FILE – In this Feb. 7, 2019 file photo, Bloomfield High School transgender athlete Terry Miller, second from left, wins the final of the 55-meter dash over transgender athlete Andraya Yearwood, far left, and other runners in the Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet at Hillhouse High School in New Haven, Conn. Three Connecticut girls who participate on high school track teams have filed a federal discrimination complaint against a statewide policy on transgender athletes, saying it has cost them top finishes in competitions and possibly college scholarships. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb, File)

The Arizona state house of representatives recently passed the “Save Women’s Sports Act.”  The bill, which still requires state senate approval, would ban male-to-female transgender athletes from competing with biological girls.  The law would apply not only to the state’s public and private schools, but also community colleges and universities.  It would require the sport to explicitly state which gender they were open to and force female-only teams to bar males from participating.

Of course, Arizona Democrats are up in arms, but the bulk of their arguments are based on emotion, not fact.  Charlene Fernandez is the house minority leader for the Democrats.  Said she:

(the state is) trying to decide if that person is feminine enough or not feminine enough and we’re using that to justify subjecting our transgender athletes to additional barriers to participating in sports.

It has nothing to do with femininity and everything to do with fairness.  In fact, fairness, or at least the appearance of it, is a very big thing in sports.  A perfect example is the hullabaloo recently over personnel for the Houston Astros stealing catcher signals and banging a trash can in the dugout.  And who could forget  Tom Brady and a slightly deflated football.  These were national newsworthy headlines.

Hence, the bill’s sponsor- Nancy Bart0- is not characterizing this as an LGBT issue, but one of fairness and she is quite correct:

Policies allowing an unequal playing field are in force in Arizona now, because Arizona has not addressed it in statute. Women fought long and hard for the same opportunities as men in men sports which is why Title IX was put in place … Fractions of a second can count to qualify for state and regional meets and earn college scholarships. These are the kinds of opportunities that are at stake.

The emotional reaction on the other side is downplaying or ignoring the fairness issue.  They ignore the fact that there are very real physical differences between males and females.  They include bone density, muscle mass, lung capacity, and heart size.  Because one “identifies” as being male in no way changes any of these physical, biological facts and no amount of “identification” can change those facts.  In track and field, males have a decided advantage in distanced races over females and that difference grows as the distance of the race grows.  In the 100-meter run, males hold a 1.01 second advantage while in the 10,000 meter run, males hold a 2 minute, 16 second advantage.  That is biology at work.

The trans activists hate to admit to reality, but it was no random coincidence when two transgender high school athletes in Connecticut took the top prizes in a state championship in 2018.  They- the males parading as females- are built better for this.  Hormones may diminish their abilities over time, but they would still hold an edge because of biology.  To those true female athletes who mumbled under their breath about being cheated, they are the true victims of this insanity.

This quote from a story in the Phoenix New Times illustrates the lengths that transgenders go through to “identify” and the child abuse suffered as a result.  Said the parent of a transgender male-to-female 8-year old:

In her case, because she’s so young and she identified herself so young as being transgender, she’ll never go through boy puberty. When she does get to the point where puberty is beginning, she’ll go on hormone blockers for a few years, so she can be sure that this is the path she wants to go down, and if so, then she’ll take [estrogen] hormones so she can continue down this path. Thinking of [Zoë] in middle school playing sports with boys would be completely inappropriate.

It would now because the parents fed the child’s problem in the first place.  According to the story, the 8-year-old came out as identifying as female while a toddler.  Apparently, young Zoe is a prodigy who can identify as a member of the opposite sex before they can tie a shoe, blow their nose, or grip a pencil.  Other parents quoted in the article said they believe the bill, if eventually approved, would take a psychological toll on their children.  They are well past that stage by entertaining the lunacy in the first place.

No one is compelling transgenders from competing in sports.  They are free to participate in the gender/sex stated on their birth certificate, and their chromosomes.  Perhaps a third category- their own trans leagues- or participation in co-ed sports leagues exclusively may be the ultimate answer.  While Democrats in Arizona and the LGBT cry about unfairness and “psychological harm,” the real victims are biological women who have trained sometimes for the bulk of their lives only to see female cycling records destroyed by Rachel McKinnon and powerlifter Mary Gregory set two records in a single day.

This is not a debate about equality or the rights of transgenders.  They do not have a right to an undeniable athletic advantage.  If equality is the goal, then equality among themselves in the solution.  Leave the real women’s (real women) sports teams alone.