In pieces I've penned previously on this topic, I've mentioned my grandson, whom the family calls Moose. Moose is definitely all boy. He has a chest like a beer keg, fists nearly as big as his head, and he is as steady on his feet as a fire hydrant. (Yes, I do enjoy bragging about my grandchildren.)
He's four.
Imagine what Moose will be like when he's 18. Now imagine the brutal unfairness of letting this boy play on a girl's sports team.
However, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has been allowing just this, as a matter of course. But in a recent letter to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, buried well into that letter, comes an interesting admission from NCAA President Charlie Baker:
At a time when the NCAA faces backlash for suppressing women’s achievements, NCAA President Charlie Baker made a blockbuster admission buried on page 18 of a recent letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee: "The NCAA has never studied the harm of its policy allowing males identifying as women to participate and compete on women’s teams." Not ever.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posed the question among a series in follow up to Baker’s appearance at a hearing entitled Name, Image, Likeness and the Future of College Sports:
Sen. Mike Lee: Has the NCAA assessed the physical, emotional, psychological harm of its transgender inclusion policy on female athletes? If so, what are the findings? If not, why not?
Pres. Baker: The NCAA has not conducted any research related to the current transgender policy.
That’s a bombshell. The NCAA’s "Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy" which sent male Lia Thomas into the women’s locker room and continues to promote males for national titles in women’s sports has never been researched for its (now evident) harm to female athletes.
Calling that a bombshell is something of an understatement. This, while being somewhat obvious, is a gob smacker of an admission by a man (yes, I'm going to presume his gender) who really should know better and who, if he was honest about it, does know better. The harm done by boys and men competing on girls' and women's sports teams is well documented and, really undeniable, and that harm is not limited to just the loss of titles and scholarships.
See Related: Transgender Swimmer Lia Thomas Won't Go Away, Sues to Allow Continued Male Domination of Female Athletes
Here's a news flash for Mr. Baker (yes, I'm going to presume his pronouns): Such studies have been done, they are readily available online, and they absolutely slam the door on your organization's stance that there is any fairness whatsoever in allowing men on women's sports teams. One such study involved male and female power athletes and was published by the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology; here is a portion of their conclusion. By all means, read the entire paper.
In conclusion, the results of the present investigation indicate that significant differences in strength and power relative to body mass, lean body mass, and muscle thickness exist between male and female strength and power athletes. The present study also confirms that deep relationships exist between strength and power performance and muscle architecture in trained athletes. In particular, high correlations exist in both sexes between the muscle thickness of pectoral muscles and both bench press 1RM and power.
(Emphasis added by me.)
In summary — I'll try not to use too much confusing science-speak — men and women are different, with differing capacities, and men are (yes, this is belaboring the obvious) on average an order of magnitude stronger, faster, and have more endurance than women. This has been known since there have been men and women. It's not subject to debate, although it's interesting — and revealing — to see it studied and actually quantified.
These are facts.
I've cited my grandson Moose, but visit any preschool playground, watch the boys and girls, and you'll see that these differences start to manifest themselves long before puberty.
These are facts.
The transgender athletes who push this all seem to go in one direction — men trying to pass as women — precisely because of those advantages.
Allowing boys to play on girls' sports teams and allowing men to compete on women's sports teams is grossly unfair, cruel, and possibly dangerous. The claims made by advocates of transgender athletes are simply false. Now the NCAA has come right out and admitted that they have not even looked into these facts.
The question I'd like to pose to Mr. Charlie Baker is this: "What will you do now?"
