COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 1, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The Ohio House erupted into chaos this week with Democrat members trying to shout down Republican state Rep. Jena Powell’s introduction of an amendment aimed at preserving female athletics for actual females.
Powell attached the Save Women’s Sports Act as an amendment to a bill allowing athletes in the Buckeye State to profit off their name and likeness.
“The Save Women’s Sports Act is a fairness issue for women to be able to achieve their dreams in athletics in our state, and it’s crucial to preserving women’s rights and the integrity of women’s and girls’ sports,” she said. “Across our country, female athletes are currently losing scholarships, opportunities, medals, education, and training opportunities.”
As Powell spoke, Democrat lawmakers, one of whom was identified as Rep. Michael Skindell, began pounding their desks in protests, shouting her down with screams of “boo” and “unfair.” Video of the incident from multiple positions shows that the outbursts made it impossible to hear Powell from certain parts of the chamber. Throughout the tantrum, several non-protesting lawmakers can be seen looking around, visibly uncomfortable.
On Ohio House floor: Rep. Jena Powell (R-Arcanum) proposes amendment to ban transgender women from participating in women sports, as Democrats try to make a point of order eventually yelling and pounding on desks pic.twitter.com/Nct43Cn4yO
— Andy Chow (@andy_chow) June 24, 2021
Disgraceful behavior from Rep. Michael Skindell at the Ohio House yesterday as Rep. Jena Powell tried to speak. pic.twitter.com/zp8aPsxiyg
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 29, 2021
“I can’t explain always why the left doesn’t like some of the things that we do, but this is a simple bill, an amendment to say, ‘Hey, we want to protect the integrity of women’s sports in the state of Ohio,’” Powell later said. “I think the left is frustrated and oftentimes they speak out in ways that are very inappropriate.”
“This is one of the most extreme political attacks on transgender people in the nation,” Skindell later said, without addressing his conduct on the House floor, “This legislation displays a fundamental ignorance about transgendered people and their participation in sports.”
But scientific research affirms that physiology gives biological males distinct advantages in athletics, which hormone suppression does not suffice to cancel out.
In a paper published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, New Zealand researchers found that “healthy young men [do] not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” and “indirect effects of testosterone” on factors such as bone structure, lung volume, and heart size “will not be altered by hormone therapy”; therefore, “the advantage to transwomen (biological men) afforded by the (International Olympic Committee) guidelines is an intolerable unfairness.”
Despite Democrat agitators’ efforts, the amendment passed 54-40, and the bill passed 57-36, Fox News reports. However, the real threat to the measure appears to be Powell’s fellow Republicans.
John Fortney, a spokesman for Senate President Matt Huffman, said the Senate will not be considering the amended version because the transgender sports ban “itself needs a full set of hearings.”
Without saying whether he would veto the measure, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine went a step further than Fortney and suggested the issue is “best addressed outside of government through individual sports leagues and athletic associations, including the Ohio High School Athletic Association, who can tailor policies to meet the needs of their member athletes and member institutions.”
In fact, as illustrated by the dueling examples of other Republican governors, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, “sports leagues and athletic associations” are typically impediments to reform, as they approach the issue with a predetermined position in favor of the LGBT lobby.