SALISBURY, Md.- Wicomico County Executive Julie Giordano has sent a letter to the board of education, "asking the Board to adopt a policy that ensures only biological females participate in female sports”.
“We want biological females playing girl sports and making sure that biological males are playing male sports,” said Giordano. “I think anybody who has a daughter, anybody who has a granddaughter in our school system right now would feel the same way.”
Giordano says she understands this is a conversation being held on a national and state level. Giordano says she would like the county to make a stance.
“We need to figure out how we’re going to handle it on the local level. I would rather have that conversation rather than it be mandated. We need to know where the community stands and how our board of education feels about this.”
Mark DeLancey of Salisbury PFLAG says attempts like these
“It discourages them from even participating; they train just as much as everybody else does. Just because they’re either signed male at birth or assigned female birth. It should not matter in any way shape or form when it comes to performances,” said DeLancey.
DeLancey says there are bigger issues facing Wicomico County.
“This is the problem that bothers me. I don’t understand why this executive is making this such an issue. Even I’d personally cannot name a single trans athlete in Wicomico County.”
Giordano says she is also unaware of any trans athletes in the district but says that is not a reason to not take a stance on the issue.
“This is my answer to that. Are there any times where this has come up in Wicomico County? Not that I’m aware of. However when we’re labeling it as an issue or a problem, the potential could come up. We need to address it,” said Giordano.
DeLancey says he hopes the county can address issues he believes to be urgent.
“If we’re gonna worry about issues, let’s worry about local Wicomico County issues that involve teenagers or females. Let's talk about teen pregnancy. Let’s talk about student enrollment dropout rates. Let’s talk about STDs or teen pregnancy. I have those statistics and it’s absolutely astronomical higher than whatever we are possibly looking at.”
WBOC reached out to the Board of Education. The Board President tells WBOC the letter will be discussed with board members.