The Committee on Education & The Workforce is celebrating the reintroduction of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
Rep. Greg Steube, who introduced the Act, said that “[a]llowing biological males to participate in women’s sports is a complete affront to the hardworking women and girls who have spent their lives training to achieve their dreams. It’s simple: biological males have no place in women’s sports.”
He continued, “Floridians and Americans across the country are rightly outraged at what has become of women’s sports. We’ve seen time and time again how the far left only favors fairness when it aligns with their woke agenda. That’s why today, I’m pleased [to] reintroduce legislation that ensures women and girls a fair playing field in competitive sports.”
Controversy around biological males participating in female athletics erupted when Lia Thomas, born as Will Thomas, switched from the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swim team to the women’s swim team, breaking records and often winning competitions.
[RELATED: 5 key events in the 2022 Lia Thomas saga]
The Biden administration’s proposed changes to Title IX in the fall of 2021 presented the possibility that more transgender athletes would compete according to their identity rather than their biological sex.
Rep. Steube’s amendment would end the conflation of “sex” and “gender identity,” explicitly updating the Education Amendments of 1972 to codify that “sex” shall represent a “person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” the legislation reads.
In a statement provided to Campus Reform by a spokesperson from the Committee, Chairwoman Virginia Foxx said the following regarding the Steube amendment:
I am not afraid to say what was once considered common sense: boys do not belong in girl’s sports and men do not belong in women’s sports. This does not change just because a man decides to identify as a female. Athletic competition is based on fair play and centers around physical acumen. And when it comes to physical strength, lung capacity, speed, and endurance men have a biological advantage. I don’t fault men for this advantage, it is the way God made them. Yet when men use their strength to take opportunities away from women—I have a problem. Women deserve a chance to compete, to make the team, and to win. That’s what Title IX was all about. Yet when women are forced to compete against biological males in sports it means they no longer have equal opportunity. And that is taking our country backward.
The spokesperson also noted that, while Democrats in Congress have not provided bipartisan support on this issue, the American people do not support policies that allow men to compete in women’s sports, pointing to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
When asked if transgender women (i.e. biological males) should be allowed to compete with women, 58% of respondents said they should not at either the professional or college level, according to the poll.
55% also agreed that biological males should not be allowed to compete with biological females in high school athletics.
[RELATED: Dep. of Education to expand Title IX protections to transgender students]
The American people support legislation to protect women’s sports, the spokesperson contends, because the people “have more commonsense than the left-wing activists that have captured the Democrat party. And they can look at the numbers and the science.”
Riley Gaines, the former University of Kentucky swimmer who competed against Thomas, also supports Rep. Steube’s work. Gaines is quoted on the Committee’s blog saying, “As an athlete who has experienced the injustice of competing against a male firsthand, I’m grateful for the leadership of Representative Steube. He has made it clear that he will fight for fairness, privacy, and safety for girls and women in sports.”
Riley Gaines was contacted for further comment, but has not yet responded. This article will be updated accordingly.
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Republished with permission from Campus Reform
