OPINION:
Feb. 7 was this year’s National Girls and Women in Sports Day.
National Collegiate Athletic Association President Charlie Baker headlined an event at the Library of Congress to celebrate. The invitation to congressional offices prominently displayed the NCAA logo alongside that of the Women’s Sports Foundation and boasted the bipartisan partnership of Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia Republican, and Rep. Lori Trahan, Massachusetts Democrat.
Attendees were promised perspectives from Mr. Baker, Women’s Sports Foundation CEO Danette Leighton, “and other experts and stakeholders on the important role of sport in empowering women and girls of today and the role Congress can play in helping to safeguard and further these opportunities so they may grow into the leaders of tomorrow.”
The irony is, both of these sports organizations and members of Congress support allowing trans-identifying males in women’s athletic events and have turned their backs on female competitors. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which passed the House last year, actually would “safeguard and further” opportunities for female athletes in sports governed by Title IX, ensuring women’s sports are for women only as intended.
No one in Congress who opposes the bill will admit they are elevating the desires of men who identify as women above the rights of female student-athletes. But they are.
The University of Pennsylvania’s Lia Thomas is no one-off in the wide world of women’s sports. Franklin Pierce University had Cece Telfer in 2019, and the University of Montana had June Eastwood in 2020. Both runners won NCAA titles and started the trend of promoting biological male athletes in women’s college sports. We’re seeing growth in all levels of girls and women’s sports, with roster spots, titles, trophies, records, scholarship, and prize money being taken by trans-identifying males.
This year, the NCAA’s Rochester Institute of Technology is proudly promoting male transitioner Sadie Rose, who was awarded the Liberty League Women’s Track & Field Performer of the Week last week for placing first in the 200- and 300-meter sprints and running a smoking final leg for a first-place finish in the 1600-meter relay.
Last year, Sadie sprinted as Camden Schreiner on the men’s team at RIT with mediocre results, including a 19th place in the 100-meter sprint. This year, the RIT Tigers are getting glory as sophomore Sadie shines on the women’s roster. In December, Sadie set a record in the 300-meter run at the same meet, beating the fastest biological woman by a full second.
Already this season, Sadie’s time in the 200-meter dash (25.27), an all-time program record, automatically qualifies for the Atlantic Region Championship.
In nearby New Jersey, the NCAA’s Ramapo College is finding a silver lining to its losing swim season with trans-identifying Meghan Cortez-Fields on the women’s roster. Senior Cortez-Fields competed on the men’s team for three seasons but is now swimming laps around female opponents, taking first place in the 50-yard freestyle and 200-yard individual medley.
Recently, Mr. Baker found himself in the hot seat on Capitol Hill getting questioned about trans-identifying males invading college women’s sports teams and locker rooms. GOP Reps. Debbie Lesko of Arizona and Kat Cammack of Florida confronted him regarding the NCAA’s transgender “inclusion” policy and failure to discuss with college women athletes.
Since taking the job of NCAA president last year, Mr. Baker has ignored the topic and avoided female athletes affected by the NCAA’s illegitimate 14-year policy that turned sex-based eligibility in college sports on its head.
The NCAA has pushed its “transgender participation” policy as “fair and inclusive,” but now everyone can see its result only falls on the backs of female athletes, our bodies and our sports. Even the Biden administration advanced its rewrite of Title IX last week, redefining sex as “gender identity” without its athletics rule proposal.
Surely the Biden campaign reads the polls and knows that promoting Lia Thomas is a losing issue in a reelection year. Americans universally understand that allowing trans-identifying males to compete against women and girls is unfair and a farce.
Sadly, the Women’s Sports Foundation, or WSF, has forsaken its mission to defend women’s sports just as the NCAA has. In 2022, it penned a letter signed by 25 trans activist organizations defending biological males like Lia Thomas competing in college women’s athletics. Why is the WSF, a sports organization that prides itself on advancing the opportunities of women athletes. elevating the desires of trans-identifying men at the expense of women? Its position has compelled the first president of the WSF, former Olympian Donna DeVarona, and other past presidents such as former Olympian Nancy Hogshead of Champion Women to leave the WSF.
National Girls and Women in Sports Day is a day to celebrate every year, but not under the banner of organizations that have turned their backs on female athletes.
• Doreen Denny is senior adviser for Concerned Women for America.
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