Biological guys participating and dominating against female competitors is not a new phenomenon.
At the NCAA championships last week, Lia Thomas, a biologically male swimmer, claimed the women’s 500-yard freestyle race, beating out three Olympic silver medalists.
It was the most high-profile example yet of a born male transgender athlete playing in women’s sports.
Other Instances
While Thomas’ dominance has garnered national attention, women’s sports activists remind us he is not the only biological guy to accomplish so.
In February 2020, the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal charity, filed suit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, accusing it of breaching Title IX rules that provide women equal access to school athletics.
They lost many chances to win championships because they were biologically male players in Connecticut, the complaint says.
Save Women’s Sports has documented dozens of incidents of biological guys playing in women’s sports.
See below June Eastwood, a top-ranked cross-country athlete at the 2017 Big Sky Championships while racing as a guy.
This is June Eastwood, a male athlete that identifies as female, winning the #NCAA Big Sky Women's Championships. One title is too many! One young woman losing out is too many! #SaveWomensSports pic.twitter.com/iAsNLNjbxO
— Save Women's Sports (@SaveWomensSport) March 1, 2021
After becoming a woman in 2019, Eastman won the women’s 1500-meter race at the Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Finals in February 2020.
CeCe Telfer, a transgender athlete from Franklin Pierce University, won the NCAA Division II 400-meter hurdles title in May 2019, becoming the first genetically male athlete to do so.
According to Save Women’s Sports founder Beth Stelzer, women competing against biological men occurs at all ages and is “extremely harmful for our young women to experience.”
Protect Women!
By permitting these individuals into our places, we’re telling our daughters they can’t say no.
“These young women frequently lack the opportunity or bravery to speak up, and they’re caught in unpleasant situations.”
If we want to stop the erasure of women we have to stop voting for the politicians who are contributing it. Talk to your local representatives and tell them you will not vote for them unless they step up to protect women. #savewomensrights #standupforwomen
— Beth Stelzer (@BethStelzer) March 23, 2022
It might be over for women’s sports, says Stelzer.
Admitting transgender athletes are athletically better than their female counterparts has discouraged players, which led to early retirements that might end the sport.
“We already have young female moms abandoning sports because what’s the point?” She said, “In a few generations, women’s sports will be extinct.”
Last week, as a protester at the NCAA swimming finals, Stelzer urged institutions to “stand up and defend women and girls, rather than catering to the concerns of a small proportion of individuals.”
Stelzer remarked, “Sports offer us the basic blocks we need for life. More than 90% of female CEOs and political figures were once athletes.”
“Adding a male body alters the balance, whether they win,” she noted.
While Thomas and other transgender sportsmen raised awareness of biological males winning women’s sporting championships, Republican state legislators and governors passed laws, mandating athletes compete as per their biological sex.
After vetoing identical legislation last year, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem approved a law last month, barring sportsmen like Thomas and Eastwood from participating in women’s sports.
A measure signed into law by Indiana’s Republican-controlled legislature would have made it the 10th Republican-controlled state to do so.
