Imagine a world without Megan Rapinoe, Serena Williams and Jackie Joyner-Kersee. That is the world President Biden has initiated by signing Executive Order 13988, which states that “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the rest room, the locker room, or school sports ... no matter their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
For practical purposes this EO will require any school that receives federal funding nearly every public high school and college to allow biological boys who self-identify as girls onto girls’ sports teams.
Let me be clear, this is not a question of one’s freedom to be male, female or anything in between. Everyone has a right to choose their gender identity and sexual orientation. However, it is unfair to ignore the science that the typical advantage in mass and strength that biological males enjoy over females is between 20% and 100%. We are all equal in dignity but we are not all equal on the playing field.
My concern is that our daughters and granddaughters may become mere spectators in their own sports. Males are now able to replace females on sports teams, take away medals and scholarships, and discourage females from participating in sports. As a child of the 1960s I watched as women fought long and hard for Title IX to offer girls the same opportunities in athletics as boys.
How ironic that with the stroke of one man’s pen we have crippled 50 years of feminist progress.
Donna GulecDurango
