On Monday, the Iowa House of Representatives passed a bill restricting college and K-12 women’s sports participation to biological women.
Allowing only biological women to compete in women’s sports does not seem particularly controversial, but, unfortunately, it is.
The bill passed 55 to 39 along party lines, with Republicans supporting it and Democrats opposing it.
“If this was really about fairness, we’d be talking about that. But we’re talking about discrimination,” Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst, D-Windsor Heights, said during her floor remarks.
It is about fairness. It’s just something that Democrats who are tied into the LGBTQ agenda don’t want to acknowledge. Allowing biological men who identify as transgender women to compete in women’s sports is a bridge too far is unfair to the biological women that girls’ sports were created for, to begin with.
Ainsley Erzen, the state girls’ record holder in the 800 meters and 2021 national champion from Carlisle High School in Carlisle, Iowa, pointed this out in a recent op/ed in The Des Moines Register.
“My time of 2:06.52, the time that made me the fastest Iowa high school female 800 runner of all time, the time that earned me the title of national champion, was easily beat by 85 high school boys at the 2021 Iowa high school state track meet alone. Eighty-five. Just in our small state of Iowa,” she wrote.
Does this make Miss Erzen an advocate of discrimination? No, she is pointing out something that, for some mind-boggling reason, Democrats want to deny – biological reality.
There are numerous physiological differences between men and women that give men advantages in sports that reward strength, acceleration, and speed.
Let’s look at two examples from the international indoor track & field competition during the 2021-2022 season.
- This year in the indoor 50 meter dash, the fastest time recorded this season was 6.29 seconds by Patrizia Van der Weken of Luxembourg. According to WorldAthletics.org, that time was surpassed by at least 128 men in the men’s indoor 50 meter dash (all the men’s times they listed), with the slowest time recorded on their website being 6.15 seconds.
- Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain recorded a time of 1:57.20, the fastest time thus far in the women’s indoor 800 meters run in the 2021-2022 season; over 2,500 men ran the same event with a faster time this season alone.
Doraine Lambelet and Wickliffe Shreve, in a piece entitled “Comparing Athletic Performance: The Elite Women to Boys and Men” for Duke Law School’s Center for Sports Law and Policy, pointed out stark differences.
- “Just in the single year 2017, Olympic, World, and U.S. Champion Tori Bowie’s 100 meters lifetime best of 10.78 was beaten 15,000 times by men and boys.”
- “The same is true of Olympic, World, and U.S. Champion Allyson Felix’s 400 meters lifetime best of 49.26. Just in the single year 2017, men and boys worldwide outperformed her more than 15,000 times.”
In 2017, the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team fell 5 to 2 to the FC Dallas U-15 boys’ academy team when preparing for a game against Russia. Yes, it was a scrimmage, and the women’s team likely wasn’t playing all out, but they still lost.
A recent study showed even after a year of hormone therapy, biological boys and men who identify as transgender women retain an athletic edge.
Democratic lawmakers have pointed out that this has not been an issue in Iowa, and they are largely correct. (Insofar as the media has not reported an issue.) But should lawmakers wait until it becomes a problem? Should they wait until biological men break numerous girls’ track state records like what happened in Connecticut? Should they wait for Iowa collegiate swimmers who are biological females to be denied a place upon the championship podium like what happened in the 2022 Ivy League Swimming Championships?
We don’t believe so. Iowa lawmakers should act to protect girls’ sports before there is a problem to ensure a level playing field for those whom girls’ and women’s sports were created.
