I accidentally posted this in the middle of the night, so am reposting.
In a surprising rebuff to Governor DeSantis, the Florida High School Athletic Association canceled a proposal to require all female athletes to supply information about their menstrual cycle. Presumably, the purpose of the question was to identify transgender athletes. But Florida reacted with outrage to the possibility that the school abd state would demand such personal and intrusive information about their daughters. Republicans like to claim that they want to curb the interference of government in people’s lives. But the GOP seems to have a fixation with controlling the bodies of girls and women. What could be more offensive than the question that was just rejected?
The Florida High School Athletic Association Thursday walked back a controversial proposal to require female high school athletes to disclose information regarding their menstrual history, following scathing criticism from students, parents, physicians, advocacy organizations and some lawmakers.
The FHSAA Board of Directors voted 14-2 during an emergency meeting to instead require students to submit just one page to schools to indicate if they are healthy enough to compete, or only able to participate partially, with their doctor signing off.
Board members Chris Patricca and Charlie Ward cast the two dissenting votes. The menstrual questions will be removed from the form.
The vote came after the board listened to emails from more than 150 people during the public comment period, the overwhelming majority of them deriding the board for its initial proposal.
The majority urged the board to adopt the recommendation to omit questions related to a student’s menstruation. Most speakers said the information should be kept between the parents, student and medical professional — not the schools.
“It is a gross and an extremely sexist invasion of privacy,’’ wrote one Miami-Dade parent of the board’s proposed mandate requiring female high school athletes to report their menstrual history or potentially be banned from playing sports in Florida.
The new one-page physical evaluation form, recommended by the association’s executive director Craig Damon earlier this week, omits any details about a player’s menstrual cycle. The school will still keep the form.
Notably, a question requiring student athletes to report their “sex assigned at birth” appears to have been quietly approved with no mention of the change by board members during the meeting, as first reported by the Palm Beach Post Thursday.
The previous form — which included the optional, though now rejected questions about a student’s menstrual history — asked athletes only to indicate their sex.
The FHSAA governs all high school sports in Florida, both at public and private schools. Its 16-member board is made up of 14 men and 2 women. Florida’s education commissioner, handpicked by Gov. Ron DeSantis, sits on the board and appoints three members.
The other 12 are elected from schools and include school athletic directors.
Member Doug Dodd, who is a father of three daughters, said he had “a real problem” with mandating the menstrual questions, and as a school board member in Citrus County, he said he didn’t believe the information needed to be shared with schools.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article272271043.html#storylink=cpy
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Time to put an end to all this misogyny – wherever it happens.
Good news. Not clear how this is a “rebuke” to DeSantis, though.
It is a rebuke in that DeSantis very much wanted female athletes to report their menstrual cycles so Ron could catch any trans student pretending to be a girl. They can change their hair and enlarge their breasts, but they can’t menstuate. It was Ron’s gotcha strategy. He will find another.
Because the proposal to require female athletes to submit their menstrual history was a direct response to the false narratives DeSantis pushes. Will the board (except for the 2 who reflect DeSantis’ views) be removed and replaced by Santos’ cronies, just like DeSantis did at the college whose board didn’t act to legitimize the false narratives DeSantis promotes? It always surprises me that your posts reflect a strong concern and worry about the danger posed by hapless educators thinking about the implicit racism in society. But when it comes to DeSantis and the way he has used his power to intimidate and replace those who don’t legitimize the lies, you don’t seem at all worried. That’s your right.
Just saying that Bob Shepherd and GregB and Diane Ravitch get it. The beginning of the end of democracy needs silence and complicity and the support of supposedly “non-partisan” or “self-identified democrats” to legitimize the false narratives that normalize what isn’t normal. And at some point, it no longer matters that anyone legitimize their false narratives because useful idiots (see Tulsi Gabbard) aren’t needed once all dissent is silenced.
DeSantis is either an incipient fascist or a plain vanilla fascist. I can’t remember anyone who was so determined to aggregate all power into his hands and to regulate what people may learn, what they can and cannot teach , what they may think and say. He is Mr. Fahrenheit 451. I think of him as an American-made Mussolini.
DeSantis has help from fellow Republicans in D.C. when it comes to promoting his agenda.- Rep. Santos (R-NY) and Rep. Anna Luna (R-Fla.)
Check out Anna Luna’s profile at Wikipedia to see what prior credentials appeal to Republican voters when selecting a candidate. WaPo reported that Luna’s father was not Jewish as claimed but, was Catholic. Santos could have been a one-off. But, if reporting about Luna is true, a second similar incident begs the question- coincidence or not?
The Washington Post published a long article about Anna Luna and questioning who she really is. Her father’s name was Mayerhofer. Her friends say she liked Obama. She changed her name and her politics. Now she’s a hard-right MAGA type.
JPost quoted Luna in an article on 11-9-2022, “I was raised a messianic Jew by my father.” Luna’s father’s father was reportedly Catholic and allegedly in the German army. There is a claim that a photo is available showing him in uniform. Just as we were anxious to hear from Santos, we are likely eager to hear Luna’s explanation. Luna defeated a Jewish Democrat in order to get the seat.
But, but, how are we going to have complete control over women’s bodies if we don’t know this stuff!?!?!?!?!?
The answer here is simple. Require that women and girls wear specially designed Apple Watch-style menstruation meters that report IRT to DeSantis’s new Flor-u-duh Guard.
“The Flowrida meter (TM)” to measure menstrual flow
Great name. Make sure to send this to Ron Ron
The question I have about all this is whether the problem of doping is of any concern to the Florida Sports regulators. I would be amazed if there were not a multitude of players taking strength-enhancing substances. There does not seem to be much concern about unfair advantage in this group. The headlines are all about trans people. Now why would that be? Call me puzzled.
Okay I was looking forward to the offices of Florida Republicans being overwhelmed with used maxi Pads. I am more than a little disappointed.
In fact I think it is still worth the 63 cents just to keep reminding them.