Transgenders participating in female sports – is it discrimination? The US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights seems to think there is at least enough evidence to investigate after three athletes in Connecticut formally requested the office look into the allegations. And Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a conservative legal organization, requested that the Department of Education open the investigation. Women’s sports were created specifically to give females a chance to compete on a fair playing field. However, now that biological males identifying as females are allowed to participate, women are losing their own competitions.
ADF filed a press release describing the request for the investigation and the reasons behind it:
“Ever since the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference [CIAC] adopted a policy that allows biological males who claim a female identity to compete in girls’ athletic events, boys have consistently deprived Selina Soule and two other female athletes of honors and opportunities to compete at elite levels.”
Liberty Nation covered the story of Soule, a young female athlete who has been training in track and field all her life, only to be pushed back as transgenders took the top spots. She is one of the three female students who brought the complaint, and the only one whose name is not withheld in confidentiality.
Her story, her words:
In 1972, Title IX was approved to prevent discrimination against girls in school and in sports. Participation in women’s sports has grown exponentially since that time, with more females getting recognition for their athletic abilities. However, since biological boys who identify as girls have been allowed to compete in women’s sports, many female students have failed to place, derailing their opportunities to win honors and especially scholarships.
“This policy, and others like it, discriminate against girls and threaten to reverse the gains for girls and women that Title IX has achieved since 1972,” the press release said.
CeCe Telfer
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) transgender handbook requires male-to-female transgender athletes to take “one calendar year of testosterone suppression treatment” before they can compete in the women’s category. In contrast, “the CIAC permits males with all the hormonal and physiological advantages that come with male puberty and male levels of testosterone to enter and win in girls’ athletic competitions of all sorts, without any exceptions,” the press release states.
An example of how this procedural rule doesn’t work is demonstrated in the story of transgender woman CeCe Telfer, who won the women’s 400-meter hurdles national title at the 2019 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships. For three years, Telfer competed in men’s sports and in 2016 ranked 200 and in 2017 placed 390 among the men in the 400-meter hurdles. Yet, as soon as she changed to women’s sports, she took home the title – even though her times were almost identical to when she ran as a male. Competing as a man, she had a time of 57.34; as a woman, she had a time of 57.53.
ADA quoted the writings of Duke Law professor and All-American track athlete Doriane Coleman, tennis champion Martina Navratilova, and Olympic track gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross:
“The evidence is unequivocal that starting in puberty, in every sport except sailing, shooting and riding, there will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat the best girls and women in head-to-head competition. Claims to the contrary are simply a denial of science.”
In March, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) introduced HR-5, the Equality Act, which would add “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” as protected classes under federal civil rights laws. During testimony on April 2 before the House Judiciary Committee, Prof. Coleman said the world’s best women’s Olympic athletes “would lose to literally thousands of boys and men, including to thousands who would be considered second tier in the men’s category.”
With more biological males entering women’s sports, the unhappy results are plain to see. Isn’t it time for women to start fighting back, challenge the inequality, and reclaim the ground they have lost?
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Read more from Kelli Ballard or comment on this article at Liberty Nation.com.
