Before every race she enters, Selina Soule follows the same routine. She wakes up early and applies her signature meet make up – royal blue eyeliner to match her Glastonbury track uniform.
She struggles to choke down half of the egg sandwich her dad makes her, and then she listens to a “pump playlist” that includes the song “Win the Race” by Modern Talking to help get her into the zone.
“Just like my fellow competitors, I race to win,” she said. “But that’s virtually impossible now in an unlevel playing field.”
Soule, a Glastonbury High School junior, believes the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) policy that allows transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports without any hormone treatment is unfair.
“Just like my fellow competitors, I race to win. But that’s virtually impossible now in an unlevel playing field.”
Selina Soule, Glastonbury athlete
That sense of injustice is at the heart of the complaint Soule and two other girls filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights in June arguing that their Title IX rights have been violated by a policy that they say pits girls against athletes who are biologically male despite their female gender identity. They contend the situation has robbed them of top finishes and possibly college scholarships.
With the CIAC policy in play, Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell and Terry Miller of Bloomfield — transgender girls who are track and field athletes — have grabbed national headlines and multiple championships, with Miller shattering state records in recent years and winning the Hartford Courant’s girls’ indoor track and field athlete of the year award in 2019. Both athletes also won the state’s sportswriters’ “courage award.”
Experts in girls’ sports and Title IX, the federal law that requires that women have equal access to sports, believe Soule and other cisgender athletes could have a valid complaint. They point out that both the NCAA and the Olympic Committee require transgender women to receive hormone treatment for at least a year and be tested for testosterone levels. The CIAC does not require either.
“I don’t know of a woman athlete who doesn’t want trans girls to be treated fairly,” said Donna Lopiano, who led the Women’s Sports Foundation for 15 years and now runs a Shelton-based consulting firm that works with clients on Title IX and other sports management issues. “But the cost of treating her fairly should not come at the cost of discriminating against a biologically-female-at birth woman.”
Lopiano is hardly alone. The controversy over the inclusion of transgender athletes on girls’ high school teams in Connecticut has deeply divided advocates who are usually in agreement when it comes to female sports, including lawyers, women’s group leaders, athletes, and parents.
“It’s amazing how polarized people get. Connecticut could be on the forefront of creating a structure or some way that lets both transgender and cisgender females fully participate, so that they both can be protected,” said Felice Duffy, a former federal prosecutor with a law practice in New Haven that focuses on Title IX. “There’s good people who will be very willing to talk about it and do it in way that makes sense.”
“I don’t know of a woman athlete who doesn’t want trans girls to be treated fairly. But the cost of treating her fairly should not come at the cost of discriminating against a biologically-female-at birth woman.”
Donna Lopiano
Sports consultant
It’s a rift that has been driven even deeper by the involvement of the Alliance Defending Freedom, the group that filed the Title IX complaint on behalf of Soule and two other female athletes. The ADF has opposed allowing transgender girls in traditional girls-only spaces, including bathrooms and locker rooms.
But Doriane Coleman, a Duke University Law professor who has worked on the issue of sex in sport and has consulted with the National Scholastic Athletic Foundation, said ADF’s participation shouldn’t turn a non-partisan issue into a partisan one.
“This isn’t bathrooms. Sports are different,” Coleman said. “It’s wrong to think of the OCR complaint as reflecting a right wing or conservative Christian position. It’s not. People across the political spectrum care about ensuring that girls and women have an equal chance at the goods that flow from sport. The sports exception in Title IX, which allows schools to have separate teams for males and females, is about creating and protecting the space where this can happen.”
For now, however, the sides are very far apart.
Recently, 16 Connecticut women’s rights and gender justice groups – including NARAL Pro-Choice Connecticut, the New Haven Pride Center, and Planned Parenthood of Southern New England – signed a statement supporting “the full inclusion of transgender people in athletics.”
“Transgender girls are girls and transgender women are women,” the statement said. “They are not and should not be referred to as boys or men, biological or otherwise.”
“We speak from expertise when we say that nondiscrimination protections for transgender people – including women and girls who are transgender – advance women’s equality and well-being.”
