- AMERICA OUT LOUD - Daniel Baranowski - APRIL 25, 2023 -
The Democratic Party is aggressively attacking and undermining our daughters’ civil rights to be among and participate in girls-only sports and other activities, such as the use of same-sex restrooms and locker dressing rooms.
In particular, Progressive Democrats are militant in lobbying for legislation and administrative rule changes at the national and state levels to allow transgender student-athletes to compete against students of the opposite sex. In other words, boys who self-declare as girls (transgender) should be able to compete against biological girls in the same grade or age categories. Ironically, the Progressive Left is not adamant that Transgender boys (biological girls transitioning to be boys) be allowed to compete against biological boys. The reason should be apparent. In the latter instance, there are clear physical and physiological disadvantages for girls competing against actual boys.
We all know that being a male and declaring you are a female makes no more sense than saying you are Black if you were born White. Trans females are genetically different than females. But in the Progressive political world of “Identity politics,” contrary declarations of unreal sex and gender have unfortunately become commonplace.
More than 21 states have recently passed laws prohibiting cross-sex (Transgenderism) participation in high school and collegiate competitive sports. Moreover, 14 states have passed laws against minors undergoing gender-affirming care before adulthood.
Post-pubescent boys who self-declare as transgender girls are endowed with physical and physiological attributes that give them a proven competitive advantage over girls in the same age groups. Thus, state laws prohibiting cross-sex competition based on transgenderism aim to protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports. Moreover, these laws also protect biological girls’ psychological and physical health.
In the recent past, the demands by transgender girls to compete athletically against actual girls rarely surfaced as an issue requiring rule or law interventions by school boards, state legislators, or the Federal Department of Education. So why now?
First, the number of so-called transgender girls, much less boys, in grade and high schools was practically invisible. But secondly, over the past decade, increasing anxiety, depression, social isolation and alienation, and suicidal ideation among our adolescents have created a fertile environment for a new panacea – finding your true gender Identity.
The political Left has pushed Transgenderism as the solution to gender dysphoria and gender confusion. So if you are a boy and believe you would be happier being a girl, declare it and find a gender-affirming clinic to start you on cross-sex hormone therapy. Numerous studies have demonstrated that what was once a rare mental health issue is now a raging social contagion swaying millions of adolescents to dangerously experiment with Transgenderism as a solution to other behavioral health problems.
However, radical progressives have enflamed a national argument over the status of transgender girls and boys in sports as they ramp up their woke ideologies agenda. And like all progressives political issues, they seek to sow chaos and divisiveness between parents, teachers, school administrators, and legislators.
Human biology militates against allowing transgender girls to compete against biological girls. However, progressives pitch empathy and sympathy for what they claim is a growing minority of transgender athletes among our youth.
Furthermore, they claim not allowing transgender athletes to compete among their adopted gender violates their civil rights. But the question begs me to ask. What civil rights are you speaking of?
Transgender girls haven’t any civil rights I am aware of to claim they are biological girls. They can avail themselves of cross-sex hormones and various surgeries to limit their natural sex characteristics and enhance their gender Identity attributes, but this does not change their core biology. In reality, they are still male.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is mainly responsible for creating and expanding competitive girls and women in America. This federal law prohibits covered educational institutions (those receiving federal funds) from engaging in discrimination based on sex in educational programs and activities. In essence, this rule says if a school offers competitive sports for males, it must also provide the same or similar sports opportunities for females.
The Biden administration, a champion of all groups identifying as LGBTQIA+, intends to modify Title IX to read, “If a recipient adopts or applies sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity“… they must show exceptional cause for this limitation.”
Thus, if this modification is adopted, it will cancel all current state laws banning transgender athletes from participating in their declared gender Identity.