BY TYLER O'NEIL | P J Media
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Joe Biden pulled out all the stops for
International Women’s Day on Monday, but he arguably undercut women’s
advancement while paying lip service to it. He issued a glowing statement about women’s empowerment, launched
a Gender Policy Council, and signed an executive order barring “sex discrimination” —
including discrimination on the basis of gender identity — in public schools.
On one hand, Biden celebrated women’s advancement, and on the other, he forced
schoolgirls to share bathrooms and sports teams with biological boys.
“On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the
achievements, contributions, and progress of women and girls in the United
States and around the globe,” Biden declared. “My Administration is committed
to honoring women by investing in their opportunity, security, and wellbeing.”
Biden touted women’s central role in combatting the
COVID-19 pandemic, touted his history-making vice president, Kamala Harris, and
lamented that “systemic obstacles” still “fuel gender disparities and undermine
women’s potential.”
“Elevating the status of women and girls globally is the
right thing to do — it is a matter of justice, fairness, and decency, and
it will lead to a better, more secure, and more prosperous world for us all,”
Biden argued.
Yet as he made this important declaration, the president
also arguably helped erect one of the “systemic obstacles” undermining “women’s
potential.”
The president signed an executive order “Guaranteeing an Educational
Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual
Orientation or Gender Identity.” While he had already signed an executive order to a similar effect in other arenas,
this order specifically directs the Department of Education to require schools
to enforce transgender ideology in order to receive federal financial
assistance under Title IX.
Preventing “discrimination” on the basis of “gender
identity” involves requiring schools to allow biological males to use girls’
restrooms and to open girls’ sports to biological males who enjoy the benefits
of higher levels of testosterone and larger body size.
While the order aims to prevent “sexual violence,” it
will allow biological males to use women’s and girls’ restrooms and locker
rooms in schools. Transgender activists claim that this is not dangerous
because people who genuinely suffer from gender dysphoria (the persistent and
painful condition of identifying with the gender opposite one’s biological sex)
do not represent a threat in private spaces. Unfortunately, opening
sex-segregated spaces like bathrooms and changing rooms would not just open the
doors to individuals with gender dysphoria — it would also allow provocateurs like Jessica Yaniv and perverts to access private women’s spaces.
In fact, in 2018, a 5-year-old girl claimed a 5-year-old
boy who identified as “gender non-conforming” sexually assaulted her in a girls’ restroom at her
elementary school in Georgia.
In addition to opening women’s spaces to biological
males, Biden’s order will undermine fairness in women’s and girls’ sports.
Scientific journals have confirmed the obvious: males
have biological advantages over females that cannot be
erased simply by identifying as female. Due to their XY chromosomes, males
experience more testosterone from the womb onward, even if they take
experimental drugs to “block” puberty or to feminize their bodies.
Last year, female high school athletes filed a Title IX lawsuit challenging rules that
allowed biological males who identify as female to compete in their sports
leagues, denying them first- and second-place finishes. The lawsuit listed eight
broad physiological athletic advantages males enjoy over girls and women after
the onset of puberty, including larger lungs, larger hearts, an increased
number of muscle fibers and muscle mass, higher myoglobin within muscle fibers
(enabling faster transfer of oxygen to those muscles), larger and longer bones,
increased mineral density in bones, and height.
Due to these long recognized advantages, sporting events
have had different standards for boys and girls to accommodate the athletic
striving of biological females. For example, women’s volleyball nets are 7
inches lower, the weight of high school shot put for boys is 36 percent
heavier, the hurdle is 6 inches higher for boys, etc.
Duke Law School professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman warned that if women’s sports
must admit biological men, “the very best women in the world would lose to
literally thousands of boys and men, including thousands who would be
considered second-tier.”
Policies that allow males who identify as transgender to
compete against female athletes erase fairness in women’s sports, a long-fought
feminist priority with which most Americans instinctively agree. Men’s and
women’s sports are separate for a reason, and even when transgender policies
are well-intentioned, they essentially destroy the barrier between the sexes,
and prevent fair competition.
This isn’t just a matter of pride. This kind of policy
can translate into opportunities lost, scholarships denied, and college plans
ruined.
“I’ve really felt defeated,” then-high school senior
Chelsea Mitchell, the fastest biological girl in Connecticut who nonetheless
lost four state championships to male competitors who identified as
female, told PJ Media last year. “There really isn’t much more
I can do than just run my race every time. Every race I’ve ever run against the
biological males, I’ve lost. It’s definitely very defeating. It makes you
wonder why you’re continuing to run.”
