The Montana High School Association, which regulates athletic and other interscholastic activities, is holding its annual meeting in Kalispell on Monday, and it promises to be an eventful and perhaps emotional session.

On the agenda are several controversial proposals, in particular one that would allow students to compete on the team that matches their “gender identity” regardless of their biological identity as male or female.

This strikes us as a dangerous precedent that caters to contemporary social agendas at the expense of common sense. 

A student’s self-image should not determine his or her placement on a team. Think of the ramifications of following through on that in realms that go beyond gender orientation. 

A 250-pound student, for instance, might declare he has a “weight identity” of about 125 pounds, thus requesting to wrestle in the 126-pound weight class instead of as a heavyweight. The other students between 121 and 126 pounds would probably not stand much of a chance against the bigger, brawnier contestant.

Sounds absurd, right?

Well, just imagine if that 250-pound male student, with a height of 6-foot-4, conceived himself to be a girl, and chose to compete on the girls soccer team or the girls volleyball team. Would that be fair?

If it is, then we should simply do away with any gender restrictions and allow open competition between boys and girls in all athletic competitions. But of course we won’t do that because competitive athletic divisions are in large measure not based on mental, spiritual or gender identities, but on physical identities. That’s why wrestlers of the same general size compete against each other, and in a broader sense it’s why the Montana High School Association regulates competition between schools based on their size. 

A Class AA school would never be given the opportunity to compete against a smaller school simply because it “feels small.” There have to be objective standards in place that ensure the safety of students, and the legitimacy of the competition. A football game between a school with 1,000 students against a school with 100 students would not just be unfair; it would be unsafe.

The same thing applies when boys are allowed to compete against girls in hard-fought sports events. Isn’t it obvious that girls basketball would never be the same if one team had a couple of burly 18-year-old men on the team? As soon as the rules are based on some external political belief system rather than on striving to make competitions competitive, something has gone astray.

We strongly urge the Montana High School Association to keep the policy in place that boys compete against boys and girls compete against girls based on their physical identity and not their “gender identity.” And in cases where physical identity is not relevant, then boys and girls should compete against each other. 

Oddly enough, this proposed change in policy is a drastic solution to a problem that doesn’t even exist. The Montana High School Association has confirmed that no transgender students have ever even appealed for special accommodations, but if they did, they should be told plainly that the rules are for the benefit of everyone, not the rare exception. 

Now, that’s common sense.