Republican candidate Tudor Dixon addressed the national culture war in two press conferences this week, discussing educational policy priorities for transgender children in sports and sexual orientation and gender in the classroom. discussed.

In Grand Rapids on Wednesday, Dixon was surrounded by signs emblazoned with the slogan “Protect Girls’ Sports.”

According to Dixon, this includes banning transgender girls from joining teams of their own gender.

“The glass ceiling has been put back in place by elitist liberals who are sacrificing our girls at the altar of trans ideologies,” she said.

The day before, Dixon pitched a policy modeled after a Florida law critic labeled “Don’t Call Me Gay” in front of the Capitol in Lansing. This prohibits any discussion of a child’s sexual orientation or gender identity from kindergarten through her third grade.

“Parents should know that their tax dollars are not being used to instill radical sex and gender ideas in their children before they are old enough to understand what sex is. You should know,” Dixon said. “This is not anti-LGBTQ.”

These are current issues, touchstones for social conservatives, and an inflection point in the states in which they are enacted.

Related: Will anti-LGBTQ rhetoric from some of the Michigan Republicans raise funds and fuel the base?

Since 2020, 18 states have banned some form of transgender student participation in school sports, according to advocacy group Movement Advocacy Project. , some have been blocked by courts, and some have been rejected by governors in even very conservative states.

The latter policy, championed by Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis, drew international attention and outrage before it was signed into law in March.

Dixon argued that allowing transgender girls to compete with other girls was a “trans supremacist ideology” that her opponent, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, supported.

Proponents of the policy argue that being born male unfairly favors transgender girls over cisgender girls due to biological factors. said it covers all levels of education, including

She repeatedly called the transgender rights movement, the push for institutions to recognize transgender people as the gender they identify as, a “war on women,” an implicit denial of that recognition.

Related: Michigan Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Makes Closing Arguments and Attacks in Final Debate

The federal Title IX Act, first passed in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools. In practice, this requirement was extended to track and field, allowing high school girls to play on boys’ soccer teams and allowing high school girls to participate in girls’ volleyball unless a team of the same gender was provided.

In 2020, the U.S. Department of Education, led by Betsy DeVos, issued an interpretation of the law stating that the gender identity of transgender students is not protected by Title IX. That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling. Comstock v. Clayton Countyhas determined gender-based protections, including sexual orientation and gender identity, in separate legislation, and President Joe Biden’s administration is moving to formalize these protections in Title IX.

Many remain unsolved. A legal battle over that move is ongoing, and it is not yet known how the department will revise the sport’s eligibility rules.

Related: Democrats call the past week of legislative bankruptcy as culture wars dominate the agenda

At a press conference, Dixon twice said he wanted to ban “cross-sex” competition altogether, but a campaign press release made it clear that this would be a one-sided restriction.

“This is specifically focused on protecting women’s sports and female athletes where the biological male has a clear biological advantage,” the release said. ‘male’ as a term for transgender girls.

The ban would conflict with the Michigan High School Track and Field Association’s 2012 policy on the issue. The policy screens the eligibility of transgender girls “on a case-by-case basis” and requires a set of documents before giving the green light. No restrictions have been set.

Last year, an MHSAA spokesperson told Bridge Michigan: At the time of publication, the organization has not responded to his request for comment from MLive.

Maeve Coyle, a spokesperson for Whitmer’s campaign, said in a statement that Dixon’s proposal was “the latest example of Tudor Dixon politicizing children to divide communities and force people to fight each other.” He claimed that it would remove control from parents and schools.

“Governor. Whitmer believes sports should unite the communities that come together for Friday night’s football game and Saturday afternoon’s swim meet, and politicians should not teach schools how to play sports.” said Coyle.

Dixon’s proposal to ban sex- and gender-based discussion was flimsy in detail — no ramifications for violating the proposed ban were presented — but educators should allow parents to scrutinize it. had to post the entire curriculum online.

John Pataki heard about Wednesday’s press conference on a neighborhood Facebook group and walked to the park where it was being held. He called her proposal “transphobic.”

In an interview, Pataki said, “She takes more complicated, bigger, more nuanced issues and packs them into things that make people angry or offended. said he intended to endorse Whitmer.

At a news conference Tuesday, Dixon said he could not point to specific examples of “radical sex and gender theories” being taught to young schoolchildren in Michigan, but the ban applies to all sexual orientations and genders. When a reporter asked about the uneven funding in the race so far, Dixon said her content made up for it.

“Our message is better, so I’m sure we don’t need as much money as Gretchen Whitmer needs,” she said.

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