Changing the definition of gender
Title IX was passed 47 years ago to ensure an equal education for girls, but included a “carve out” allowing separate sports programs for girls because of the clear biological advantage that males have over females in athletics.
“It was the notion that there are distinct biological differences in sex that are immutable,” Lopiano said, “namely after puberty, the effect of testosterone on males … Everybody agreed that hey, if you have boys and girls competing after puberty, who would be more likely to get on a team? Who would win? It would be men. There would be very few women.”
The current CIAC policy was developed in the context of federal and state law. A state law passed in 2011 prohibits discrimination based on sex or gender identity and does not require that a person’s gender be determined by that individual’s sex at birth, nor does it require a person to have undergone hormone therapy to be identified as a gender different from that assigned at birth.
“If you have boys and girls competing after puberty, who would be more likely to get on a team? Who would win? It would be men. There would be very few women.”
Donna Lopiano
The way Lopiano sees it, Connecticut’s law says, “Hey, we are going to change the definition of sex,” she said. “Now a woman is someone who identifies as woman, not someone who is biologically a woman… I’m not trying to criticize the definition, but that’s in effect what the law is saying.”
In a state that requires high schools to allow transgender girls to play sports with girls even if they have not had hormone therapy, Lopiano said, the challenge is how to do that fairly.
“I think you can do it, but not without an accommodation for their advantage,” Lopiano said.
Duffy says she believes the way state law is being applied violates Title IX because it only disadvantages cisgender females.
“It’s been shown that transgendered females who were assigned male at birth have the potential to be superior in power, speed and strength in sports, such as track, based on hormonal levels and other things,” Duffy said. “And I would say to the converse, transgendered males assigned female at birth don’t have the potential to be superior to males in track and field, for example. And therefore, there’s no negative impact on cisgender males.”
She said the NCAA and IOC rules further reflect this because they require transgender females to undergo hormone therapy to reduce their physical advantages.
“No one in Connecticut wants to discriminate against transgender girls, but by giving them the full go-ahead to participate you, in effect, are discriminating against cisgender girls from my perspective,” Duffy said, adding that the inequity is particularly clear when it comes to post-season competition.
That was Selina Soule’s experience.
Only a limited number of high school runners are allowed to advance to the state finals and Soule missed that chance in February when she came in eighth at the 2019 State Indoor Open in the preliminary 55-meter race. Only the top seven finishers were allowed to move on to the finals. Miller and Yearwood, the two transgender girls, occupied the two top slots.
“I respect these transgender athletes, and I understand that they are just following CIAC policy. But at the same time, it is demoralizing and frustrating for me and for other girls,” Selina said in a recent email. “No matter how hard I try, I’ll never be able to be competitive with someone who’s biologically a male … No amount of practice and determination will ever get me or other girls to a place where we will have a fair chance to win. But the CIAC doesn’t seem to care.”
Her mother, Bianca Stanescu, said she has been surprised by the lack of support for her daughter and the other cisgender athletes.
“It’s especially surprising and sad to see that most women’s groups in Connecticut have lined up against fairness for girls,” Stanescu said. “Why aren’t they speaking up when girls are getting pushed to the sidelines and denied equal opportunities? Why aren’t they seriously looking at the scientific and legal issues?”
Glen Lungarini, executive director of the CIAC, said that when he consulted with the U.S. Department of Civil Rights — months before the June complaint was filed — he was told that Title IX refers to sex but does not define what sex or gender is. “It reverts to your local legislature in terms of defining [sex and gender],” he said.
And he said, the state law is clear that a transgender girl should be treated as a girl. “They’re not transgender, they are female,” Lungarini said.
A statement from the CIAC said it will “cooperate fully if OCR decides to investigate this complaint. We take such matters seriously, and we believe that the current CIAC policy is appropriate under both Connecticut law and Title IX.”
The policies on transgender high school athletes vary greatly across the country with some requiring birth certificates to prove their biological gender, while others require hormone therapy for transgender girls. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia have policies like Connecticut’s that allow transgender athletes to compete in athletics with the gender they assert, without medical interventions, according to the Gay Lesbian & Straight Education Network.
