Two Badger State Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would keep biological males who identify as female from competing in K-12 and collegiate sports in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Legislative Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus is crying foul, asserting the legislation is discriminatory and detrimental to the youth trans community.
State Senator Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) and State Representative Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) this week introduced the Save Women’s Sports Act “to protect the fairness and safety of women’s athletics.”
“This legislation will ensure that female athletes continue to have equal access to athletic opportunities and safe competition under the spirit of Title IX,” Knodl said in a statement. “As the father of two daughters and former student athletes, I am committed to upholding a level playing field where female athletes can thrive, compete, and excel.”
The bills, destined for veto by Wisconsin’s far left Governor Tony Evers, aim to preserve female and male athletics categories in Wisconsin’s primary, secondary and collegiate schools — open to all individuals based on their biological sex listed on their birth certificate. The bills also create an optional co-ed category open to all athletes.
LGBTQ advocates are railing against what they say is discriminatory legislation.
State Representative Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove), part of the Wisconsin Legislative Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus, declared the bills attack transgender and non-binary youth, that they are “hateful, discriminatory, and harmful to some of our most vulnerable and historically marginalized young people.”
“Governor Evers has been clear that he will veto bills that endanger our trans and non-binary young people so we must assume that introducing these bills is meant to fan the flames of the culture wars the far right continues to perpetuate,” Ratcliff said in a statement. “In contrast, our Caucus’ message to trans and non-binary youth is hopeful, positive, and supportive: we see you, we hear you, we value you, and we will never stop fighting for you.”
Alexandra Schweitzer, president of the No Left Turn in Education (NLTE) chapter in Wisconsin, a conservative group advocating for parental rights in public schools, said she agrees that there is discrimination in girls’ and women’s athletics, but it’s coming from the so-called tolerant LGBTQ community.
“After more than 100 years of fighting for women’s rights, fighting for equality … they are trying to take that away from us,” Schweitzer said. “They are stripping us of our rights to stand in a locker room without having to shield our body from a [biological] man. They are stripping us of our rights to compete and win against our own sex.”
At least 22 states have passed and signed laws prohibiting transgender students from participating in sports contrary to their biological sex at birth. Some 500 bills checking the LGBTQ+ political agenda have been introduced in Legislatures across the country, according to the leftist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
A Marquette University Law School poll published in June found 71 percent of Wisconsinites favor laws requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex as assigned at birth.
That’s on track with a recent Gallup poll showing 69 percent of 1,000 U.S. adults believe transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams matching their biological sex as assigned at birth.
The controversial issue has only heated up following the record-breaking success of transgender female student-athletes competing in women’s sporting events.
Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines has been a vocal critic of biologically born males competing in female sports as transgender women.
“My story is not unique. It’s happening every sport, every division, every level in every state, all across the world, really, and every country. So to deny that is entirely disingenuous. It blows my mind,” Gaines recently said in response to what she described as soccer star Megan Rapinoe’s “classic virtue signaling” on the issue of transgender athletes. “I could list 100 examples seriously off the top of my head and me being in the position that I’m in using my platform for this.”
The World Athletics Council, the governing body for international track and field, recently released a policy that prohibits transgender women athletes from elite competitions for women. As National Public Radio reported, the council’s policy largely targets athletes who transitioned from male to female after going through puberty as a male.
The council ultimately decided to prioritize “fairness and the integrity” of the female competition over inclusion.
Schweitzer said that shouldn’t be a controversial position to take.
“We need to continue to support our legislators,” she said. “These are such important bills for young women trying to hold on to equal rights.”
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M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
