A major Granite State sports story this fall involved neither football, NASCAR, nor the Red Sox, but rather girls’ soccer.
We’re looking at you, Bow, N.H.
The story wasn’t really about soccer between the pitch lines but rather about those spectating from the sidelines—mostly parents, at least at first.
You see, Bow High School hosted a Plymouth High team that included a transgender girl/biological male—which troubled many folks, who then chose to share their concerns publicly.
[Editors Note: Plymouth’s student is one of two permitted to play on girls’ teams while a lawsuit works its way through the courts]
Schools like Plymouth and Kearsarge High, unfortunately, opted to ignore a new law recently signed by Governor Sununu prohibiting biological males from competing on girls’ teams. The law was based on a measure I co-sponsored—HB1205. The new statute was naturally challenged in court, which means it will be a while before the relevant issues are fully defined legally. I won’t rehash all the aspects involved here other than to state that while most of us sympathize with all youngsters who just want to play ball, any policy that allows athletes to pick either male or female teams based on the gender with which they claim to identify is problematic.
Inconveniently, some gender identifications change over time. (We’re looking at you, Caitlyn Jenner.) But beyond that, if access to teams—and inevitably bathrooms and locker rooms—is based on “identification” rather than chromosomes, bad actors will surely exploit circumstances. They already have. This endangers girls in their private, personal spaces, as well as on the soccer pitch—where there is already inherent risk involving 150-pound biological males colliding with 100-pound biological females. Sorry.
Concerned Bow parents shared their worries by simply and silently wearing pink wristbands marked by XX—which represents the female chromosome. The male chromosome is symbolized by XY.
The game’s referee reportedly stopped the game and said that Bow would forfeit if the parents didn’t take off their wristbands. The wristbands were removed.
Following the game, several parents received “No Trespass Orders” banning them from school grounds and events – so much for watching your kid play soccer.
Having spent much of my life in education, I understand how insular the education establishment can be. Deviate from progressive orthodoxy and risk expulsion, sanction, or unwarranted opprobrium. Countless examples of all this abound at schools and universities across the land. It’s heartbreaking and un-American.
Constitutionalists immediately saw Bow’s tragic error. Unfortunately, it took longer for school administrators to get over their hubris and learn some civics lessons about freedom of expression, our First Amendment, and fundamental fairness. While Bow administrators dug themselves ever deeper into a muddy and avoidable hole, legal free speech advocates stepped up on behalf of the aggrieved parents, and a lawsuit was filed.
This will likely cost the school district dearly, but it won’t be the offending school administrators who’ll pay. Innocent taxpayers—who already support a school budget approaching $40 million—will end up paying for a settlement because of the perfidy of an arrogant education establishment. Ironically, and sadly, some of these paying citizens will include those whose speech rights were quashed on those soccer sidelines in the first place!
There are lessons to be learned here—civics lessons and more—liberty lessons that should have been learned long ago—lessons that will sadly turn out to be very expensive.
Why did this girls’ soccer saga ever have to become a story in the first place? Answers will eventually manifest themselves, as surely as red cards and penalty kicks are inevitable when immutable rules are broken.
