By Stephanie Curry, Esq. Public Policy Manager for Family Policy Alliance®
A few weeks ago, Connecticut held their State Open championship track and field events. Terry Miller broke the record for the girls’ 100-meter dash at 11.72 seconds and Andraya Yearwood came in second place.
Normally, we’d applaud Terry and Andraya’s hard work and tireless training for such an accomplishment. But Andraya and Terry are both boys. Transgender identifying boys. Boys who say they’re girls; Boys who have (thankfully) not taken any feminizing hormones; Boys, in every sense of the word–competing on the girl’s track team.
The world record for the men’s 100-meter dash, set by Usain Bolt, is 9.58 seconds. The world record for women, set by Florence Griffith-Joyner, is 10.49. Females have never broken what’s referred to as the 10 second barrier. But every top male runner has.
Our biology and physiology doesn’t change just because our social agenda does. A boy can say he feels like a girl, dress like a girl, and grow his hair long. But that doesn’t change the fact that boys can carry more oxygen than girls and that they have longer and larger bones, which can be a distinct advantage in running. Boys have stronger ligaments and higher muscle density, which is a significant factor in sports that depend on speed and acceleration–like running.
In sports, these biological advantages mean that men’s world record numbers are almost always 10% higher than women’s. This is true across most sports like swimming, running, cycling, and rowing. The world’s best athletic women typically perform at 90% of the world’s best men. The 100-meter dash world record represents a factual and scientific reason as to why we have men’s sports teams and women’s sports teams. It’s why high schools and universities have a girls’ track team and a boys’ track team. The world has recognized there’s something fundamentally unfair about women being forced to compete directly against men in sports.
But the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) doesn’t think the facts are fair. They claim Connecticut’s non-discrimination law requires they not discriminate against transgender individuals, by allowing boys to compete against girls. The CIAC Handbook declares, “it would be fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable state and federal law” to prohibit a student from competing on a team in accordance with their “gender identity.” The CIAC has bought into the Left’s lies that we should not acknowledge the differences between men and women because that’s “discrimination.”
Hear from Alaska high school track star Tanner, who competed against a biological male in her state championship and won, on why boys’ and girls’ sports teams should be kept separate.
The Left’s version of social progress looks a lot like moving backwards. We’re moving backwards when boys are allowed to push out girls—with government approval. Not because they might be better at sports than girls, but because they can “become a girl.”
In the Connecticut State Open, Nikka X. came in third with a time of 12.68 for the 100-meter dash. She should have been first. Nikka can never get that experience back. Andraya and Terry may just be “living their lives,” but girls are being harmed. Two wins were taken away from girls. Maybe two scholarship opportunities. Two positions on a university sports team. Two spots on the State Championship list. It doesn’t matter how hard those Connecticut high school girls train, boys (in general) are going to be 10% better.
Family Policy Alliance values the differences between our boys and girls. We support legislation that respects and honors the fundamental differences between men and women. Biological sex isn’t a social cause to rise against, and it doesn’t have an agenda. We hope you will join with us to speak the truth about God’s good design for male and female in our schools, laws, businesses, and culture. If the family of believers won’t speak this truth together to our hurting nation, who will?
