The Battle over Women’s Sports: Betrayal

The Battle over Women’s Sports (full series)
Modern History of Women’s Sport | What Is a Woman?
Betrayal | What’s Next?

Betrayal

Regrettably, the organizations that claim to protect and preserve women’s sports are now advocating for the inclusion of biological men in women’s events. For instance, the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF), founded in 1974 shortly after the passage of Title IX, was originally dedicated to providing opportunities for girls and women to reach their full potential in sports. Their mission is to be “the ally and catalyst for tomorrow’s leaders, enabling girls and women to reach their full potential in sport and life.”

However, WSF’s current stance supports the inclusion of transgender athletes in women’s sports. The organization states:

The Women’s Sports Foundation supports the right of all athletes, including transgender athletes, to participate in athletic competition that is fair, equitable, and respectful to all. “Transgender” refers to people whose gender identity does not conform to traditional expectations associated with their assigned sex at birth. Schools must be prepared to fairly accommodate these students and their families in athletics as well as other school programs.

It’s a complete betrayal of their history and of the women who fought to make women’s sports what it is today. As shocking as WSF’s reversal is, it’s no surprise that organizations like Athlete Ally, whose mission is to “end the rampant homophobia and transphobia in sport” and advocate for LGBTQ+ equality, are actively involved in putting men into women’s sports. The organization pushes the radical trans agenda that would spell the end of female athletics, cloaked, of course, in nice, tolerant language. The Athlete Ally website has a petition titled “Stand with Trans Power Lifters,” which states:

We stand in solidarity with JayCee Cooper and all transgender powerlifting athletes who deserve full access to the sport they love. The current International Powerlifting Federation (IPF) and USA Powerlifting (USAPL) policies prohibiting all female transgender powerlifters and male transgender athletes using testosterone from competition are not only based on a flawed understanding of competitive advantage.

Of course, they speak of equality, but where’s the statement supporting trans men in men’s powerlifting? Oh, that’s right, they don’t need a statement because no woman is trying that, which proves how ridiculous this all is.

Title IX Revisions

It’s not only trans rights groups and the former champions of women’s sports who are tearing down what took years to build. Recent Title IX revisions proposed by the Biden Administration would include gender identity as a protected class, placing states like Florida and Iowa, which have laws protecting women’s sports, at risk of violating federal rules if they prohibit transgender students from participating in sports based on gender identity. Notably, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the two largest teachers’ unions, have publicly supported these changes, contributing $250,000 to advocacy groups in 2019 and 2020.

Florida and Iowa aren’t alone. Twenty-five states have passed laws preventing transgender students from competing in sports that align with their gender identity, or to put it more simply, to prevent boys from competing in girls’ sports.

The battle over Title IX revisions is twofold. We must continue to fight to reverse the Biden Administration’s revisions at the federal level while also removing the dependence upon Title IX funding at the state level. Ultimately, if state legislatures want the freedom to choose to defend women in their state, they’ll need to untangle themselves from the leviathan of federal funding. Dependence always leads to subservience, and red states would do well to begin working toward a future when the threat of withholding federal funds does not prevent them from doing what is right. The irony is that it was federal funding under Title IX that opened the floodgates for the growth of women’s sports, and now that same law is being used to crush it.

In the next installment, the battle over women’s sports will be won in a day.