“This isn’t rocket science,” Lopiano said. “I think there is a failure on the part of the CIAC to really think hard about how they can make a [fair sport structure] for both females at birth and those who self-identify as trans-girls, who choose not to alter their bodies. I don’t have the answers but I know there are answers. There’s not just one way to do this.”
If a situation like the one that prevented Soule from going to postseason competition arises, extra slots for cisgender girls could be added, Lopiano said, to ensure that cisgender girls get to fully participate along with transgender girls. Or, she suggested, there could be classes for girls during post season competition as there are for wrestlers of different weights.
Coleman, the Duke University Law professor, said the Connecticut girls’ Title IX complaint has finally brought a thorny issue to the fore.
“You wouldn’t have called and asked me about this last year because it wasn’t politically correct even to have the conversation,” she said. “The cisgirls and their families and people who are aligned with their interests have really not had the space to speak because whenever they’ve tried, they’ve been attacked for being bad people. They are not bad people. They represent the traditional view of what Title IX is all about.”
Coleman said she sees the complaint as viable particularly because the Trump administration has withdrawn the Obama administration’s transgender friendly “guidance,” and has made clear its preference for traditional definitions — specifically that “sex means sex, it doesn’t mean gender identity.
“It also happens that the majority of Americans, Democrats and Republicans, probably agree with them on this and that’s dangerous for Democrats,” she said. “I hope that liberal policymakers don’t cede this issue to conservatives. You can believe, as I do, that equality for people who are transgender is important and that we need to find ways to make that a reality, while also acknowledging that it’s a real leap to say that sex and gender identity are the same thing or that it’s harmless to pretend that they are.”
When civil rights trump fairness
For some advocates, however, allowing accommodations is tantamount to saying a transgender girl is not really a girl.
Kate Farrar, executive director of the Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund, said she doesn’t see how a distinction can be made between the regular season and the post season “if we’re working from a framework of equal access.”
“The fundamental issues behind Title IX and a lot of our gender equity fights are in recognition of [the need for] equal access,” Farrar added. “When we actually acknowledge transgender girls as girls according to their gender identity, we cannot deny them access. This is the whole point of why we have Title IX. Why we fought for gender equity.”
“It really is a human rights issue at the heart of these opportunities for girls in our schools.”
Dan Barrett, legal director of the ACLU of Connecticut, which has worked with the transgender girls, said the only question at issue in the complaint is whether Title IX permits the CIAC to adopt the policy it did.
“It’s not whether there’s a mandate to dream up something else,” he said. Rather, he said it’s whether the CIAC’s policy is permissible under Title IX.
“When we actually acknowledge transgender girls as girls according to their gender identity, we cannot deny them access. This is the whole point of why we have Title IX. Why we fought for gender equity.”
Kate Farrar
Executive Director, Connecticut Women’s Education and Legal Fund
Asked about taking steps to accommodate cisgender girls, such as adding slots for cisgender girls in postseason competition or creating classes for women’s sports, Barrett said, “that’s not equal treatment and that’s not going to fly in athletics.”
Making such accommodations “seeks to get behind the person’s gender identity,” Barrett said, “and say whoever it may be, the athletic conference or school … has decided that even though you’re living your life as a woman and that’s how you identify, we’re going to mark you off as something different and place you somewhere else.”
“In this case, it’s pretty straightforward: These women were competing as women and that’s the ballgame.”
Barrett also compared the advantage transgender females have to the advantages that superior athletes of the same biological gender have in competition.
“I swam in high school. I was captain of the swim team …” Barrett said, “but put me against Michael Phelps and it would not have been a contest. He was born with just an unbelievable wingspan.”
“The reality is when you are talking about a civil rights issue, one person’s discomfort does not override another person’s civil rights.”
Robin McHaelen
Executive Director, True Colors
Advantages in sports are not just limited to physical prowess or skill, he added, because some students have wealthy parents who pay for private coaching, strength training, or summer camps.
