SeattleWeekly.com – By Laura Onstot
Washington’s high-school sports regulators find themselves in a transgender bind.
Cheerleading tryouts are where girls become women and losers join the debate team. Last spring, Mount Vernon High School freshman Jai Johnson-Baker wanted to don the pleated skirt and tennis shoes and lead fellow students in chants of “De-fense!”
The only hitch: Johnson-Baker’s birth certificate lists him as a male.
Men are allowed on the cheer squad and are often used for tricky stunts. In this case, however, “it more becomes an issue of attire,” says Mount Vernon’s athletic director, Eric Monson.