Central Bucks retires ban on transgender athletes, spurring debate about the impact of the presidential election

The Central Bucks school board voted Tuesday to retire a ban on transgender athletes, saying it would evaluate any concerns on a case-by-case basis.

The vote was a formality: The board, which flipped to Democratic control last year, had already suspended the ban enacted by the former GOP majority a year earlier to align the district with federal and state regulations.

But the move touched off debate Tuesday in a community that has battled over culture-war issues, and where former President Donald Trump’s reelection last week resurrected partisan divides. Several residents accused the board of endangering and taking opportunities from girls who could be forced to compete with stronger athletes, but expressed confidence the move would soon be reversed by Trump, who has pledged to roll back transgender protections.

Others applauded the board for repealing the policy, saying that transgender students would be further marginalized by a ban and that Central Bucks should prioritize inclusion.

Some Democratic board members were also grappling with the election results, with one invoking the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy plan and pledging that the board would serve as a “buffer” against adverse federal changes.

The ban repealed Tuesday dates to November 2023, right after Democrats swept the Central Bucks school board elections. The former Republican-led board passed the policy — which said that girls’ sports teams “shall not be open to students of the male sex,” and vice versa — in the lame-duck period before the new board members took over.

But the new board suspended the policy during its first meeting in December, along with a series of other controversial measures enacted by the former board.

The policy was in effect “for approximately two to three weeks,” Central Bucks Superintendent Steven Yanni said at the start of Tuesday’s school board meeting. Given that the policy had already been suspended, he said, “functionally, there is no change.”

Yanni said the now-repealed policy “wasn’t grounded in any law or statute” and conflicted with the district’s antidiscrimination policy.

The former board received advice on the transgender athlete ban, including a draft policy, from the Independence Law Center, a religious liberties law firm based in Harrisburg, according to emails obtained by the Bucks County Courier-Times. (School boards more commonly receive model policies from the Pennsylvania School Boards Association.)

Protections for transgender students were expanded by the Biden administration, which enacted regulations that broadened Title IX — the 1970s federal law barring sex discrimination in educational programs — to bar discrimination based on gender identity.

But those rules have been fiercely contested. A lawsuit by conservative parental-rights group Moms for Liberty led a federal judge in July to bar their enforcement in schools across the country attended by children of Moms for Liberty members.

Advocates say the law still protects transgender children, pointing to regulations from the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity, as well as case law, including a 2018 federal court decision upholding a Boyertown Area School District policy that allowed transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms corresponding to their gender identities.

With Trump’s election, however, the landscape may shift. Trump has vowed to roll back the Biden regulations on “day one” and said he would cut federal funding for schools that recognize transgender students.

“Thank God things will be changing,” said Mara Witsen, a proponent of the now-repealed ban, who told the board that “boys can’t become girls” and that Trump’s election proved a “silent majority” opposed transgender rights.

Another resident, Mike Sobczak, said that instead of repealing the ban, the district should have “started transgender clubs at each school … to give those kids the opportunity to play the sports that they’re so interested in without damaging anything else.”

Others defended transgender student participation. “We’re talking about youth. Children that want to play with their friends. Children that want to do things that kids do in childhood,” said Brett Freeman, who has three daughters, including one who is transgender. “They simply want to be accepted.”

One board member, Heather Reynolds, noted that there were no trans girls currently playing on any teams in Central Bucks.

Instead, Reynolds said there were more pressing threats facing girls in Central Bucks, including reports she said school board members had received of boys in the district telling girls “your body, my choice.” The phrase — echoing the “my body, my choice” slogan of abortion-rights supporters — was posted on X by white nationalist Nick Fuentes on election night and has reportedly been mentioned thousands of times on social media since.

“It’s deeply concerning,” Reynolds said, calling the comments “violent, aggressive, and disrespectful.” (A district spokesperson, Michael Petitti, said that “like school districts across the country, Central Bucks is not immune to certain students witnessing unfortunate trends online and acting them out in our buildings.”)

Meanwhile, Reynolds fended off criticism of social media comments she made following the election. In a post shared online by opponents, Reynolds had said, in part: “I don’t feel comfortable around you. The person you voted for is homophobic, racist, and hates women and none of that is a dealbreaker for you. It IS personal.”

Reynolds said Tuesday that she had shared a “meme” on her personal page that was not directed at anyone in the community.

“No one knows my personal situation or family dynamics,” Reynolds said. She said she would continue to work with people “on all sides,” but also said the district faces risks from potential national policy changes — noting Project 2025, a conservative plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, among other proposals.

“We’re here to defend the integrity of our public schools and the well-being of our children, regardless of changes in state or federal support,” Reynolds said.

Jim Pepper — the board’s lone Republican, and the only vote against repealing the transgender athlete policy — disagreed with Reynolds. “The hysteria that has come to pass since the election of Donald Trump and JD Vance is not warranted,” Pepper said, noting that Trump had distanced himself from Project 2025. “I would ask people to try and be a little more calm about this.”

The board voted Tuesday to hire two law firms as it replaces its former solicitor. That lawyer, David Conn of the Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams law firm, had come under fire from some community members, including after the district was sanctioned $1,500 for failing to comply with an order for producing documents in a lawsuit accusing the board of violating Pennsylvania’s Sunshine Act.

The board hired Wisler Pearlstine as its solicitor, and Clarke, Gallagher, Barbiero, Amuso & Glassman Law for labor relations and tax matters.

But some residents questioned the selections — including because the chair of the Bucks County Democratic Party, Steve Santarsiero, works for the Clarke firm.

Given Santarsiero’s donations to Central Bucks Democrats, “I don’t know how you can say that’s not a conflict of interest,” said Vonna DeArmond, a local resident.

Yanni said the district had received proposals from seven law firms and scheduled interviews with three. Ultimately, he said, the board felt “really comfortable” with Wisler Pearlstine for general solicitor services, but the Clarke firm’s “real niche is labor.”