“No one is clamoring for a special league for those athletes,” he said. “To do that to trans-athletes is not a particularly well disguised way of trying to discredit their choices, their autonomy as trans people.”
High school coaches offer differing views of how the issue is playing out on the track.
Betty Remigino-Knapp, who coaches girls track and field at Hall High School in West Hartford and a former athletic director in the town, said her cisgender runners have sometimes felt demoralized after competing against transgender girls.
When one of her sprinters was “knocked out of the finals” by a transgender runner last year, Remigino-Knapp said, “she just walked away, pretty discouraged, wondering what the heck just happened.”
“I have empathy for all kids …but in regard to athletics, you know, we’ve always been given a fair and level playing field,” said Remigino-Knapp, also a former track and cross country coach at UConn. “The physiological differences that males have over females — that’s why we have female sports and male sports. Otherwise, we could really save the CIAC a lot of money and just have one coed championship.”
Brian Calhoun, one of Yearwood’s coaches at Cromwell High School, said there have been no conflicts since Yearwood joined the team, noting that one of Title IX’s purposes, as he sees it, is to create athletic opportunities for a marginalized group.
“At first glance some people think the situation is unfair, but as you look at it, my overarching goals in athletics are to teach life skills and to help teenage athletes gather the skills that they’ll need later on in life,” he said. “If your goal is to teach our kids and prepare them for adulthood and you remember that’s your goal, it really becomes a much more clear issue.”
Both Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood declined to comment for this story, but Rashaan Yearwood, Andraya’s father, said he is not interested in “debating the biological features of men and women.”
“This is only about my daughter being able to do what she wants to do. I don’t really care about the athletic angle at all,” Yearwood said. “Whether she wins or loses, she still would be running track. There have been plenty of cisgender girls who have beaten Andraya that have proven that Andraya being born male does not give her absolute dominance over the sport.”
Robin McHaelen, executive director of True Colors, a non-profit group that advocates for LGBTQ youth, said that while she understands the issue of fairness raised by the cisgender girls, she ultimately sides with the transgender athletes, who “have already experienced so much oppression and hostility.
“The honest to God truth is I don’t know what’s fair, but I know that my role is to protect and care for the most marginalized of the kids we serve and I think that transgender girls, especially girls of color, fit that category,” McHaelen said. “The reality is when you are talking about a civil rights issue, one person’s discomfort does not override another person’s civil rights.”
I’m sorry, but this is so unfair to birth females, who participate in these athletics. We are stealing their dreams and sacrifices, to satisfy the needs of transgenders. I believe in supporting equality at all levels, but not if the implementation steals opportunity from others. This is a perfect example where inclusion is wrong…give transgender athletes their own category, and events. Afterall, you would never race a Thoroughbred Horse against a Draft Horse. And please, don’t get in a tizzy saying I am referring to female athletes as Draft Horses. I am merely trying o emphasize the impact of genetic differences.
While I completely disagree with the entire concept of ‘gender identity’ being the determining factor in far too much of today’s world, to argue it here is pointless. However, to say there are ‘no conflicts’ is outright disingenuous. CT has instituted such over-the-top laws against bullying, and what constitutes same, that student-athletes know they can be prosecuted and even held responsible for any CIAC legal fees. Considering the state of today’s society, I refuse to believe that there isn’t a large amount of disdain and contempt for the rules, and possibly even for the athletes.
I have sympathy for transgender persons and what they experience as individuals with gender dysphoria, and I don’t believe that any person should be discriminated against because they step out of gender defined stereotypes.
However,
Biological sex is real. And it matters. It is not discriminatory or illegal to recognize and acknowledge what we all know as true. To deny that the human body impacts and affects the experience of being a girl or woman, ( or boy or man) is contrary to the lived experience of least 99% of the population. For most people, our bodies are not separate from our experience of gender. And our physical bodies influence our lived experience in the world as a man or woman.
Women are at a physical disadvantage to biological males. We are, on average, smaller and less powerful. This impacts our lived experiences not just on the playing fields – girls and women are raped, sexually assaulted, and victims of domestic violence at much higher rates than their male counterparts, in a large part, because of these physical differences.
