The Manchester Board of School Committee voted 12-2 this week to update its transgender athlete policy, bringing local rules into line with a 2024 New Hampshire state law that requires student-athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex. The board did not do this because it wanted to. It did it because the state left it no real choice.

That distinction should not get lost in the vote count.

What the board actually said

Committee member Cindy Stewart was direct about what had happened: "Our hands are tied because the state has made a bad decision in passing this law." She went on to say that Manchester is an inclusive community and that the board stands behind all its students. The broader non-discrimination policy for transgender students remains in place. The update, as she described it, simply acknowledges that the state law now exists and must be reflected in district language.

That is not nothing. There is a meaningful difference between a school board that cheerfully excludes trans kids and one that says publicly, on the record, that it disagrees with the law it is being forced to follow. Trans students in Manchester deserve to know that their board is not their enemy here.

But it also does not change what a trans teenager will experience when the next season begins.

The one-size logic that does not fit anyone

Sue Corby, the only member of the public who spoke at Monday's meeting, put it plainly. She said she does not support the law, and that laws like this are "not nuanced" and amount to "one size fits all." She is right. The argument for blanket exclusion rests on a generalised claim about competitive fairness that takes no account of the actual child in front of you: their age, their stage of development, how long they have been in transition, what sport they play, what level they compete at, or what being on that team means to them.

A fifteen-year-old girl who has been living as herself for years, who goes to school in Manchester, who practises every afternoon and just wants to compete with her friends: that child is not an abstract policy question. She is a person. And the law as written does not see her as one.

What New Hampshire's law, and the Supreme Court, actually did

The 2024 New Hampshire law sits in a wider pattern. The board's update also follows the US Supreme Court upholding other states' bans on transgender girls in girls' sports. These decisions do not emerge from careful study of individual cases or from evidence that trans girls are sweeping podiums across the country. They emerge from a political argument that has found a receptive legal climate.

The evidence for serious, widespread competitive imbalance at school sports level is not there. What is there is a settled determination, in certain legislatures and courts, to treat trans girls as categorically different from other girls. And when that determination becomes law, school boards like Manchester's are left with a stark choice: comply, or face lawsuits and state penalties that would harm every student in the district.

I do not blame the board for the choice it made. I do blame the legislators who put it there.

Compliance is not the end of the conversation

What struck me about this story is that the adults in the room did not pretend the law was acceptable. They passed it and criticised it in the same breath. Corby said she is "always looking for ways to push back." Stewart called it a bad decision. That is the right response, even if it does not immediately help the girl who was hoping to run cross-country this autumn.

Local boards matter. The way a school community talks about a law, even when it cannot refuse to follow it, shapes what trans students feel about whether they belong. A board that says "we stand behind you" and means it is not the same as one that says nothing, or worse, one that frames exclusion as common sense. The message to trans students in Manchester should be clear: your school disagrees with what is being done to you, and that is worth something, even when it is not enough.

The fight over these laws is not finished. State legislatures can be pressured. Courts can be challenged. Public opinion continues to shift when people understand what these rules actually do to actual children. None of that happens quickly enough for a teenager whose season is starting now. But it happens, and the people who keep pushing it forward are people like Corby, who show up to a Monday night school board meeting and say, on the record, that she does not accept this.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a Gender Specialist, Medical Educator, and advocate for trans rights and gender diversity.