Women across the country are sounding off in anger on this one… Especially aspiring athletes. And I totally agree with them… We just discussed this 2 weeks ago in the Moderate Majority platform on LGBTQ rights: The platform supported those rights for those in that community with the one exception of transgender participation in non-birth gender sports, specifically: Women’s sports. And here we are today – I give you Biden’s Exec Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, that fully opens the door for transgender birth males to participate in female sports, use female locker rooms, etc. Some of you may agree with this order. I find this one flat out wrong; it totally sets aside rights of birth-assigned females. FYI – I did see a supposed “fact-check” on this today that says the conclusion on women’s sports in “mostly false”; sorry, but that writer hasn’t read the legal opinions handed down thus far. It’s quite true, as written by scores of other analysis.
Biden’s order expanded on a Supreme Court ruling that disallowed discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Biden’s order specifically references school sports. It mandates a broader application of Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion of Bostock vs. Clayton County; he wants it to apply to Title IX discrimination prevention for federally funded schools. States that don’t comply will lose federal funding.
For background, recall we discussed the transgender young men in Connecticut that were allowed to compete in women’s track events by their “progressive” school board, and then quickly eliminated several birth-female athletes from NCAA scout consideration. After that, 17 states moved to restrict transgender athletes to instead participate in sports under their birth gender.
In the wake of this, last year, Idaho overwhelmingly passed a law that prohibited transgender (birth male) participation in female sports. It was passed by yes, a GOP legislature, GOP governor, and backed by the Trump administration (the administration also joined the Connecticut legal action to defend those women). A West Coast federal judge then blocked it while challenges by the ACLU and some other group called the “Legal Voice” are in process. Montana has now also advanced a prevention bill and stands to now lose almost a half billion from federal school funding.
The transgender arguments in court mostly appear to focus on the well-being of the transgender youth. While I can sympathize with that sentiment, I also sympathize with the much larger group of young women whose rights and well-being are completely set-aside in favor of an apparent much smaller minority, all in favor of transgender awareness and tolerance. Three million female athletes participate in high school sports today, FYI.
Those of you with young women still in school (and who are aspiring athletes, or just changing for gym class), I hear you and am truly sorry. The anger I have seen flowing across twitter and parler today from female groups that are otherwise usually upbeat is astounding. I am happy our girls are no longer in school, playing in sports, or otherwise having to deal with the implications of this.
I understand if you hate a candidate so much that you’d vote in the donkey from Shrek instead, but people better make sure the donkey has policies you can live with before you color in that box or “cry tears of happiness” at the inauguration. Over 3 million girls that participate in school sports are now upset for a different reason.