To deny that these biological differences exist and impact the lives of women, not only disempowers girls and women, it also devalues their lived experiences.
I applaud these young women. They are courageous. They should not be bullied or gaslighted for daring to speak the truth and advocating for the rights of girls and women to fully and fairly participate in sports. They should have a voice and be able to define, for themselves, what it means to be a girl or a woman.
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This is insanity. DNA testing, period. XX competes with women, XY with men. That’s it.
This is unfair to our girls. Sports at these age levels is about development of mind and body. I know my daughters would have never competed in the sports they did if the boys were allowed to compete against them. After all, it would have been a hopeless endeavor for them to win.
If we’re going to allow this, then we have to put these athletes in classes that fairly distinguish between their physical makeups. After all, you don’t pair a featherweight with a heavyweight boxer.
School is about education. Our society rules that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Like teaching acceptance, those who identify with another gender have to be taught that there are consequences to choices made in this world, there may not be a team for them to compete.
In the picture, with all due respect it’s clear the winner is a young man competing against young women, despite what he wants to be. If nothing else, have the school physician measure and judge whether or not inclusion would be fair.
Those shattered records should be discarded, they aren’t genuine. We do a lot of whispering today and are afraid to simply say no. Funny you don’t hear about the boys complaining of this, I wonder why…
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I firmly believe that transgender people should not be discriminated against. But by allowing transgender girls to compete against biologically female girls, the latter are being discriminated against. Chosen gender identity (without hormonal changes) does not negate biology, does not negate physiology, does not negate reality. I don’t know what the answer is to this situation, but disadvantaging biologically female girls in girls’ sports isn’t it.
As an Intersex/DSD person, I do side with the Biological women in the title 9 complaint on the grounds that it’s cheating and Connecticut’s gender identity laws enabled these two biological dudes to cheat at the expense of others. This what happens when society creates laws without thinking whose being impacted and the consequences of those laws. In fact Connecticut’s gender Identity law enabled two of those biological boys to cheat and win at the expense of Biological women and I think it’s HIGH time to revisit the law and either revise it or scrap it.
Amazing that common sense and logic is not allowed to prevail in a public space policed by ‘woke culture’. The TG girls can call themselves whatever they want, but they are biologically male, have biological advantages, and should not be allowed to compete with biological girls. And taking hormones doesn’t change the fact that for 10+ years since birth, these individuals had male hormones influencing their musculoskeletal development. Hormone therapy now cannot reverse that.
Any why do NARAL and Planned Parenthood take a stand on this? It unnecessarily complicates both issues. One can be strongly pro-choice but against biologic males competing in girls’ races (as is this writer).
It is not so simple. Not only is it scientifically unfair but it also potentially dangerous in some sports. Can you imagine a biological male competing against a biological female in MMA? Well it happened to Tamika Brents and her skull got crushed in.
Here are her comments … I’ve fought a lot of women and have never felt the strength that I felt in a fight as I did that night. I can’t answer whether it’s because she was born a man or not because I’m not a doctor. I can only say, I’ve never felt so overpowered ever in my life and I am an abnormally strong female in my own right. When it comes to sports I think it just isn’t fair.
This is beyond unfair to girls and young woman. They are losing out not only on the experience of sports, fair play, and sporting play but also losing out on the recognition, sense of achievement, opportunity and real advantages such as college admissions and tuition assistance funds that often result from being a state champion athlete.
Girls sports exist to create a level playing field for our young women. If the interested parties feel so strongly about boys and girls who want to be transgender competing athletically then those interested parties should seek to create separate transgender classifications appropriate for their inherent biological abilities and advantages.
It is noteworthy that the fastest times run at the Girl’s state track championships for the 100 meter dash were run by transgender boys. The top finishing times recorded, if they had been run in the Boy’s state track championships, would have them finishing no higher than 27th place.
Any athlete, or even anyone that believed they were an athlete, and who has played sports, especially any contact sports, will easily be able to recognize this perspective as simply not recognizing the reality of the physical realm or the most basic laws of physics that cannot simply be wished away.
