We may finally see an end to this particularly lunatic practice of allowing boys to compete on girls' sports teams, thanks to (we hope) the Supreme Court.
Now, these boys are "transgender" and claim to identify as girls. That's fine. They can identify as a bowl of soup for all anyone cares, but they remain boys, by dint of their XY chromosomes, and retain all the physical advantages that go with being, you know, boys. But one of these boys, Becky Pepper-Jackson, doesn't see it that way.
Facts, though, are stubborn things.
Becky Pepper-Jackson finished third in the discus throw in West Virginia last year though she was in just her first year of high school. Now a 15-year-old sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is aware that her upcoming season could be her last.
His last. Because Becky Pepper-Jackson is a boy. If it's fairness in competitive sports we are talking about, facts matter. These boys, who are agitating to play on girls' sports teams, are, whether it be intentional or through indoctrination, seeking an unfair advantage.
West Virginia has banned transgender girls like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls and women’s sports, and is among the more than two dozen states with similar laws. Though the West Virginia law has been blocked by lower courts, the outcome could be different at the conservative-dominated Supreme Court, which has allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced in the past year.
The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in two cases over whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX that prohibits sex discrimination in education. The second case comes from Idaho, where college student Lindsay Hecox challenged that state’s law.
West Virginia banned boys like Pepper-Jackson from competing in girls' and women's sports because it's hideously unfair. And the cases this article refers to do not place any restrictions on transgender people. They have the same rights to play sports as anyone else; if they have an XY chromosome package, they play on the boys' team; if they have an XX chromosome package, they play on the girls' team. End of discussion.
There is no sex discrimination, save that which has been in place, well, forever. Sports are segregated by sex for a reason.
Read More: HHS Puts WA Children's Hospital in the Crosshairs for Its Refusal to Stop Trans-Care to Minors
West Virginia's Attorney General has some sharp and factual things to say about all this:
“There are immutable physical and biological characteristic differences between men and women that make men bigger, stronger, and faster than women. And if we allow biological males to play sports against biological females, those differences will erode the ability and the places for women in these sports which we have fought so hard for over the last 50 years,” West Virginia’s attorney general, JB McCuskey, said in an AP interview. McCuskey said he is not aware of any other transgender athlete in the state who has competed or is trying to compete in girls' or women’s sports.
Unlike one Supreme Court Justice I could name, I am a biologist, and I think I'm pretty well-informed on the topic of mammalian reproduction. And humans, remember, are mammals. Furthermore, humans as a species exhibit sexual dimorphism; the sexes are different, morphologically, in ways beyond just their genitalia. Here's how:
Sex is not "assigned at birth." It is determined, genetically, at conception. An XY chromosome pair produces a boy; XX, a girl. There are some very rare genetic abnormalities, usually polyploidy of the sex chromosomes, that can produce sexual ambiguities, but those are very rare and tend to be debilitating, not conducive to athletic ability. These are facts.
Men and boys have significant physical advantages over women and girls. Those advantages include greater cardiovascular capacity, greater resistance to injury and trauma, heavier, denser bones, more muscle mass, especially in the upper body, and more fast-twitch muscle fibers. Men and boys are stronger, faster, and have more endurance than women and girls; these differences are great enough to be differences in kind, not in degree. These are facts.
These differences, these inherent advantages, are genetically determined, and they exist before puberty. Even pre-pubescent boys have these advantages over girls of the same age. These are facts.
Becky Pepper-Jackson paints a vivid picture of someone who denies these facts:
Pepper-Jackson has seen some of the uglier side of the debate on display, including when a competitor wore a T-shirt at the championship meet that said, “Men Don’t Belong in Women’s Sports.”
“I wish these people would educate themselves. Just so they would know that I’m just there to have a good time. That’s it. But it just, it hurts sometimes, like, it gets to me sometimes, but I try to brush it off,” she said.
Those people are educated. They understand the differences between males and females. They understand mammalian reproductive biology and all that goes with it, as pertains to humans. They understand that policy is not made tailored to individuals, but for all. And Pepper-Jackson may be "just there to have a good time," but this idiotic practice has led to boys and men, who would be mediocre at best on a boys' or men's team, claiming to be "transgender" and taking from actual girls and women titles, trophies, awards and possibly even scholarships — not to mention invading girls' and women's private spaces, like locker rooms and showers.
Enough is enough. It's time reality was acknowledged.
The Court may rule on this in the coming summer. We'll be right here to bring you the results.
