By Tim Leighton

St. Paul Pioneer Press

Jae Bates sometimes wonders if he should have waited just a little longer.

If he had waited to come out as a transgender student-athlete until after graduating from Hopkins High School last spring, perhaps he might have had a more fulfilling prep athletic career.

But Bates couldn’t wait.

The internal struggle for gender identity that started when he was a young female couldn’t be suppressed any longer. He came out as a transgender student-athlete in the summer of 2012, just before his junior year.

“I was really welcomed; everything was positive when I came out,” he told the Pioneer Press. “Everyone just supported me as another student. I wasn’t discriminated against.”

The Minnesota State High School League is looking at a way to ensure that.

On Wednesday, the league’s board of directors will study a proposed policy that would allow transgender student-athletes the ability to participate in league-sponsored activities.

The two-hour workshop will look specifically at proposal criteria that would allow a transgender athlete to participate according to gender choice, rather than the one listed on a birth certificate.

A vote on whether to adopt the policy is scheduled for Thursday’s board of directors meeting. If passed, it would apply to all MSHSL member schools, public and private.

Minnesota state law already allows girls to play on boys teams, but boys are not allowed to compete with girls.

Bates, now a freshman at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, said he did not participate in athletics his senior year at Hopkins because he was recovering from chest reconstruction surgery in his transgender transition. Instead, he served as a student coach for the boys track team.

“It’s great to know this is taking place,” Bates said. “I have wondered if language would ever be adopted by the Minnesota State High School League that addresses this issue. If this would have been around sooner, I think I would have had a much better high school experience.

“High school sports are all about participation. It’s about a kid wanting to be a kid in a safe environment, keeping active and being healthy. If some kind of policy or language had been in place, I think, for sure, I would have played more sports.”

Bates loved playing soccer and swimming competitively. But, he said, he became physically ill when looking at himself in a girls swimsuit, and ultimately he dropped both sports.

“I felt very gross physically,” he said. “I didn’t even identify as transgender when I was younger, but I felt so terribly physically that I came to the conclusion that I didn’t like sports.”

After coming out, he was allowed by MSHSL rules to participate in his junior year of girls track and field because he hadn’t begun taking male hormones. He earned all-Lake Conference honorable mention honors in the shot put and discus.

Bates said the Hopkins student body and community were supportive of his transition but the daily routine became a personal struggle. Finding a bathroom or place to change clothes, routine activities for most, became a challenge. He would often use gender-neutral bathrooms or the nurse’s office, both for his own peace of mind and so as not to make classmates uncomfortable.

OutFront Minnesota, an LGBT equal-rights organization, applauded the MSHSL’s proactive steps to give transgender student-athletes the opportunity to participate.

“We think that this is the right approach,” said OutFront Minnesota legal director Phil Duran. “We support it and we support the Minnesota State High School League recognizing the need for it.”