An organization of the most sensible female athletes and advocates of women’s games is addressing the debatable factor of transgender women and women in the game by proposing a federal law to exempt competitive women’s and women’s games from President Joe Biden’s recent executive order that requires the overall inclusion of all transgender female athletes. .
In the decree to prevent and combat discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation, signed on opening day, Biden’s administration said that any school receiving federal investment should allow biological children to identify themselves as women on women’s sports teams. or face action through the federal government.
But the organization of women’s sports leaders, adding tennis legend Martina Navratilova, several Olympic gold medalists and five former presidents of the Women’s Sports Foundation, is asking Biden’s Congress and management to restrict the participation of transgender women and women who are puberty components (which is the clinical justification for separate sex sports) “while accepting and honoring their participation in the sport. The options would possibly come with separate rounds, more occasions or divisions and/or disability effects.
“We fully help Biden’s executive order, ending the LGBT discrimination society, adding employment, banking, family circle law, and public housing,” said Nancy Hogshead-Makar, a Title IX attorney and one of the leaders of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group. TODAY Sports in exclusive interview. ” Competitive games, however, are similar to medical and pregnancy tests; these spaces require a clinical technique for trans inclusion. Our purpose has been to shield the categories of female and female competitions, adapting the game to trans athletes anywhere possible.
“While the main points of President Biden’s executive order remain unclear, asking women not to force them to give up their hard-won rights to compete and be identified in the elite game, with equivalent opportunities, scholarships, awards, publicity, honor, and respect. “The cause of transgender inclusion is not favorable?” said Hogshead-Makar. “This creates a justified resentment, pushing back the cause of equivalence in society. And excessive position (general inclusion or general exclusion in the game) will make life much more complicated” for transgender people. We’ll have to make the game a welcoming place for everyone.
While the controversy over transgender women and women in the game is not new, the challenge arose in the United States a few years ago when two transgender women were allowed to compete in state athletics in Connecticut, winning 15 women combined ‘indoor state races and championships from 2017 to 19 and underlining the fragmented nature of state law governing the issue.
According to the working group, 10 states require men and women to participate in the best school sports based on their birth gender, prohibiting transgender women from participating in women’s sports, having male puberty or undergoing hormone therapy.
Seventeen states and the District of Columbia require the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports regardless of the degree to which they may have the physical characteristics related to men who otherwise justify the exclusion of men from women’s sports on the grounds of competitive equity and safety.
Seventeen other states have followed a policy similar to that of the NCAA, which allows transgender women and women to compete after taking gender-affirming hormones for one year, and six states have no policies related to gender identity and sport.
“There have been many other approaches to this problem, from general inclusion no matter what to general exclusion no matter what,” Navratilova said in a telephone interview Monday morning. “We’re just looking to find a better way forward. We know there will be those who will not be happy, yet we seek to make things as fair as possible. Now, with transgender athletes, the regulations are unclear. We want clarity, we want some unity. We want to be verbally civil. swap and move the ball forward. “
Donna de Varona, Olympic gold medalist and promoter of the IX: “We are interested in starting a discussion and creating policies to find a solution. Nobody else does that. No one else aims for a solution. Extreme positions save us from focusing” on a just, science-based solution. We’ve all benefited from the game and are just looking to help. »
In addition to Navratilova, Hogshead-Makar and Varona, who was the first president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and now serves on the board of directors of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The working group includes Donna Lopiano, former executive director of the Foundation. . women’s sports; Doriane Coleman, law professor and co-director at the Center for Sports Law
Supporters of her effort come with transgender runner and researcher Joanna Harper, transgender tennis pioneer Renee Richards, tennis star and presenter Pam Shriver, Olympic gold medalists on court and box Benita Fitzgerald Mosley and Sanya Richards-Ross, long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, Olympic gold diving, medalist Micki King and Lyn St. James, male enthusiasts come with Olympic stars Edwin Moses, Greg Louganis and Willie Banks.
“We perceive that this is a complex challenge and that a verbal exchange will not,” Hogshead-Makar said. “Therefore, proposing a federal law to biological women and creating a sports environment for women that is welcoming, respectful and festive for trans women and women is just a small step.
“Currently, trans teams and those who do not speak coverage of biological women and women. They’re in court looking to win on their respective excessive charges. We’ve been looking to officially organize those conversations for over a year without success. That has to replace and we just have to move on. “