ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Alaska board of education has unanimously authorized a resolution that urges the state to limit the participation of transgender girls in girls college sports.

The resolution passed Thursday urges the Alaska Division of Education and Early Improvement to produce two sports divisions, a single for athletes whose sex assigned at birth is female and the other for students of all genders, the Anchorage Every day News reported.

The resolution was added final-minute to the board’s agenda at the finish of a 3-day meeting in Juneau. It had unanimous help from the eight members, with the student adviser abstaining.

Billy Strickland, the director of the Alaska College Activities Association, mentioned the resolution closely matches what members of Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration discussed with him previously. He mentioned they wanted to produce 3 divisions: boys, girls and a single co-ed division that would let transgender athletes.

Strickland mentioned there are not adequate transgender athletes in Alaska to accommodate a third division. In reality, he mentioned he was only conscious of a single transgender athlete in the nine years he has led the association.

A statement emailed from Dunleavy’s workplace Friday mentioned girls playing in single-sex leagues need to be playing against other girls.

“If a individual who was born a male but feels out of location playing a sport in a league with boys only due to their gender identity, the option is not to let them to compete against girls, but to enhance co-ed possibilities,” the statement mentioned. ”It’s time to seriously take into account co-ed interscholastic sports so that all students can compete at their highest level.”

Only the Matanuska-Susitna Borough College Board in Alaska has restricted the participation of transgender athletes, Strickland mentioned. College boards or districts set their policy, and most have not addressed the challenge. Girls currently regularly play alongside boys on some football or hockey teams.

A message searching for a copy of the resolution from the state board was not promptly returned Friday to The Linked Press. But a copy obtained by the Anchorage newspaper urged the activities association to guard “the integrity of higher college girls’ sports.”

“We’re producing a statement of maintaining girls’ sports secure and competitive and fair, that is all,” board chair James Fields told the Every day News.

State Sen. Löki Tobin, an Anchorage Democrat who chairs the Senate Education Committee, mentioned she was concerned the board violated its requirement to let the public to weigh in on resolutions prior to a vote. She also expressed issues the resolution could violate the appropriate to privacy clause of the Alaska Constitution.

The Legislature can revoke proposed regulations for any state division.

“I am concerned mainly simply because I am the chair of the state policy committee for education in the Senate,” mentioned Tobin. “I am concerned that the approach just was not followed, and that we weren’t in a position to give our public comment on this challenge.”

Dunleavy earlier this month proposed a bill that would call for students to use bathrooms and locker rooms according to their sex assigned at birth, the newspaper reported. It would also call for parental approval for students to transform their name or pronouns they use in college. The Legislature has not voted on the bill.

A further bill that would reserve sports divisions for boys and girls and produce a separate co-education division also has not been heard.

The Alaska state Senate has a bipartisan majority and has mentioned it would steer clear this session of divisive concerns, such as these pertaining to LGBTQ+ men and women.