The North Coast Section, the high school governing athletic body, held its track and field Meet of Champions at Dublin High. The meet determines the top three athletes who qualify for the state championships that were held last weekend in Clovis (near Fresno). In the women’s 1600, a trans-athlete (born as boys) finished in the top three. During the meet, a small group of people protested the trans-athletes competing in the girls event—meet officials removed them. Both big newspapers in the Bay Area covered the controversy.
When it came time for the state event last Friday, neither the Sonoma County athlete or another trans-athlete reported to compete in the qualifying for Saturday’s final. The California Interscholastic Federation issued the following statement, “The CIF is disappointed for two of our student-athletes and their families because due to the actions of others, they found it necessary to withdraw from the state track and field championships out of concern for the student’s wellbeing. The CIF strongly denounces discriminatory or harassing behaviors that impact our student-athletes opportunities to participate in interscholastic competitions.”
Last year when a former male varsity swimmer dominated the Ivy League women’s distance races, the NCAA issued a similar statement of support.
That took place on the 50th anniversary of the passage of Title IX that formally established equal opportunity for female athletes in educational institutions that take federal funds. That opened up plenty of new opportunities for girls and women and the growth of their sports has been substantial.
What’s curious to me is how the leaders of educational institutions have embraced the “rights” of transgender males to compete regardless of the competitive disadvantage it has placed on women and girls. That’s been too obvious in the last few years.
A news report this week, based upon the 2020 census, reported that same-sex marriages among Americans account for about 1% of the households. Traditional married couples and men and women living together made up about 53%. People living alone were about 28%, while the other 19% were living with relatives.
When the San Francisco Business Times did its annual pride issue a few years ago, it reported that less than 7% of the San Francisco population identified as gay or lesbian. Interestingly, when the Presbyterian Church USA extended benefits to same-sex partners more than a decade ago, the actuarial number crunchers reported no significant impact on the budget.
The point is that Hollywood would have you think that one of every four or five people is gay or lesbian when the real numbers are far, far lower. And, the numbers of transgenders is tiny percentage to the right of the decimal point. Not that you’d know that from the media coverage.
Our republic exists—we hope—as a nation of laws that apply to everyone. Protecting minorities is a time-honored principle.
So where do you put the rights of girls and women to compete fairly against each other and not against a transwoman who was born a male? There’s been an occasional burst of common sense—such as the international weight lifting organization. Here’s wishing that it would be extended to the CIF and the NCAA.
