Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
On day 1, Joe Biden signed an executive order stating that any educational institution that receives federal funding must admit biologically male athletes to women's teams and be eligible for women's scholarships.
That is a new glass ceiling for girls.
I grew up with three brothers in a neighborhood of boys. We played basketball in our driveway, baseball and tennis in the park and I was never left out. However, in high school, I could only be a cheerleader while my brothers had the full range of sports. It never seemed fair to me. After I graduated from college, I got involved with the feminist movement in the 60s partly because I felt that girls should have the same opportunities to participate in sports as boys.
It was believed at that time that women were too fragile to be in competitive sport. AFTER much lobbying in 1965, the State of Minnesota Committee on Girls Sports reported that medical experts believed that there is no negative impact upon females who play sports (DAH)! Four years later in 1969, the MN Assembly adopted the bylaws and the rules for girls’ interscholastic athletics.
Then in 1972, the United States government implemented Title 9, a law stating that any federally funded program cannot discriminate against anyone based on their sex. This made a dramatic difference for women in sports.
In 1971, fewer than 300,000 girls participated in high school varsity athletics. In 2018-19, that number IS 3.4 million, or 42.9% of all varsity athletes. In 1971, there was no such thing as an athletic scholarship for girls. Now, 43% of students with sport scholarships are female.
Both of my daughters participated in a wide range of sports in high school and two of my daughter's teammates qualified for the Olympic Team in downhill skiing. While two of Doug's daughters got sport scholarships to play field hockey in college. These opportunities for Olympic tryouts and scholarships for women could now be in jeopardy because of the Transgender Movement.
Most experts say that the average testosterone production for biological females ranges between 0.52 to 2.8 nanomoles/litre.
The International Olympic Committee requires a male-born transgender to suppress and maintain testosterone production at 10 nanomoles/litre. As you can see her male-born competitor would have just over three times as much testosterone as a biological woman, which gives the transgender athlete an inborn advantage.
Men naturally have a larger bone structure, higher bone density and muscle density than women. These traits, even with reduced levels of testosterone, do not go away. These biological benefits are given to boys at birth. They also have an advantage over girls because they inherited a larger heart and a greater lung capacity as well as stronger bones.
This greater lung capacity helped a biological male, Rachel McKinnon, to win the Female Cycling World Title in 2018 at the UCI Masters in Los Angeles.
Two transgenders beat out all the girls on the Connecticut State Track Championships. Transgender, Terry Miller, broke the state record in girls’ 100-meter dash. All told, these two males have taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by 10 different CT girls). The new Connecticut State WOMEN’S Track Records are now held by individuals born as male.
In 2014, a transgender female, mixed martial arts fighter gave a female opponent a concussion and a broken eye socket. A transgender female has a larger bone structure that comes with birth, bigger hands and larger shoulder joints. In boxing and wrestling, those differences matter. It isn’t discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” for women to want to avoid wrestling or boxing with biological males.
Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Women fought long and hard to earn the equal athletic opportunities that Title 9 provided. Allowing boys to compete in girls' sports reverses nearly 40 years of advances for women. We shouldn't force young women to be spectators in their own sports.
This is about biology and should not be political. Whatever a person wishes to identify as, is his or her own private decision. Most of us want everyone to be able to live their life, however they want, but when one individual's decision impacts others, it deserves a second look.
What I have a problem with is when a biological male holds the school track record for women. When a biological woman invests her time and energy preparing for a competition only to have the playing field become significantly unleveled, it is wrong and it really hurts her chances of getting a scholarship, turning pro, making it to the Olympic tryouts or even earning a school title that she has worked hard for.
So, I urge you to please consider all sides of the fairness issue and write or call your congressman, your school principal, the superintendent of schools and/or your local school board to make them aware of their duty to protect our young Alaskan women athletes…