It is a settled biological fact that the average post-pubescent human male is bigger, faster, and stronger than the average post-pubescent female. Accordingly, when it comes to athletics, single-sex competitions have long been the norm. In addition, only recently were women and girls permitted to compete in many sports and are still denied equal opportunity to participate, train and excel as compared to males. Women-only sports is a form of affirmative action that provides women long denied opportunities to reach their potential in the field of athletics and have their success recognized and rewarded. It must remain female only.
Increasingly, however, natal males who claim to be transgender “females” have been permitted to participate in women’s and girls’ sports. In the name of “inclusion,” females are being asked to step aside to make room for these athletes. This is not fair or equitable. It undermines opportunities for female athletes to excel, win competitions, obtain athletic scholarships, or otherwise achieve their athletic goals. It lowers their chances of enjoying the educational, economic and other benefits or opportunities that may flow from their athletic achievements. It also undermines Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the landmark sex equality law, enacted by Congress to increase opportunities for women and girls.
In almost every sport, allowing natal males to compete on women’s teams or in women’s events will put female athletes at a significant competitive disadvantage. In some cases, it will deny female athletes the opportunity to compete at all. Allowing males with a substantial biological advantage as well as advantages of training, experience and opportunity to participate in women’s or girls’ sports corrupts and subverts the concept of sportsmanship. Additionally, in some high contact sports, natal male athletes have caused devastating injuries to female competitors. It also means that awards and scholarships meant for women will go to men, as we are already experiencing. Female athletes have fought too long and too hard for equal athletic opportunity to allow this trend to continue.
Some advocates for trans rights maintain that the competitive advantage of natal males who identify as trans-women is mitigated by the use of androgen or testosterone inhibitors and female hormones. However, at the grade-school level, some natal males are being allowed to compete in girls’ sports even without such inhibitors, if they self-identify as female. More importantly, even after such substances are administered, they do not reverse the physical advantages of male development that have already occurred. Advantages of physical size and strength are not eliminated by such means. Athletic competitions between natal males and natal females remain fundamentally unfair.
In sum, men who identify as “female,” like everyone else, have a right to participate in sports and athletic contests, but they do not have a right to invade the sports and athletic contests of women and girls. We stand with the women and girls who wish to preserve women’s and girls’ sports for natal females only.
Resources:
COMPETITION_FINAL.pdf (iwf.org)
2020.01.07 G Brown Report Executed.pdf (wsimg.com)
Save Women's Sports (savewomenssports.com)
Transgender sport policy in female sport | Fair Play For Women