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6 Mar, 2020 17:47

Arizona’s trans athlete ban is the only sane way to deal with the issue

Arizona’s trans athlete ban is the only sane way to deal with the issue

Sanity is one step closer to prevailing in Arizona, where the house of representatives has passed a bill that will ban male-to-female transgender athletes from competing with biological girls. Next stop: trans leagues.

The ‘Save Women’s Sports Act’ requires teams to explicitly designate the gender they are open to, and force female-only teams to bar any student of the male sex from participating. The new guidelines, which must still pass the state senate, will apply to not only public and private schools, but community colleges and universities as well.

Democrats are predictably angry at the bill, but their reactions are more grounded in emotion than rationally sound thinking. In their haste to oppose it, they're willfully ignoring the advantage transgender athletes have over biological women. They are also misrepresenting the entire issue at hand.

Minority Leader Charlene Fernandez said the state is “trying to decide if that person is feminine enough or not feminine enough and we’re using that to justify subjecting our transgender athletes to additional barriers to participating in sports.”

It’s that very reaction which is completely downplaying how unfair things have gotten for girls who wish to compete in athletic events. It shouldn’t be shocking to learn that men are built differently than women. They have differences in bone density, lung capacity, muscle mass, and even heart size. Some of the advantages these provide are still up for debate, but they are advantages nonetheless.

A great comparison here is Olympic track and field. Men have faster scores than their female counterparts on any distanced race. The longer the event, the more exponentially larger the time difference grows. In the 100-meter dash, Usain Bolt has a top score of 9.63 for the men, and for the women the leading score is 10.62. Jump up to 10,000 meters, and the female Olympic and world record holder is Almaz Ayana at 29:17.45. Whereas in the men’s race, the best time is 27:01.17, and that’s not even the world record.

Trans activists don’t want to admit to reality, but when two high school transgender athletes took top prizes at a girls’ state championship track event in Connecticut, it wasn’t a random coincidence. Their bodies are simply built better for this. And while hormones will diminish their capabilities, they still hold an edge due to their basic biology.

Even fellow competitors seemed upset by the unfair competition they were thrust into. Watch the video from the event; they mutter under their breath and seem highly annoyed. I guess it could be just due to losing, but I believe they know a cheap win when they see it.

No one is trying to bar transgender athletes from ever competing in sports again, but what they need are their own leagues, or they need to be limited to strictly co-ed events. For biological women, it is not right that trans people like Rachel McKinnon are permitted to destroy cycling records and win top prizes, or that trans powerlifter Mary Gregory can break four records in a single day.

The trans athlete debate is not about equality or trans rights, no matter how hard proponents try to push such a narrative. Trans people don’t have a right to an athletic advantage, and if equality is the goal, then there’s no reason their own leagues won’t do.

Also on rt.com Transgender New Zealand weightlifter suffers setback in Tokyo Games bid

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The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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