White House Fails to Give Girls a Sporting Chance

by Tony Perkins: If Joe Biden wants to tear down an institution like girls' sports, the least he could do is have a good explanation for it. After three weeks, he still doesn't. Instead, his administration stumbles its way through questions, clumsily trying to defend a defenseless policy that would destroy 50 years of women's progress. The worst example came Tuesday, when Jen Psaki -- a mom herself -- couldn't seem to understand why endangering our daughters was a bad idea.

When the issue of Biden's executive order on transgender sports came up in a press conference, Psaki was visibly annoyed. What message does the White House have, Fox News's Rachel Sutherland asked, for girls who end up competing against biological boys . "It's sparking some lawsuits and concern among parents, so does this administration have guidance for schools in dealing with the issue arising over trans girls competing against and with cis girls?"

"I'm not sure what your question is," Psaki said. "The president's executive order has -- " Sutherland started, but was cut off. "I'm familiar with the order," the press secretary interrupted. "But what was your question about it?" "The question is," Sutherland tried again, "does the president have a message for local school officials in dealing with these kinds of disputes that are already starting to arise between trans girls who are competing against cis girls, and a level playing field, particularly in high school sports when it leads to college scholarships?"

Psaki ignored the question, deciding instead to repeat the same tired platitudes that "the president's belief is that trans rights are human rights." How the schools deal with this mess they created, she went on, is up to them. In other words, the president doesn't care about the consequences -- only that Americans suffer them. Unfortunately for Joe Biden, this isn't an issue either side is willing to drop. Parents on both sides of the aisle -- including notable gay and lesbian activists -- are furious at the complete disregard the administration is showing on girls' safety and opportunity.

Look, Senator Roger Marshall (R-Kans.) said, "I wish no ill will towards people [who identify as] transgender, but I don't want boys who are males [with] a Y chromosome to be competing against girls in sports at any level -- middle school, high school, college. And I don't know about you, but I have one daughter and [I've] coach[ed] lots of young ladies in high school sports -- and the opportunity [for them] to get scholarships in college, all of this would be jeopardized. And the girls have rights too." His bill, like Rep. Greg Steube's (R-Fla.), would strip the Title IX funding of any school that goes along with this nonsense. "We just want a level playing field that's fair," he insisted.

And right now, that's the opposite of what girls are getting. As Abigail Shrier points out, the fastest female sprinter in the world, American runner Allyson Felix, has more Olympic gold medals than Usain Bolt. "Her lifetime best for the 400-meter run is 49.26 seconds. Based on 2018 data, nearly 300 high school boys in the U.S. alone could beat it." If the Left isn't stopped, the records of women and girls all over the world will be erased. "That's wrong," Nikki Haley argues. "It's insulting. And women know it, too... They're just afraid to speak out, because they know they'll be silenced and called bigots. But we're not bigots. We're women. And we need to be heard, not silenced. We also need the backing of those who should know better."

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called the whole movement "bizarre" in a pointed exchange with Biden's radical education pick. "That's one way to put it," Steube told me on "Washington Watch." "But I would say it's a lot stronger. I would say it's dangerous-- because not only are you going to have biological men competing with biological women, but they'll also be in the women's locker room. They'll be in the women's showers. They'll be in the women's facility, getting ready for meets as a biological male. And there are a lot of Democrats who obviously have problems with their daughters being in locker rooms and showers with biological men, when the only requirement is that they identify as a woman that day to compete in whatever sport it is."

When he dealt with this issue last year in the House, he brought up some scary instances, where people who identified as transgender women physically overpowered and hurt their competition. "One of the examples I gave was a biological male who was, quote unquote, identifying as a woman. He was in a female boxing match and broke the eye socket of the woman boxer... Men and women are different. They're different physiologically, they're different physically... and that makes it dangerous." It shouldn't be controversial, Greg went on, that "men are stronger [and] bigger. They [have an advantage], because of the different hormones and muscle size... That is a scientific fact. And to just ignore that, if Democrats are the so-called 'party of science,' that just shows you that this is 100 percent a political agenda for them. And they don't care about women's sports -- because if they did, they [wouldn't pursue this]."

And while Steube isn't optimistic about his bill's chances in the liberal-controlled House, the good news is that the states aren't waiting. A whopping 17 of them are moving forward -- racing to stop this lunacy with measures that protect girls' sports. Because at the end of the day, this isn't just about track meets and tennis matches. It's about fighting back against an effort to deconstruct human sexuality, morality -- and with it, Western civilization. This is devious. It's dangerous. And we have to stop it. Contact your state legislators and tell them you support their courageous work to keep the Left from canceling our girls. For more information about bill numbers in your states, check out SaveWomensSports.com.
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Tony Perkins is Family Research Council's fourth and longest-serving president, joining the organization in August of 2003. He is an innovative pro-life and pro-family policy and political leader.

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