Fair Play For Girls in Sports Project Testifies Before California State Assembly on Gender Inequity Issues in Youth Sports Reopening and Importance of Instilling Equity

Legal Aid at Work attorneys Kim Turner and Elizabeth Kristen Testifying Alongside Two Other Witnesses

Legal Aid at Work’s Fair Play for Girls in Sports project testified at a Joint Informational Hearing (testimony here) convened by the California State Assembly’s Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media and the Higher Education Committee on March 17, 2021. The Committee Chair, the Honorable Assembly Member Sharon Quirk-Silva, and the Honorable Vice-Chair Assembly Member Suzette Martinez Valladares, led the hearing joined by leaders and advocates representing a wide range of youth and adults sports associations, bodies, and related entities.

Elizabeth Kristen and Kim Turner of Fair Play testified specifically regarding the gender inequity experienced by California’s girls and young women in school and park and recreation sports as they seek to participate in re-introduced athletic programming, and the need to be vigilant to remove any gender inequity occurring as youth sports re-open.

The Fair Play testimony served as an important reminder that youth sports must be gender equitable upon re-opening ensuring all youth get to experience the myriad health, educational, and life-long benefits of play, such as higher adult wages for girls who play sports in high school—especially given the acute strain on children in the pandemic, long unable to use sports as an outlet. The nonprofit project of Legal Aid at Work Fair Play for Girls in Sports daily advocates for gender equity in school and park and recreation-facilitated youth sports, especially for low-income girls and girls of color.

A recording of the hearing can be found here.

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