalkbeat students could bring a doctor's note, or do a cheek swab, a DNA test Chalkbeat reports can cost hundreds of dollars. Asked whether girls who look too masculine might face extra scrutiny, she said: "The great thing about this ballot measure is that it eliminates any skepticism. Everyone is subjected to the requirement to prove biological sex, and then no one has to guess or question or single anyone out."

Every girl in Colorado proving her sex to play rec soccer, as the selling point. Write that on the yard sign.

"So any young person, transgender or not, will be impacted by this," Nadine Bridges of One Colorado told Chalkbeat, calling the measure "written so vaguely that there aren't any boundaries, no parameters, no appeal process at all." How many trans students it is aimed at, nobody knows: Chalkbeat reports no organization or agency tracks it. Washington votes on its own version, I-638, the same day. (We wrote about the cross-country walkout it is wrapped up in.)