Transgender politics has run roughshod over athletics in Connecticut. But the controversial state policies that allow unaltered biological males to compete in women’s sports, as long as they identify as women, may soon find themselves subject to legal scrutiny.
On Thursday, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights agreed to hear complaints from several female athletes alleging that the state’s decision to permit biological men to compete against them is a form of sex discrimination illegal under Title IX. They also argued that they’ve faced retaliation from the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for speaking out against the transgender inclusion policies.
The Education Department will explore the legal merits of their claim during its investigation, but it is right to hear these girls out. Although advanced in the name of inclusion, policies that allow transgender women — who are biologically male — to compete in women’s sports are fundamentally unfair.
Consider the facts behind the Connecticut complaint: According to the College Fix, “The result [of these policies] has been domination of girl’s track and field events by biological males, including by one male who couldn’t cut it in male track and then shattered 10 records in female track.”
Whether it’s politically correct to say so or not, there are biological differences between men and women that influence their ability to compete in sports. (The fastest 100 meters ever run by a Division I college woman wouldn’t have even won the men’s Division III championship any of the past five years.) Female students are entitled to equal athletic opportunities under Title IX. Are they really being provided with “equal” opportunity when transgender people with inherent advantages are allowed to compete?
Writing for Quillette, writer Julian Vigo detailed the various ways biological males have an advantage in sports:
Think about that: High school males regularly record times better than female Olympic stars. So how could eliminating sex segregation in school sports possibly be fair?
Free-for-all gender policies have had concerning results. In Connecticut, two transgender students took 1st and 2nd place in the high school championship 55-meter dash, and any honest observer can see the unfair disparity from a mile away.
Transgender sprinters finish first and second at Connecticut’s girls indoor track championships https://t.co/0cIlZV6ckR
— WashTimes Sports (@WashTimesSports) February 25, 2019
Critics say that those who oppose transgender inclusion policies do so due to transphobia, but that’s simply not the case. If opposition was truly due to hatred or animus toward transgender people, then conservatives would also be seeking to exclude transgender men — biological females who identify as men — from men’s sports as well.
They’re not.
Conservatives, largely, have no problem with transgender men competing among men, because there’s no inherent advantage or unfairness that comes with their inclusion. It’s not about politics, it’s about fairness. So the Department of Education is right to hear out these girls’ cases. Every student has the right to fair athletic competition, even if it’s not considered woke anymore.
