Manhattan's Anti-Trans School Sports Resolution Is Finally Dead

Manhattan's District 2 Community Education Council's first meeting of the new school year had already crawled into its fourth hour last Wednesday when it finally came time for what most in the room had been waiting for: the vote on a motion to rescind its anti-trans resolution, one that called on the Department of Education to reconsider its inclusive school athletics policy.

The roll-call vote was close. It took a moment for Erin Khar, the council's secretary, to tally results by hand. "It passes!" she announced emphatically, before throwing her head back and raising her hands in a gesture of prayer and gratitude. Other council members applauded. Those attending remotely shared celebratory emojis on their screens. Audience members who had sat in the school auditorium of PS 130 awaiting this moment erupted into cheers. 

Craig Slutzkin, the freshly elected council president, feebly tried to quiet the crowd. "We'd like to get through this," he said. "We really need to have order."

The vote was a triumphant moment for parents and community members who have been protesting the incendiary resolution for the past year and a half. It came after a hard-fought campaign this spring in which parents voted out the author of the resolution and some of the other council members who had supported it, booting them off the advisory board. 

But the elation was undercut, for many, by confusion and dismay, squarely directed at the actions of Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine.