Florida girls will no longer be asked to disclose their menstrual histories before suiting up for high school sports.
The Florida High School Athletic Association’s board of directors voted during an emergency meeting Thursday to remove questions about the athletes’ periods from a mandated health form, according to CNN.
Officials made the ruling after enduring months of criticism about the new policy that would require athletes to give an answer about the personal detaila. The questions are currently asked, but responses are optional.
Dozens of Democratic state lawmakers deemed the questions “highly invasive” and an “egregious overreach” in a Wednesday letter to the FHSAA.
Board members reportedly agreed with critics and voted that questions like, “When was your first menstrual period?” and “How many periods have you had in the last year?” would no longer be asked.
The decision on the medical form — which would take effect next school year — came after lawyers for the association read public comments about the menstrual questions, which were overwhelmingly negative, the outlet said.
Some critics contended that the menstrual information could be used to persecute transgender athletes after the state banned transgender girls from playing school sports with biological girls in 2021.
“The intent of this proposal is to provide an updated … form which protects a student-athlete’s privacy while including pertinent medical information a health care provider at a member school would need access to,” an FHSAA agenda item read.
Read Related Also: Daisy Ridley And Husband Tom Bateman Vacation Together In Ireland
The new form would reportedly ask students to list their “sex assigned at birth,” rather than their sex, which would theoretically serve the same purpose as determining if the athlete was a biological female, CNN said.
The move came after Tallahassee had taken hardline stances in the partisan culture wars surrounding children’s sexuality and gender identity, as GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis eyed a run for president from the now-red state.
Two state medical boards had banned gender transition procedures for minors in recent months, and the state’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” law, which banned discussions of sexuality and gender in classrooms before the fourth grade, had generated widespread protest far beyond the Sunshine State.
Florida’s new 15-week abortion ban had also sparked concerns that menstruation information could also be used to determine how long a potential abortion patient had been pregnant.
Even though some Florida student-athletes slammed the private questions as “transphobic,” 43 other states do ask female high school athletes about their periods, Outsports reported last week.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that a girl’s menstrual history is important to determine if she is healthy enough to play sports, and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says the information could also help determine if she is pregnant or suffering from low estrogen.
The groups do not reportedly recommend that the information should be shared with school employees, however.
