I don’t follow a lot of sports, there isn’t enough time, or they’ve tripped one too many woke-wire culture-mines and have lost my support. And I never followed women’s competitive powerlifting, but folks do, and that’s great if you are into it, unless it’s in Minnesota.
USA Powerlifting is being forced to include biological men who identify as women in the women’s divisions of their competitions after losing an anti-discrimination lawsuit last week.
A Minnesota state court ruled the organization must revise its policy within two weeks and allow trans-identifying men to compete in the women’s categories, per Fox News. They are being called to “cease and desist from all unfair discriminatory practices,” which in this case means limiting inclusion based on gender identity.
Forget jokes about the Soviet-Era East German “women’s” swim team. We’re talking about actual men who power lift competing as women. Men who are middling athletes at best compared to the gods of the sport. But as women, they have an opportunity to excel and simultaneously kill any enthusiasm among biological women to join the sport.
Any competitive sport requires a considerable investment in time and often money to train—years invested in the idea that if you become your best, you might be the best. If you’re a woman in Minnesota, you have to ask yourself if it’s worth the time, and that applies to any sport anywhere the culture has kneecapped girls and women by allowing men to compete as women.
And here’s where I think Title IX gets tricky. It was meant to provide equal access and opportunity for girls and boys (or men and women) in sports. Does knowing you may have to compete against a biological boy rob you of access or opportunity? Does it dissuade girls thinking about sports from joining, not because they are sexist or bigoted but because the system has imposed a new glass ceiling that will be nearly impossible to break?
The science is clear. Given similar size and training, boys and men have advantages. Even after extensive hormone treatments, those born male have something like a 12% advantage out of the gate, and that number only gets more significant based on other variables.
The Left likes to talk about the pay gap. Maybe they need to start talking about the gender gap they’ve created that treats girls and women in sports like second-class citizens.
For their part, USA Powerlifting isn’t giving up. They don’t believe men should be competing in the women’s category.
“Our position has been aimed at balancing the needs of cis- and transgender women whose capacities differ significantly in purely strength sports,” the organization’s president, Larry Maile, said in a statement.
“We have received a summary judgment decision from the Court finding us liable for discrimination. We respectfully disagree with the Court’s conclusions. We are considering all of our options, including appeal,” Maile continued.
If the case rises to the US Supreme Court, how does that story end? Do the Justices declare Minnesota’s Human Right Act, which prohibits barring men from women’s competitions, out of order?
And does Justice KBJ have to recuse herself?
Prerequisite Southpark Gender Humor;
HT | Daily Wire
