Biden vows to let biological males compete in female sports

FPI / July 1, 2020

If Joe Biden becomes president, many athletes and supporters of womens' athletics say the level playing field women and girls in sports have worked so hard for will vanish.

Biden has pledged to pass the Equality Act within the first 100 days of taking office.

The law would force public schools in the United States to allow biological males who identify as female to compete in girls' sports.

In Connecticut, schools are required to allow boys who identify as girls to compete in girls' sports.

Bianca Stanescu and her daughter, track athlete Selina Soule, filed suit in February with two other female athletes and their mothers to challenge Connecticut’s policy.

"Boys with mediocre times can compete in the boys’ category and then completely dominate girls’ events just a few weeks later," Stanescu wrote for USA Today. "I’ve already seen this happening in Connecticut. After a series of unremarkable finishes as a boy in the 2018 indoor season, the same athlete began competing — and winning — as a girl in the outdoor season that started just weeks later."

Girls are being denied championships and possible college scholarships because of the policy, Stanescu noted.

Biological males who identify as transgender have racked up accomplishments in female athletics.

Peter Hasson, editor of The Daily Caller, noted in a June 29 op-ed that the Equality Act "passed the House with unanimous support from Democrats in May 2019 but didn’t come up for a vote in the Republican-controlled Senate. While Republicans currently hold 53 Senate seats, five current GOP seats are considered tossups in November, according to the Cook Political Report. Republicans are expected to flip just one Democratic Senate seat: that of Alabama Sen. Doug Jones."

After Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders touted an endorsement from popular podcast host Joe Rogan, who has been outspoken against the idea of biological males competing in female athletics, Biden said that “there is no room for compromise” on transgender issues, which he called the “civil rights issue of our time.” Biden’s campaign press secretary Jamal Brown demanded Sanders disavow Rogan’s “transphobic” comments.

"The transgender athlete issue has resurfaced after President Donald Trump’s Department of Education sided with high school girls suing the state of Connecticut over its transgender policy and his Department of Justice threw its support behind an Idaho law restricting girls’s sports to biological females," Hasson noted.

Last week, 28 congressional Democrats signed a letter condemning the Department of Education for ruling that public schools shouldn’t allow biological males who identify as transgender to play girls’ sports.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito predicted that one effect of the court’s June 15 ruling in the Bostock case “may be to force young women to compete against students who have a very significant biological advantage, including students who have the size and strength of a male but identify as female.”

Hasson noted that forcing female sports to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender to compete is unpopular among the public.

A poll released in November 2019 found that less than a third of Americans believe biological males who identify as transgender should be allowed to compete on girls’ sports teams. Another poll in October 2019 found that Americans said by a 57-20 margin that male athletes who self-identify as transgender have competitive advantages over female athletes.

Stanescu wrote: "Whatever you believe about gender identity in general, the simple fact is that biology is what matters in athletics, not a person’s identity. Gender identity can be changed. Sex is embedded in our DNA and cannot be changed. It is reflected in realities like lung capacity and bone density. Sex is not gender.

"Women’s sports were created to give girls a fair chance at competition. That includes fair victories and fair defeats. Girls deserve the same opportunity as boys to excel, to advance to the next level of competition, to win, and to stand on that podium. But allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports shatters girls’ dreams and denies our daughters equal opportunities."

Free Press International