ABOVE: Photo via the NCAA Softball Facebook page.
An announcement made by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) less than a week ago on the 20 predetermined preliminary round sites at universities and colleges for this year’s Division I Softball Championship has LGBTQ activists aggravated.
Three of the sites are in states that have enacted laws banning the participation of trans youth in girls’ and women’s sports, Arkansas, Alabama, and Tennessee.
The Board of Governors of the NCAA, which regulates student athletes from over 1,268 North American institutions and conferences of higher learning, released a statement last month supporting the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports.
The NCAA said that “firmly and unequivocally supports the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports. This commitment is grounded in our values of inclusion and fair competition.”
“When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected,” the April 12 statement said. “We will continue to closely monitor these situations to determine whether NCAA championships can be conducted in ways that are welcoming and respectful of all participants.”
The NCAA announcement on April 30 regarding selection of schools to host the the Division I Softball Championships in states that have now banned Trans girls and young women from playing sports on teams in alignment with their gender identity, is being seen by some advocates who took the NCAA’s statement to mean that it wouldn’t consider states that had passed legislation targeting trans people as specious.
One Trans advocate who spoke with the Blade Friday and asked not to be identified, said that the NCAA’s choice for the games was hypocritical and contravened the April 12 statement.
The 20 potential regional sites for baseball will be announced next week, and that list will be pared to the 16 official hosts on May 31.
The NCAA did not respond to a request by the Blade for comment or clarification.
The 20 potential host site institutions for SOFTBALL are as follows:
Alabama Michigan Arizona Missouri Arizona State Oklahoma Arkansas Oklahoma State Clemson Oregon Florida Tennessee Florida State Texas Georgia UCLA Kentucky Virginia Tech LSU Washington
