Win or lose, my daughter, and all female athletes, must be allowed to compete on a level playing field
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During a recent House Oversight Committee hearing, Fatima Goss Graves, the Democratic witness and head of the National Women’s Law Center, demeaned the experience of women and girls forced to compete against physical males in sports by suggesting they "learn to lose gracefully."
This is the message she wants young women to receive. It appears to be the message many in the Democratic Party want to promote.
I spend many off-work hours shuttling my daughter, a young female athlete, to and from sporting events and practices. Sometimes it’s running; I ran alongside her as she trained for a race for months, pouring her heart into every mile. Sometimes it’s swimming; throughout the year she has three grueling lap practices a week and regular early morning swim meets.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for fifth in the 200 freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022, in Atlanta. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Sometimes she wins, and when she does it’s because of a combination of her natural abilities and her dedication to practice. Sometimes she loses, and this is the reality of sports, which she is learning. But win or lose, my daughter, and all female athletes, must be allowed to compete on a level playing field. Only then can we talk about grace.
It seems Goss Graves would have me deliver a different message to my daughter. Get pushed off a podium or into third place because male athletes decide to compete in your sport as women? Well, train harder next time. Go on an overnight school field trip and find out when you arrive that you’re rooming with a boy? Sure, you’ll be uncomfortable, but learn to roll with it or be labeled a "bigot" by mainstream progressives.
Join an all-girls college sorority and find out a boy wants to live in the same house, stare at you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, and expose himself? Just try to ignore him and adapt your own behavior in the house common spaces. Show up to a field hockey game and find out a biological male is playing on the opposing team? What’s a serious facial injury compared to the hurt feelings the trans athlete might have if denied a chance to play?
If this message sounds insane, that’s because it is. A short five years ago, the liberal mainstream’s rallying cries were "me too" and "believe all women." Today, it’s shut up, who needs women only spaces, and what even is a female anyway?
This cannot become the new norm in America. Women should not be ashamed to stand up and say men and women are biologically different. This is a fact. The data proves it and even the same organizations trying to appease the progressive idealogues know it.
I have run the Boston Marathon 10 times; the qualifying time for men and women is different. In the age category of 18-34, men must run a previous marathon with a finish time of 3 hours or less, while women in the same age category must complete one in 3 hours and 30 minutes.
In 2023, the race added a non-binary category. The qualifying time was the same as the women’s division. Who won the 2023 division? A biological male of course, with a speedy time of 2 hours and 38 minutes.
For decades, women have fought for equal rights and today those same rights are under attack because we are being forced to give up access to our own sports teams, facilities and spaces. The fight to protect girls’ and women’s sports has nothing to do with politics. It has to do with protecting the fairness, security and safety females deserve.
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Early next year, President Biden is set to release new Title IX regulations. The question he and his administration must ask is simple: Will they choose to side with the vocal minority who want to erase females, or will they stand alongside the girls and women who deserve the dignity of their own sports fields and spaces?
Those set on erasing women’s sports are in for a fight as female athletes, along with their parents, will stand up to protect the integrity of female sports, facilities and spaces. They, and my daughter, deserve nothing less.
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Michele Exner is a senior adviser at Parents Defending Education. She previously served as an active duty Marine officer for seven years and now resides in Virginia with her husband and two children.