For these and other reasons, lesbian feminist Julia Beck
condemned H.R. 5, “The Equality Act,” as a “human rights violation.”
Finally, Biden’s order may push experimental transgender
“treatments” on children in schools — so-called “puberty blockers” and
cross-sex hormones — “treatments” that actually give healthy but gender-confused kids a disease, according to
endocrinologists. This order may actually harm the very gender-confused kids it
intends to help.
Biden’s championing of transgender ideology in schools
actually sets up “systemic obstacles” that “undermine women’s potential” — in
sports and in private spaces. It is heinous for the president to undermine
women’s rights on the very day he aims to celebrate women’s rights.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The
Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on
Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
RELATED ARTICLES
Kristi Noem Celebrates International Women's
Day by Protecting Women's Sports
BY TYLER O'NEIL | P J Media
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
President Joe Biden spent International Women’s Day
undermining fairness in women’s sports by mandating that schools allow
biological males to compete. Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) actually chose to protect women’s
sports, however.
On Monday, the South Dakota Senate passed H.B.
1217, “an act to promote continued fairness in women’s sports,” 20-15. It
passed the state House last month, 50-17. Noem announced she would sign it.
“In South Dakota, we’re celebrating [International
Women’s Day] by defending women’s sports! I’m excited to sign this bill
very soon,” Noem announced on Twitter.
The bill states that “a team or sport designated as
being female is available only to participants who are female, based on their
biological sex.” The bill would allow athletes to sue if administrators deny
their rights to fair competition by allowing males to compete in girls’ or
women’s sports.
South Dakota will become the second state in the country
to officially protect women’s sports from the inherent unfairness of allowing
biological males to compete. Idaho enacted the first such law last year, but a
federal district court suspended it.
South Dakota’s law is certain to face challenges. After
all, Biden signed an executive order pushing the exact opposite policy — also
on International Women’s Day.
The president signed an executive order “Guaranteeing an Educational
Environment Free from Discrimination on the Basis of Sex, Including Sexual
Orientation or Gender Identity.” While he had already signed an executive order to a similar effect in other arenas,
this order specifically directs the Department of Education to require schools
to enforce transgender ideology in order to receive federal financial
assistance under Title IX.
Scientific journals have confirmed the obvious: males
have biological advantages over females that cannot be
erased simply by identifying as female. Due to their XY chromosomes, males
experience more testosterone from the womb onward, even if they take
experimental drugs to “block” puberty or to feminize their bodies.
Last year, female high school athletes filed a Title IX lawsuit challenging rules that
allowed biological males who identify as female to compete in their sports
leagues, denying them first- and second-place finishes. The lawsuit listed
eight broad physiological athletic advantages males enjoy over girls and women
after the onset of puberty, including larger lungs, larger hearts, an increased
number of muscle fibers and muscle mass, higher myoglobin within muscle fibers
(enabling faster transfer of oxygen to those muscles), larger and longer bones,
increased mineral density in bones, and height.
Due to these long recognized advantages, sporting events
have had different standards for boys and girls to accommodate the athletic
striving of biological females. For example, women’s volleyball nets are 7
inches lower, the weight of high school shot put for boys is 36 percent
heavier, the hurdle is 6 inches higher for boys, etc.
Duke Law School professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman warned that if women’s sports
must admit biological men, “the very best women in the world would lose to
literally thousands of boys and men, including thousands who would be
considered second-tier.”
Policies that allow males who identify as transgender to
compete against female athletes erase fairness in women’s sports, a long-fought
feminist priority with which most Americans instinctively agree. Men’s and
women’s sports are separate for a reason, and even when transgender policies
are well-intentioned, they essentially destroy the barrier between the sexes,
and prevent fair competition.
This isn’t just a matter of pride. This kind of policy
can translate into opportunities lost, scholarships denied, and college plans
ruined.
“I’ve really felt defeated,” then-high school senior
Chelsea Mitchell, the fastest biological girl in Connecticut who nonetheless
lost four state championships to male competitors who identified as
female, told PJ Media last year. “There really isn’t much more
I can do than just run my race every time. Every race I’ve ever run against the
biological males, I’ve lost. It’s definitely very defeating. It makes you
wonder why you’re continuing to run.”
While Biden spent International Women’s Day propping up
barriers to fairness in women’s sports, Noem will sign important legislation
protecting women’s sports to mark this important day.
Tyler O’Neil is the author of Making Hate Pay: The
Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Follow him on
Twitter at @Tyler2ONeil.
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