At their Spring 2019 meeting, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) changed their original policy that required an athlete participate in sports based on the gender noted on the student's certificate of birth. The NCHSAA instead voted to now allow students to participate in sports based on their preferred gender identity, which a student identifies by submitting a "Gender Identity Request" form. By implication, allowing biological males who claim to be transgender to compete as females, means they will also have access to locker rooms and bathroom facilities in public schools. Are parents prepared for that?

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In the past couple of years, this type of change has impacted the fairness of Title-IX enabled female sports. Biological males who identify as female have edged out biological females at the high school female Alaska state track championships, have won three titles in the Northeast-10 Championships for women's track, and have placed first and second in multiple Connecticut state track and field championships. This has led to three biological female athletes in Connecticut to file a federal discrimination complaint over being forced to compete with males who claim to be transgender.

This growing trend has also led Duke University Law School professor Doriane Lambelet Coleman to claim at a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing that "So overwhelming is the advantage of testosterone that thousands of men and boys could defeat the female Olympic gold medalists in the 400 meters."

The trend has popped up in all kinds of athletic competitions:

• In marathon running, a male runner named Aron Taylor won first place at the jacksonville Women's Marathon (it was also his very first marathon too!).
• In cycling, a biological male won first place in the women's division of the U.S. Peleton at El Tour De Tucson.
• In mixed martial arts, male fighter Fallon Fox shattered his female opponent's eye socket, leading the opponent to say she "never felt so overpowered in her life."
• In football, male player Christina Gither sued to play in the Women's Football League, however they determined it was unsafe to let him compete against women (although he was still awarded $20,000 by a jury for being discriminated against under state law).
• In soccer, a U-15 team of minors defeated the recent FIFA Women's World Cup champions U.S. national team 5-2.

Biological males have natural advantages: greater lean muscle, larger individual muscle fibers, larger hearts, increased blood flow, higher ability to take in and use oxygen, lower body fat, less joint stress, and more. These lead to unfair advantages as it relates to strength, speed, power, and performance.

This has led organizations such as the USA Powerlifting Federation to ban biologically-born males from competing in female powerlifting. They claim that after commissioning a group of experts to find out if it’s backed by science earlier this year, the results were clear: It’s unfair to allow biological men to compete with women. "To allow those born and who went through puberty as males to compete as females would be inherently discriminatory against a federally protected class: women." 

Do you agree with the NCHSAA's recent change? Do you believe it is fair for the NCHSAA to allow athletes who were born male and went through puberty as males to compete in girls sports and other team activities (bathrooms, showers, locker rooms, etc)?

Sincerely,

Tami Fitzgerald
NC Values Coalition

PS: Would you also consider clicking here and making a donation today towards our work protecting the fairness and privacy rights of female sports in North Carolina?