I do not know the background of the petitioner, and therefor cannot pass judgement on how they were "directly harmed" by transgender women. However, I find the notion of their filing for the banning of women's participation in sporting by submitting this petition to the Board of Health highly suspect. It is important and just to uphold the Safety and Health of Women within our community and nation. But no person or group maintains the right to withhold rights from others by stating it is an emergency of either of the two.

Furthermore, this hot button topic of targeting transgender persons exclusively focuses on male to female transitioned persons. The decisions made by this and similar submitted petitions affect the entire Transgender community, not just Transgender Women. If we consider Male to Female and Female to Male Persons as a part of the same community - as one would reasonably do - then it is important to consider the potential impact of all transgender persons on the notion of competition and/or Health. When it cannot be determined the tangible threat that Transgender person poses to all Cisgender persons, then this stance should be reconsidered.

The insinuation by the Petitioner of sexual predation by Male to Female Transgender persons undermines the reality of children and young adults wanting an opportunity to compete in sport in the group that they identify with and are a part of. We must maintain public health. However, the suggestion that this is a matter of a "Health Emergency" is grossly exaggerated. But introducing exclusionary policies will directly cause irreparable damage to vulnerable persons affected by this submission.

If it a matter of Health and Security, then they should be able to have gender neutral changing environments that are equivalent to that of their team members so that the athletes can prepare and recover from the competition. The percentage of of Transgender people in our populace is not great enough to have separate teams. And it seems financially inadvisable to construct new facilities specifically for Transgender Men and Transgender Women. But if you deem that necessary, then providing comparable facilities is the path forward to satisfy this complaint without infringing upon the rights of others.

The Petitioner is not claiming a ban due to unfair competition, but rather due to the fear and anxiety of sharing spaces of exposure like locker rooms and bathrooms. It should be noted that even if the Petitioner were to make a claim of unfair contest, that is an invalid argument as we have seen in Cisgendered Male v. Female competition that assigned gender is not the sole determinant of a victory. Therefor, at the very least, Transgendered persons would not need to be banned from competition in order to satisfy the request of the petitioner. Rather, only additional accommodations would need to be supplied to allow separation of persons based on assigned gender at birth.

However, please note that by enacting that, you would be establishing a stance of separate but equal is legal. The Board should already be aware of the consequence of that determination in Plessy v. Ferguson. Please take that into account when considering this petition. It was not too long ago that it was considered an issue to Public Health to allow Black People to share spaces - like restrooms - with White People and unfairness in sports competition due to the color of ones skin. Adhering to this Petition establishes a very bad precedent that could and would result in more catastrophic and targeting policy changes that will harm people that need our protection, in this case cisgender and transgender women.

One last thing. Isolating teammates from their team due to concerns of Health and Psychological Wellbeing could have additional negative consequences to the players in question. All Female Athletes may not share the viewpoint of the petitioner and may not view the spaces as unsafe. However, all players tend to engage in morale boosting behaviors in shared spaces -such as pep talks and post-game congratulations. Even if the Board determined an "appropriate" method of treating Transgender persons as separate but equal, they would be depriving those team members from these activities that are a core part of competition and sport.