By: V4 Agency
To protect female athletes, certain US states would prohibit trans athletes from competing against their cisgender peers, arguing that it would put females in a severe disadvantage. These states remain opposed to President Biden’s recent executive order.
One of the first decisions of US President Joe Biden favoured none other than the LGBTQ community. The executive order proclaims that discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation must be combatted. It also sets out that US schoolchildren should not have to worry about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room or school sports in line with their chosen gender.
On his first day in office, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order which favours the advocates of gender ideology….
Whether transgender athletes can be allowed to compete with their cisgenger peers has been a long-running public debate in the United States. In girls’ sports, the presence of transgender girls (i.e. girls born as a biological males), puts cisgender girls at a marked disadvantage.
Not all US states agree with Biden’s executive order. Montana’s Justice Committee, for instance, passed a house bill in late January, just days after Biden had signed his controversial executive order. The new bill, entitled Save Women Sports Act, requires public school athletes to participate in sports according to their biological sex.
If Bill HB 112 is signed into law, it will take effect on 1 July in Montana. Similar legislation has been proposed in Kentucky, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and New Hampshire. “I would hope that every state would follow Montana’s example, however, that probably won’t be the case,” representative John Fuller, a proponent of the initiative, has said.
Professional athletes have already spoken out against transgender and cisgender athletes competing against each other. Former track athlete Doriane Lambelet Coleman, tennis legend Martina Navratilova and four-time Olympic gold medalist Sanya Richards-Ross have shared their views in a joint opinion piece. They say there is unequivocal evidence that – starting in puberty – in every sport except sailing, shooting and riding, there will always be significant numbers of boys and men who would beat even the best girls and women in head-to-head competition. Claims to the contrary are simply a denial of science, they add.
A study by Campus Reform published in the Journal of Applied Physiology also points out that average women have 40 per cent less upper body strength and 33 per cent less lower body strength than men.
A bill on youth health protection was also submitted in Montana in January. The proposed legislation would prohibit healthcare providers from “prescribing, providing, or administering gender transition procedures to a minor”. The bill eventually failed to pass in Montana. However, similar legislation has been proposed in other states, including Texas and Utah.