City releases gender equity in youth sports survey

The City of Davis announced that it will launch a survey for Davis residents on gender equity in youth sports. This survey is part of a larger effort to ensure gender equity across citysponsored youth sports to comply with AB 2404.

This community survey for the initiative asks questions about which competitive sports girls and those who identify as girls are most interested in and which do they play, including new and emerging sports. The city will also reach out to current and past participants of city recreational programs, youth co-sponsor groups and community organizations.

The survey is available at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GenderSports.

The survey is available in Spanish at https:// es.surveymonkey.com/r/ generoespanol.

AB 2404, known as The Fair Play Act, is a state law that requires local governments to provide girls and boys with equal opportunities to participate in youth sports programs. The law requires all competitive youth sports to be given equitable treatment and benefits, such as athletic fields and sports equipment.

The city will also collect data relating to participant opportunities in competitive youth athletic programs, inventory city facilities and resources and provide training to staff and user groups on gender equity.

The Recreation and Parks Commission provided input on the survey at its November meeting, unanimously affirming the survey and supporting the City’s overall efforts to ensure compliance with AB 2404.

“All children, regardless of their gender identity, should have equitable opportunities available to them to play competitive sports if they so choose,” Mayor Gloria Partida said.

The city has a commitment to non-discrimination and inclusivity that extends to youth recreation programming and opportunities, where all services and programs must be open to all without regard to any legally protected status including, but not limited to, sex or gender.

All city-run youth sports are open to all, regardless of the sex or gender of the prospective participants. The city strives to ensure compliance with AB 2404 so that there is no discrimination against any person on the basis of sex or gender in the operation, conduct, or administration of community youth athletics programs, or in the allocation of parks and recreation facilities and resources that support or enable these programs. The AB 2404 wording about gender is “girls and boys,” but the city will endeavor to use more inclusive terms whenever possible.

For questions about the survey, email csweb@ cityofdavis.org.