When wishes and dreams run into the Laws of Physics it often results in pain; a reality check that hurts.
Firstly, I never used the term “power sports”, I believe hat was another poster. Secondly, your suppositions regarding males, and “girls” having some advantage and ability to “dominate” based on physical size is flawed and inaccurate I disagree with it and it is easily refuted just by considering Mike Tysons boxing career, the ability of Joe Morris to effectively run a football, or the tremendously successful career of Muggsy Bogues. It also belies your lack of personal experience in physical pursuits, athletic endeavors, and sports competition. Thirdly, your predictions are irrelevant to Title IX, which actually is settled Federal law, as is the straw man you attempted to construct regarding the motives of he parents of the students charging the lawsuits, their unknowable actions based on an alternate set of facts, and the outcome of the federal legal process that they have set in motion against the State of Connecticut that will now play out in federal court. Title IX exists for one reason, to provide females equal opportunity and access, and it has been repeatedly and consistently upheld and applied across the nation in every instance wherein it has been invoked, challenged, violated, or transgressed. The outcome of this whole matter has already been prescribed by the Legislative Branch and judicial precedent.
Females generally have a considerable disadvantage when competing against males in athletic events and sports, especially those that involve speed, strength, endurance, aggression, and violent contact. No one is commenting on your predictions, your value of perception, or your hobbies except for you; it’s all very irrelevant to the rest of us. What is relevant is fair competition without undue additional physical risk for girls and young women competing in high school sports and athletics in Connecticut. That is best accomplished as it has been by continuing to have males compete against other males and to have females compete against other females regardless of an individual students wishes, wants, desires, or beliefs.
You are ignoring physical, biological and chemical differences, it is not so simple. Also your analogy does not hold true to physical sports, that is the issue being debating not the philosophy.
The only fair, inclusive way to divide sports:
Women/Girls: Biological females only, no artificial hormones
Open Competition: Males, transwomen, transmen, non-binary, everyone welcome.
You are onto something but I disagree with the divisions. Men/Boys and Women/Girls sports categories should be maintained as they have been.
Outside of those two Male/Female based divisions interested parties can add whatever categories for which they can build and maintain enough popular and financial support.
There is no civil right for a male body to enter locker rooms and sports labeled ‘Girls’ or ‘Women.’
Andrew Sullivan in a recent article in New York magazine took note of the declining number of young people who call themselves LGBTQ allies. This blatant unfairness demanded, and won, by trans activists is alienating people from the rainbow.
Allowing competitors to self-select the division in which they compete defeats any supposed purpose of having sex-based–or any other sort of–divisions, as it necessarily means that there is no difference meaningful to sport between competitors in different divisions. Identical twins might choose to compete in different divisions, for example. Walk us through the simple, easy to understand logic of why there would even be different divisions under such circumstances?
If I decide to vote against the Democrats next year, this will be the reason.
If the Democrats take the House, Senate, and White House, they will pass their Equality Act into law, enshrining ‘gender identity’ as a protected characteristic in federal law. There will be no more single-sex sports for girls, in all 50 states. The Democrats are absolutely deaf to the objections of women and girls — I didn’t even get a response to the letter I wrote to my congressman.
Actually, no we are not getting rid of gender classifications. Reality cannot be self-selected or changed on the whim of individual or group of people. The general public and the citizenry at large has no appetite for or interest in this counter-culture construct to begin with so by the time the Federal Courts are finished dealing with the Title IX complaints there will be a court-ordered restoration of student athletics and this folly will be over.
Females competing against Males is in no way fair sport.
Last Spring a team of 15 year old boys beat the current US Women’s National Team, the Women’s World Cup champions. After that game it was written, “Testosterone is a hell of a drug.”
Bio-chemicals are powerful and essential in determining biological abilities not desires, beliefs, of perception. Even the Williams sisters, the phenoms that they are, could not overcome the bio-chemical advantages in their 1998 matches against Karsten Braasch.
Females are at an inherent disadvantage when competing athletically against Males.
Female athletes in Connecticut shouldn’t be forced to choose between fair sports competitions or none at all.
