Rep. Tulsi Gabbard may be leaving Congress, but on her way out, she is bucking the orthodoxy of the Democratic Party to send a necessary message: The integrity of women’s sports must be protected.
Gabbard, along with GOP Rep. Markwayne Mullin, introduced the Protect Women’s Sports Act in the House of Representatives last week. The bill would clarify that Title IX protections for female athletes are based on biological sex, pushing back on Democrat-run states such as Connecticut that allow biological men to compete in women’s sports.
It’s a much-needed corrective, even if the bill is not likely to pass a Democratic House majority. While Betsy DeVos and Bill Barr were willing to push back from their positions in the executive branch, Joe Biden’s appointees will surely reverse course, and they may even target states such as Idaho that have moved to ensure female athletes would have an even playing field.
The science on this has always been clear. A study by World Rugby found that biological men “are stronger by 25%-50%, are 30% more powerful, 40% heavier, and about 15% faster” than women. A new study released earlier this month found that male-to-female transgender athletes retained a 12% advantage in running over biological women even after two years of testosterone suppression.
This has also been clear to anyone with eyes. One needs only compare the high-flying athletes in the NBA to their female counterparts in the WNBA, or the track and field world records for men compared to women. Whether it’s the U.S. Women’s Soccer team losing 5-2 to an under-15 boys team, or Serena and Venus Williams both losing to the No. 203 ranked man, the fact has been proven time and again that biological men hold an athletic advantage over women in most (not all) sports.
The United States is currently trailing global sports organizations in confronting this absurd push by transgender activists. While Idaho is under legal and cultural pressure for taking the basic step of affirming that women’s sports are for biological women, organizations such as World Rugby and World Athletics have already started addressing this issue.
Gabbard’s parting shot to her party is a welcome one, and it can only be hoped that it spurs more Democrats in office to recognize this overstep of gender politics. Title IX was supposed to give women a fair and equal playing field, and it’s imperative that the abuses of the law be addressed sooner rather than later.
