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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 6, 2023

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The pertinent question here is "What does the school (or state) plan to do with this information?" I ran a high adventure program for the Boy scouts for several years, and part of the job was reviewing the medical forms of participants. These were mostly filled out by a doctor following a physical, though some doctors would just attach copies of medical records. I was concerned with three things—first, I had to make sure that is was filled out and signed by a doctor and not the kid's parents. Second, I wanted to see if the doctor noted any restrictions on participation. Finally, I wanted to see if there were any conditions that could cause acute problems during the week, things like asthma, diabetes, allergies, etc. and whether the kid had a medication that needed to be taken. I'd also ask if there was anything else I needed to know about that wasn't on the form, like if they had surgery or broke a bone since the doctor cleared them (forms were good for a year). I specifically remember one girl's form mentioning menstrual problems, and I can tell you for a fact that I didn't ask any follow up questions because there was no way I could see it affecting her participation in the program.

So what is the school going to do with this information? Are they going to subject all sports physicals and questionnaires to an independent review by their own physicians who will have the ability to override the examining physician? Unlikely. Are they going to establish strict standard for menstrual problems that will be enough to override a student's participation? Doubt it. Will they follow up regularly to detect any changes and potentially refer the student for further diagnosis? You see where I'm going with this. Most likely this information is going to be looked at once by the coach and won't be referred to again unless the kid gets injured while playing, and even in that case this specific information will probably be ignored by anyone involved.

Does this mean that all of this is just an underhanded way of rooting out trans kids to prevent them from playing on girls teams? I doubt this is the case, but when you make a name for yourself for blatant culture war waging, and a change like this is introduced right around the time you've been pushing for a ban on transgender athletes in girls sports, you can't be surprised if people get a bit suspicious.

My guess is that it is a way to notice there might be a problem. As a teenage girl it would never have occurred to me to tell anyone if my period became irregular. How horrifying to raise the topic! Most teenage girls have not yet seen a gynecologist (btw, who ask on their intake forms the date of your last period, for this very reason.) Their individual coaches should be aware of this but I can see how specifically asking would seem intrusive and weird.