Senate Democrats on Wednesday excluded the mother of a female student-athlete from testifying about the adverse effects of the Equality Act on fairness in women’s sports.
The students, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Selina Soule, were asked by Senate Republicans to relay their experiences as biological females competing against transgender athletes in high school sports. Mitchell’s mother, Christina Mitchell, was asked to testify. All of them, who are also involved in a Connecticut lawsuit over the issue, were denied a speaking slot by Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at the hearing spoke out against Durbin’s decision to exclude the testimony, calling it “striking and revealing.”
CONNECTICUT FEDERAL COURT WEIGHS DISMISSAL OF TITLE IX TRANSGENDER SPORTS CASE
“They didn’t want the American people to hear, to hear about the unfairness to little girls having girl’s sports destroyed because of the radical policies of today’s Democrats,” Cruz said.
Other Republicans, including the committee’s ranking member Chuck Grassley, frequently pointed to the story as a cautionary example of the Equality Act’s negative effects. Republicans in the committee chamber erected large portraits of the student-athletes in their absence.
A Democratic Senate Judiciary Committee aide told the Washington Examiner that a long-standing practice of only giving the minority party two witnesses prompted Durbin to deny the request.
The Equality Act, which Democrats have championed for several years, seeks to impose nationwide nondiscrimination laws protecting gay and transgender people. Republicans and social conservatives oppose it on the ground that it strips out protections laid out in the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act as discriminatory.
Opponents also point to instances such as the case of Mitchell, Smith, and Soule, arguing that blanket protections for transgender people threaten female sports and are likely a violation of Title IX, which protects women in federally funded institutions from discrimination.
Christiana Holcomb, the attorney defending the student-athletes, told the Washington Examiner that their exclusion from testifying on Wednesday underscored the way in which the Equality Act will harm the rights of women in the public square.
“Our clients have lost out on state championships, podium spots, and opportunities to advance in competition because they were forced to compete against biological males,” said Holcomb, who is a legal counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom, a legal nonprofit organization.
In the testimony that Christina Mitchell planned to give, she outlined the ways in which allowing biological males to compete against biological females would harm chances at success for women.
“This is not a close call or the subject of honest debate in the scientific community,” she said in draft testimony. “Many of you were athletes yourselves, and I have no doubt that you understand this very well. Without sex-based categories, females will be eliminated from any meaningful participation and will be subjected to an increased risk of injury in contact sports.”
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The Connecticut case became the subject of national attention after former President Donald Trump’s Justice Department threw his support behind the female athletes. When President Biden took office, his administration dropped that support.
The Biden administration supports the Equality Act, but its position on transgender competition in women’s sports is unclear. Attorney General Merrick Garland during his confirmation hearing dodged questions about the issue, calling it a “difficult societal question.”
