By Catrina Barker with the Illinois Radio Network
The Illinois House Republican caucus recently urged the Illinois High School Association to outline how it plans to align its sports policies with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order, which prohibits biological men from competing in women’s sports.
House Minority Leader state Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, said she thinks the IHSA’s lack of response is the response.
“As an agency, you would think that, you know, 40 people on the House side and 19 on the Senate side who asked for a response, there should have at least been some sort of acknowledgement. Unfortunately, there wasn’t,” McCombie told The Center Square.
When reached for a response, the IHSA said they are working on it.
“The IHSA Executive Director and Board of Directors are currently working on a response to the letter and will be connecting with state leaders soon,” said Matt Troha, IHSA assistant executive director.
No Democratic representatives or senators signed the letter to the IHSA, according to McCombie who also said there’s no Democrats sponsoring House Bill 1117, which seeks to protect female athletes in school sports.
“Do we have private conversations with some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle that also want to protect students and have concerned parents in their district? Yes, but very similar to the homeschool bill, they are, I would say, nervous or afraid to buck their leadership,” said McCombie.
The Center Square asked McCombie to provide names of Democrats in these “private conversations,” and she said, “No. Once you lose that confidence and that trust here, as you can understand, it’s a problem.”
McCombie was asked if Democratic leadership would remove their fellow Democrats from committees if they had signed onto the IHSA letter or publicly supported HB 1117.
“I don’t know if it would be that extreme by any means, but certainly it takes a lot of courage to buck your party. It really does, and this is one of those issues,” said McCombie. “But it shouldn’t be. It’s an 80-20 issue for the voter, and [Democrats are] doubling down.”
State Rep. Regan Deering, R-Decatur, is the lead sponsor of HB 1117 and the bill has not been assigned a committee.
McCombie said HB 1117 wouldn’t address PE locker room issues.
“We are crafting another bill. We’re in the process of crafting that now, but this [HB]1117 wouldn’t have addressed that concern in Deerfield,” said McCombie.
Deerfield Public Schools District 109 is facing federal investigation after a mother reported that her middle-school daughter was required to change clothes in the same locker room as a biological male who identifies as female.
McCombie was asked if she knew of any constituent complaints lodged against the IHSA regarding the sports policies.
“We are hearing from parents all of the time around the state on this issue. We’re hearing from folks that are Democrats in areas as well within our districts,” said McCombie. “The Republican caucus, we all have Democrats within our districts, and we’re hearing it from those parents as well.”
McCombie said the caucus wants the agency to align with the federal policy prescribed by Trump’s EO.
“Because we don’t want to have any failures on our end because we’re not following executive orders or federal law,” said McCombie.
