Sometime, South Carolina will pass a law and the governor will sign it preventing boys who are transitioning into girls from participating in sports on a girls team.
The law will be in response to the Biden Administration's executive order on Day One of Joe Biden’s presidency outlawing discrimination against transgender people. The SC House Judiciary Committee set aside this no-sports-for-transgenders bill for this legislative session, in a March 16 vote; lawmakers were not required to vote by name.
The President wasn’t asking anybody to like it - just not discriminate against people who feel the need for this transition.
That means, let young people play sports.
A law banning that was struck down by a court in Idaho. A law similar was signed this month by the governor of Mississippi. He readily acknowledged it was a way to ensure that his three daughters compete against other young women. The one case, in Connecticut, which resulted in a lawsuit because a boy transitioning to a girl competed against girls turned moot when one of the girls who filed suit beat the boy TWICE to win a state championship.
We are a long way from boys and girls competing together on the same team, although it does happen in wrestling, soccer and golf.
So high schools and colleges, and amateur teams have to have the expense of two separate teams, two coaches, two sets of equipment. And there’s nothing wrong with that - no one wants to see a 250 pound boy plow through a 115 pound girl on the lacrosse field.
But why couldn’t boys and girls be on the same basketball team? It’s pretty much shooting and dribbling - if you can do that, what difference does it make whose ankles you’re breaking?
However, this isn’t really the discussion here. Transgender bans on sports stem from the idea that women are inferior, they need protection from “the big bad boys,” That, plus the fact that it makes good politics.
The head of the South Carolina Republican Party makes that plain:
SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick's statement on International Women's Day and Protecting Women's Sports
Columbia – See below for SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick's statement on Joe Biden's and Democrats' hypocrisy on International Women's Day:
"Through one of Biden's latest of many executive orders, he announced the formation of a White House Gender Policy Council to 'combat systemic biases and discrimination... to support women’s human rights... and empower girls.' We had no idea the Left was in favor of protecting women's sports.
"Biden said it best, 'Too often, [girls have been] denied the freedom, full participation, and equal opportunity all women are due' and that's why we're 100% behind protecting their equal opportunity by preventing anyone who wasn't born a female from competing in women's sports.
"Democrats say they want to champion women and protect their 'limitless possibilities' in one breath and then in the next breath they want to take away some of those same possibilities–like allowing males to compete on a female team. That's why we wholeheartedly support Representative Ashley Trantham's Save Women's Sports Act and we look forward to seeing it passed and signed into law," said SCGOP Chairman Drew McKissick.
The Associated Press reported most politicians who introduce these bills can’t name one transgender person in their state that wants to compete on “the other team.” A SC lawmaker, Lexington Republican Micah Caskey, says what the proposed law intends to address "is exceedingly rare in South Carolina," according to an article in The State newspaper. A ban is dead, for now in South Carolina; State Superintendent of Education Molly Spearman opposes a ban, as do more that 40 medical professionals who signed a letter. The SC High School League has a waiver policy already in place that addresses the issue, according to The State article written by Emily Bohatch.
Listen, I understand wanting to demonize people and keep your people writing checks to PACs -- it drives Politics in America, so you have to make up “issues”.
But, face it, I could practice for 100 years and I would never beat Serena Williams in tennis. Now, granted, all things equal, I might be able to get to Wimbledon - though I’m pretty sure I could never match Serena’s competitive fire. She is not inferior to me just because I am a man.
High School Sports is about teaching. Let’s not set up artificial barriers to who gets taught.
(Vic MacDonald is editor of The Clinton Chronicle. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chronicle. MacDonald can be reached at 833-1900.)
