An unhinged dad in Utah was banned from his daughter's future basketball games after becoming belligerent when his insistence that a player on the opposing team was transgender was not met with concern or action.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the father was attending his daughter's junior varsity basketball game on January 19 where he “was vocally challenging the eligibility of the player based on his perception of the student-athlete’s gender.”
After the game, the man reportedly approached the principals from both schools, demanding proof that the 17-year-old player in question was eligible to play.
The principles assured the man, whose name was not disclosed, that all players from both teams had met the Utah High School Athletics Association’s eligibility requirements. Student-athletes in Utah are required to provide a birth certificate verifying their gender, and trans students must prove they have undergone at least one year of hormone therapy.
Apparently this was not enough for the man, who then yelled:
“I wasn’t born yesterday, I know that’s a boy and you better be able to prove yourself because I am going to the top."
He became so belligerent that he was asked to leave and has since been banned from future games.
Jeff Haney, a spokesperson for Canyons School District, said:
“We do not tolerate people coming into our community and our schools and harassing our student-athletes."
People on social media applauded the principal for banning the man from future games.
@RobertGehrke That dad should be banned and trespassed. Harassment of students, by parents, has no place in school.— (@)
They expressed their disappointment and disgust that situations like this continue to transpire. With anti-trans laws being proposed and enforced in many states, there seems to be no end in sight.
As anti-trans laws spread, they'll increasingly be used to target non-trans people as well as trans. I've seen this in my reporting in Russia & Uganda--radical anti-LGBTQ+ laws become means for pursuing other grudges, grievances, business interests. https://t.co/BOwINXI8mm— (@)
In 2022, Utah passed H.B. 11, which bans transgender girls in grades K–12 from participating in girls’ sports, though it's currently halted pending a court case.
Other states have passed strict and invasive laws targeted at trans athletes, as well. In Idaho, for example, a genital examination is required for an athlete under investigation.
Equality Utah policy director Marina Lowe said that as long as these laws continue to be passed, these incidents will continue.
“[This is only] a preview of what we’re going to see, especially now that we’re putting in place even more legislation that essentially allows the public to sit in a place of judgment or assessment of people’s physical characteristics and whether they’re feminine enough or masculine enough to be in certain spaces.”
“This doesn’t just harm the trans community. It really harms us all, because once we get in the business of policing someone’s appearance… all of us are going to be subject to this sort of inquiry potentially.”
