This just in: Boys and girls are different, and a lot of those differences are physical. Humans have known this since, well, always, but somehow we have to keep fighting this "boys in girls' sports" fight. The good news is, with the Trump administration's take on Title IX and increasing involvement by actual girls and women athletes and their families, this is a fight that we're winning, even if we never should have had to fight it in the first place.
Case in point: California's Yorba Linda High School, where a group of parents held a rally protesting a sporting event, in which a boy was allowed to compete in girls' events.
The California Family Council led a protest Saturday outside Yorba Linda High School ahead of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Track and Field Preliminary meet, urging the California Interscholastic Federation to prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports.
The demonstration in the Southern California city of Yorba Linda focused on a transgender athlete who entered the girls' long jump, high jump and triple jump events. CFC said the athlete entered the meet with the top qualifying mark in all three events, intensifying criticism from opponents who argue CIF’s gender identity policy disadvantages female competitors and conflicts with federal Title IX protections for girls and women in athletics.
Title IX, remember, has been defined by the Trump administration as defining sex (not "gender") as biological; namely, a girl or woman is someone with two X chromosomes. This seems like belaboring the obvious, but that's where we are now. The California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is apparently defying Title IX.
Speakers at the Orange County press conference Saturday included Sophia Lorey, a former CIF and collegiate athlete and outreach director for the California Family Council; Sonja Shaw, president of the Chino Valley Unified School District board and a Republican candidate for state superintendent of public instruction; and multiple female athletes who were competing in Saturday's athletic events.
Republican gubernatorial candidate and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco had been scheduled to attend but was unable to appear because of a shooting incident in Riverside County, Lorey told The Center Square.
The group organizing the protest is the California Family Council (CFC), which is, among other things, dedicated to protecting girls' and women's sports, mostly by keeping boys and men out. That doesn't seem unfair, although the pro-transgender lobby will shout that it is.
Part of the problem in California is that the CIF incorrectly lists the phony definition of "gender" adopted by the transgender lobby, rather than the definition Title IX implies, namely, biology.
The controversy centers on CIF Bylaws, which state that students may participate in school athletics consistent with their gender identity. Opponents of the policy argue it conflicts with Title IX protections for female athletes.
During the press conference, Shaw criticized CIF leadership, calling Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom a “spineless coward.”
The CIF Bylaws, under "Guidelines for Gender Identity Participation," state:
All students should have the opportunity to participate in CIF activities in a manner that is consistent with their gender identity, irrespective of the gender listed on a student’s records
This is wrong. This has always been wrong, it always will be wrong, and the CFC is right to point this out and to keep pointing it out. And, sooner or later, this policy is sure to draw the ire of the Trump administration.
Read More: California School Sees Massive Walkout to Protest Gender Policy - But It's Not What You Think
The Kids Are All Right: SoCal High School Girls Walk Out to Protest Boys in Girls' Bathrooms
Why is this wrong? Here's why, and I'm going to tell you: It flies in the face of biological reality. It's hideously unfair to the girls and women competing against boys and men. The whole "gender" paradigm is horse squeeze, and counter to reality. These are boys and men, claiming to "identify" as girls and women, and while they can identify as a tuna melt for all anyone could care otherwise, just claiming to "identify" as female shouldn't win them a place to compete against girls.
Men and boys, as I am continually pointing out, have significant physical advantages over women and girls. Men and boys are faster, stronger, with longer and heavier bones and more muscle mass per body weight. They have greater cardiovascular capacity, which gives them greater endurance. They are more resistant to minor injuries, and more capable of proceeding even with minor injuries. They have more fast-twitch muscle fibers, giving them a significant advantage in activities that require sudden bursts of energy, like sprinting, jumping, or lifting weights. These are facts, and it is also a fact that these differences exist even before puberty.
And, in all candor, you can color me skeptical about these boys' and men's claims to be "transgender." It's a near-certainty that many of them are cynically and cruelly taking advantage of a social trend, a social contagion, to gain titles and recognition they know they could not gain competing fairly against other males.
The good news is that we seem to be winning this fight. More and more jurisdictions, more and more athletics governing bodies, are pushing back. Most importantly, parents are pushing back. That, along with a vigorous enforcement of Title IX, is how we win, and how we return fairness and, let's face it, sanity, to girls' and women's sports.
