PLAY FAIR — The Weekly Opine

Maybe you’ve seen women and men compete side-by-side in 4th of July hot dog eating contests. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Another third rail

Today’s opine covers a topic that has taken a back seat compared to the (understandable) 24/7 attention the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade opinion has received. Made public on Monday of last week, the uncovering of the conservative court’s intentions to end abortion rights rocked progressive Americans to the core.

By all accounts, it’s just a matter of time and formality until Republicans change the Constitution and revoke a woman’s right to choose. The hope is progressive states like California, New York and Illinois continue to provide sanctuary for women who’ve made what should be a personal, private decision to have an abortion.

While abortion is a third rail-level subject, another development involving equity toward women is being decided at state and local levels all across America. Earlier this year, for example, the state of Iowa passed legislation banning transgender girls and women from participating in female sports and competing against biological girls and women.

No surprise, the issue of transgender females competing against biological females, within the sports landscape, has caused inflamed debate on both sides.

A matter of fairness

This is an occasion where I agree with conservatives (not left, not right, just real). Everyone knows the male anatomy is different than females. When it comes to sports that rely on physicality, males have a decided advantage. Males have greater lung capacity and greater bone density. Simply put, males are bigger, stronger and faster. This is undeniable and beyond debate.

Of course, there are some sports, for example, Olympic curling, motorsports and hotdog eating contests, where women can compete fairly with men. But in other arenas including track and field, basketball, baseball, football, ice hockey, swimming, tennis, golf, boxing, weightlifting and ultimate fighting, women cannot compete on a level playing field with men.

Biological males are bigger, stronger and more powerful than biological females. That’s a fact. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

Sure, there have been feel-good breakthroughs, like what we’ve seen in recent years whereby a female placekicker is on a college football team. These stories were truly inspirational. But the reality is, in almost every case, a woman field goal kicker cannot kick the ball the same distance as a man can.

Several years ago, according to reporting by USA Today, in Connecticut (one of at least a dozen states that allow boys who identify as girls to compete against biological girls in sports), a high school girl named Selina saw her standing as one of the top female track athletes in the state drop after several boys began competing as girls.

Boys who, during the indoor track season, ran as boys and were middle-of-the-pack runners chose to identify as girls in the spring. Boys running as “identify as a girl” during the high-profile spring track season won races previously won by biological girls.

Selina was denied advancing to the state regional competition when two biological boys, identifying as girls, took the top two spots. A former state finalist, Selina was left to watch the regional meet from the grandstand while the biological boys, running as “girls,” competed at the regional for a chance to move on to the state championships.

Title IX, as recognized by the Department of Education, does not permit boys/men who identify as girls/women to play sports against biological girls/women. But some individual state athletic associations have paved the way for what is tantamount to co-ed competitions which, in my opinion, ruins the purity of biological female sports. And it is not fair.

Specific to transgender female athletes, Will Thomas swam on the University of Pennsylvania men’s team for three years. As a sophomore Thomas finished second in the 500-meter, 1,000-meter and 1,650-meter freestyle events at the Ivy League championships. Thomas began hormone therapy following his sophomore season. During an on and off junior season, Will Thomas became Lia Thomas.

It is reasonable that someone with Lia Thomas’ biological male talent and physical advantage should not be competing against biological women, regardless of hormone therapy treatments. But there Lia Thomas was last winter, in her senior year at Penn, competing as a transgender female against biological females while putting up astronomical times.

Owner of the fastest times in the nation in the women’s 200 and 500, Thomas achieved speed bested only by NCAA record-holders Katie Ledecky and Missy Franklin.

Transgender females can fairly compete with biological females to see who wins first trombone seat in the orchestra. (Photo credit The Weekly Opine)

A breaking point?

What happens if a basketball player follows in Lia Thomas’ footsteps? A good male college or NBA player, say a starter who is 6’7”, weighs 225 pounds, and averages 15 points-per-game, could probably average 50 points per-game in the WNBA. (This is not to suggest the decision to transition from male to female – or vice versa – is a casual, happy-go-lucky, sports-driven decision. Anyone going through this monumental decision and transition deserves love and support from family and friends, as well as civil rights protections.)

What if a male boxer transitioned to female and fought biological women? Someone could end up dead in the ring if a transgender woman was allowed to box against biological women.

Something tells me either scenario – basketball or boxing – could be the breaking point. Would sports authorities and/or governments determine that some sports are OK for transgender females to participate in while others are not? I’d bet lawyers would line up with lawsuits not far behind.

It is surprising so many biological women, rightfully incensed upon learning our wayward Supreme Court plans to rule women are not free to control their own bodies, are OK with having to compete in sports against a physique that has, even post-transition, inherent advantages.

Transgender female Caitlyn Jenner, who won Olympic gold in the men’s decathlon at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, has come out against transgender females competing against biological females.

“This is a question of fairness,” Jenner told a California journalist. “I oppose biological boys who are trans competing in girls’ sports. We have to protect girls’ sports.”

As I see it, Caitlyn Jenner, who has lived more sides of this issue than nearly all of us – as a man, as a world-class athlete, and as a transgender woman – gets the final word.

That’s fair.