(Washington Blade Photo by Michael Key)
A transgender teenage girl withdrew from an Irish dance competition in Orlando after a campaign by a Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, two Republican members of Congress and Concerned Women for America.
The competition was scheduled for July 2-7 at the Rosen Centre Hotel, according to the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America and the championship’s official website.
She was slated to compete July 7 in the girls’ 17-and-under division but did not, online contest results show.
On June 24, U.S. Reps. Randy Fine and Greg Steube sent a letter to An Coimisiún Le Rincí Gaelacha, or CLRG, the Dublin-based governing body for Irish dance, and the Irish Dance Teachers’ Association of North America, or IDTANA, ahead of the North American Irish Dance Championships.
“Biological males do not belong in girls’ dance,” Fine wrote in a social media post sharing the letter. “Florida law is clear: girls’ categories are for biological females.”
In the letter, Fine and Steube demanded that the Irish dance organizations “stop allowing boys to compete in and win girls’ categories in Orlando.” They cited Florida’s 2021 Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which bars transgender girls and women from participating on girls’ and women’s school athletic teams consistent with their gender identity. The law applies to public secondary schools and public postsecondary institutions.
Uthmeier also threatened legal action against the dance organizations in a June 26 letter, claiming that their policy allowing dancers to compete in divisions corresponding with their gender identity could violate Florida law. Uthmeier became involved after Maggie McKneely, a Concerned Women for America director and former competitive Irish dancer, contacted his office to complain about what she described as “a boy competing as a girl.”
“Your policy of forcing women to compete against biological men who identify as women in your women’s categories deprives women of the full and equal enjoyment of fair competition,” wrote Uthmeier. “My office will not tolerate these sorts of policies, and will take all necessary steps to safeguard the rights and interests of Florida’s female competitors.”
The dispute was not the first confrontation between Concerned Women for America and Irish dance officials over transgender inclusion. After conservative backlash in 2023, when a transgender girl won a competition, IDTANA regional director P.J. McCafferty said allowing transgender dancers was an “established precedent.”
“I am writing this post to remind everyone that we teach all the dancers,” McCafferty wrote. “We advocate for every one of our dancers. We do our very best to be fair to everyone. You are expected to respect all the dancers.”
It remains unclear whether Florida’s law banning trans athletes in high school and college competitions are priced to a private international event.
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