Hi Two, in the interest of providing full context to your comment about the U.S. Women’s National Team, it is worth noting that it was a scrimmage. As CBS Sports wrote, “Of course, this match against the academy team was very informal and should not be a major cause for alarm. The U.S. surely wasn’t going all out, with the main goal being to get some minutes on the pitch, build chemistry when it comes to moving the ball around, improve defensive shape and get ready for Russia.” https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/a-dallas-fc-under-15-boys-squad-beat-the-u-s-womens-national-team-in-a-scrimmage/
Absolutely, context is important and can sometimes mean everything. Here’s some more context: The boys beat the United States Women’s National Team 5-2; by three goals. Of course it was a scrimmage, boys don’t compete in Women’s National Team matches.
I’m curious if anyone wonders as to how this 15 year old Boys team would have fared against the US Men’s National Team in a scrimmage or even how the US Women’s National team might have done against the US Men’s National Team. Neither scenario leaves too much room for the imagination, I suppose.
Perhaps it would a major cause for alarm if 15 year old Boys were actually allowed to compete in Women’s World Cup and National Team matches.
I read about it long before World Cup play began and before Rappinoe’s latest round of disrespect to the US. The score of that game tells the tale. The Women’s National Team lost a scrimmage to a Boy’s team; there is no secret that eludes only people such as yourself who “know the game”. Every time a player steps onto the pitch they risk injury. They played that match not out of goodwill but because they wanted to scrimmage an opponent that was tougher and better than their next matchup, the Russian Women’s National team. That Boy’s team wasn’t a premier youth squad either, it was an MLS Academy team. You can attack me or claim all the inside knowledge that you want but it doesn’t change the facts. If the US women’s team could have won they would have but they were overmatched and outplayed.
In this world you may be entitled to your own opinion but you are not entitled to your own facts. The US Women’s National Team lost that game to a team of 15 year old Boys by three goals; the score was 5-2.
I’m not sure about any of what you posted and none of it matters but there is one thing that is definite and that I am sure of: The US Women’s National Soccer Team was beaten 5-2, by 3 goals, in a game by a team of 15 year old boys.
That must be believed because it is a fact.
Biological sex is not the same as gender. Gender can be fluid. Biology cannot.
Perhaps the outcome that would encourage the most acceptance would be for biological males who identify as females to compete on male teams. Transgender persons could then learn to fully embrace and accept who they are both in terms of gender identity and biology. My hunch is that most people would embrace and accept them as well.
Finally, as a female, it seems that transgender persons seem to perpetuate gender stereotypes that are not helpful to or for women. Womanhood is not all about the outfit or hair or nails or even how you feel. There is so much more to being a woman than that. And having a female body is an integral part of being a woman.
It is demeaning, disrespectful, and disempowering to women to reduce the experience of womanhood to a feeling.
I suggest the author of this article read the recent study from Bioethicists Taryn Knox, Lynley Anderson, and Alison Heather that has been published in The Journal of Medical Ethics. It discusses the “intolerable advantage” of so-called transgender women in women’s sports…and these are the boys/men who have gone much further than the CIAC requires.
Good to see that science is being used for common sense. When I went to school there was two different sexuality. Male and female. Granted this was over 40 years ago but I think as of today’s current biological laws there are still only male and female. I can call myself a cat that like to lay around and do nothing, but that does not make it so. I am loving this new world where if you say you are something that is physically and biologically impossible, it is true. Got to love the new liberal logic that wants everybody to believe science when it comes to climate change but not believe science when it come to the two biologically sexes of males and females.
Oh, the irony. What does not fly in athletics is female athletes being disadvantaged by being forced to compete against males who go out for girls’ sports on the basis of self id contrary to their actual sex. The girls are enduring the complete opposite of equal treatment, because the boys are getting special treatment at the expense of the girls.
I could care less about athletics of any kind, but this makes my blood boil because it is about so much more than athletics. Fairness is a foundational value, and seeing so many people defending this gross unfairness is disturbing. It’s like something is starting to unravel. It’s time to lower the boom on this debacle and let the chips fall where they may.