I love this quote: “Common sense is like deodorant. People who need it most never use it!” Another that makes me chuckle is: “Common sense is not a gift; it’s a punishment – because you have to deal with everyone who doesn’t have it.”

It’s true, some days watching the news can seem like a punishment because there is little that reflects common sense. But recently the Brazilian government exercised some common sense that we here in the U.S. could learn from.

According to the New York Times, Brazil’s government has a message for adolescents as that nation struggles with high teen pregnancy rates and rising H.I.V. infections. That message is: Save Sex for Marriage!

Wow! I haven’t heard a public figure say that in a long time. But that is what Damares Alves, Brazil’s minister of human rights, is encouraging as she promotes abstinence. She says Brazilian youth are having sex because of social pressure, and she is working closely with a campaign called I Chose to Wait. Now that’s common sense!

Schools here in the U.S. should take a lesson from her playbook. Parents can no longer assume that schools will act in their best interest when it comes to moral values. Schools often bypass parents and cater to Planned Parenthood and LGBT activists when it comes to sex education. And that validates this quote: “It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have an education with no common sense.”

Another area to watch is transgender sports. This could be one of the most blatant violations of common sense. Watch this clip to get a feel for how this lack of common sense is frustrating and discouraging for our young athletes in schools all across America.

Did you know that every Democratic 2020 frontrunner supports legislation that would freely allow male athletes into girls’ sports? They will do this by passing the so-called Equality Act. Don’t let the name fool you. There is nothing “equal” about it and certainly no common sense. It would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to make “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” protected under federal anti-discrimination laws.

Thankfully, there are legislators who don’t want this to happen here and Family Policy Alliance of Wyoming® is helping support them.

Our youth are a priceless gift, and we want to pass on to them a Wyoming where God is honored, religious freedom flourishes, families thrive and life is cherished.

Your prayer and financial support will help us do just that.

Sincerely,

Nathan Winters
Director of Advocacy

Happy Father’s Day to all fathers and grandfathers! We praise God for His perfect design in creating the role of fathers in families!

It’s obvious that God’s design for families—and even His perfect design for who we are as males and females made in His image—is being attacked by political activists. But it’s also true that this political agenda leaves many hurting people in its wake.

That is why, for this 2019 Father’s Day, we want to share with you this special message from an Alaska father who knows all too well what happens when a political agenda directly impacts his family.

We thank God for fathers like Rich, who are raising up godly children who stand for biblical truth. And we thank God for fathers like Rich who are willing to speak up on behalf of their children and Truth in our culture that so desperately needs light in the darkness!

 

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My name is Rich, and I am the father of three incredible girls.  They are smart, beautiful and capable young women and I am proud of all three.  As for me, I am Dad—slender, tall, dark, handsome and wealthy (or so I identify).

In reality, I am Dad but none of those other things.  Because I have a vision or desire to be something I am not does not make that thing real or true.  This is a lesson most of us learn early in life.  Somehow, this is a lesson a growing number of political activists choose to ignore.

Another lesson I have learned and passed to my girls is that nothing in life is free.  Everything comes at a price, and that cost must be paid through hard and consistent work.  My middle girl Tanner is a track and field state champion, state record holder, and a Division 1 track and field athlete.  She has diligently worked at improving in her sport and follows strict dietary and weight-lifting guidelines 12 months a year, not just in season.  She has sacrificed much to earn her place in women’s sports.

Hear Tanner share her perspective on her senior racing season with Family Policy Alliance in this video:

Her senior year of high school, she was forced to race against a boy who identified as female.  Fortunately, she beat him, but there were some other less fortunate girls, who probably worked just as hard as Tanner, but were displaced from the podium by this boy participating in girls’ sports.

What about that forgotten girl with dreams of her own and years of hard work?  Does she matter?

Today we see males participating in female sports in Olympic, collegiate, high school and even professional sports.  Natural biological males are winning women’s events and smashing women’s sports records.

As a dad, it is frustrating and leaves me feeling powerless to protect my girls against this invasion of women’s sports by males identifying as women.  The male’s success isn’t because he works harder or because of a lack of effort on the woman’s part. It is simply because of genetics.  He was born male and has physically and biologically developed since birth as a male, regardless of whatever he chooses to believe about his social identity.  Common sense and science dictate the obvious—male and female are anatomically and physiologically different. This means there will never be a level playing field in the arena of athletics when women are forced to compete against men.

Women have worked hard for decades to prove their abilities and earn their place of acceptance in the world of sports.  Males who struggle with gender identity should not be allowed to piggyback on the efforts of women and steal the privileges and honors women have fought and worked so hard to earn.

Why should college recruiters today even grant scholarships to women at all?  Why not just provide scholarships to a team of males to participate in whatever sport (as women) and dominate high school, NCAA, the Olympics, or even professional sports?

Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it?  Ten years ago, the subject of men competing as women against women would have been laughable—yet here we are forced to have this ridiculous discussion.

I have no problem with males who struggle with gender identity wanting to participate in sports.  However, they should compete against each other fairly in a separate category or in the category of their true sex—not take over the world of female athletics.

A transgender sporting category isn’t an event I would watch or support. But, if the world wants to watch sports consumed with identity politics, then those people choosing to watch will financially make it possible for that sporting category to exist.  Leave women’s sports and scholarships for natural born women.

 

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So often, fathers are excluded from the public debate about abortion or about whether it’s ok for men to compete as women in female athletics.

We disagree! The voices of fathers are absolutely critical in our culture—and in the mission field of policy and politics.

Happy Father’s Day to you, Rich, and to all fathers and grandfathers! You are irreplaceable!

The Family Policy Alliance Team

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.”

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?