A transgender female volleyball player is breaking barriers in Hawaii, but she is already making at least one coach uncomfortable.
As reported by the Maui News, the unnamed transgender girl plays for Kamehameha School, and has been roundly accepted by her teammates and coaches on the school’s girls volleyball team, one season after she suited up as a member of the Kamehameha junior varsity boys volleyball team.
But one opposing coach doesn’t feel the same way, going so far as to tell the Maui News the new girl playing for Kamehameha poses a physical risk for his team.
“They all sign off on an assumption of risk form for an understandable amount of risk. Now, there’s an elevated level of risk their daughters are going through and being put through without any notification to the parents at all.
“I have no problem with the kid being who (they) want to be, but now these girls are being put in an unsafe situation without giving the parents the opportunity to make an educated decision on whether they want their daughter in that position.”
As for the authorities who oversee interscholastic sports in Maui, they told the news that everyone is still adjusting to a more inclusive society for transgender athletes.
“This is kind of something new, so everybody’s learning,” Maui Interscholastic League Executive Director Joe Balangitao told the Maui News.
