I first heard of a trans woman competing in a women’s sport in 2022. At the time, I was a competitive softball player, and the idea of playing against a biological male baffled me.
Women are having their trophies, locker rooms and recognition taken away and are expected to pretend that this is acceptable when it is not. Biological men take our opportunities, devaluing our strengths and making our efforts feel worthless.
As of Feb. 2023, the state of Kansas banned transgender girls from girls sports.
According to Outsports, at least 40 transgender athletes have openly competed in college sports.
American swimmers Riley Gaines and Lia Thomas, a trans woman who had been taking estrogen for three years, competed in the 200 freestyle final at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Championships and tied.
However, Thomas was awarded the trophy and was ranked above Gaines.
Gaines told the Daily Wire that an NCAA representative said, “Hey, I just want to let you know, we only have one fifth-place trophy, so yours will be coming in the mail. We went ahead and gave the fifth-place trophy to Lia, but you can pose on the podium with the sixth-place trophy.”
I met and heard Gaines this summer at the Turning Point USA Young Women’s Leadership Summit. I also met Kaitlynn Wheeler, one of Gaines’s former teammates; both were extremely inspiring.
According to Wheeler and Gaines, Thomas was in the locker room with female swimmers from all qualifying colleges at the NCAA Women’s Championships, and the NCAA did not notify the girls that Thomas would join them in the locker room.
According to the NCAA website, 322 swimmers used the locker room.
“It was deeply uncomfortable sharing a locker room with a biological male who was fully intact and exposing his male genitalia. The atmosphere in the room shifted immediately,” Wheeler said.
The NCAA’s current policy is on a sport-by-sport basis, which allows athletes who have undergone at least one year of hormones and meet the testosterone level to be suppressed below 10 nmol/L by their sport’s nationals. The same rules apply to the Olympics.
According to the National Health Institute, men have more muscle mass scientifically, and women are 27% weaker than men in lower body strength.
The National Library of Medicine says men have stronger bones, different skeletal structures and better-adapted cardiorespiratory systems, which creates a disadvantage for women competing against trans women.
As a former track and field thrower, I have seen strength differences firsthand.
As someone who has played several sports, I was inspired to advocate after hearing Gaines and Wheeler speak.
“Inclusion should not come at the expense of excluding women from their own spaces or denying them the opportunities they’ve worked hard for,” Wheeler said. “The very reason Title IX exists is to provide women with equal opportunities and to protect their rights in education and sports. Upholding the original intent of Title IX is key in making sure women are not marginalized.”