COLUMBUS (LifeSiteNews) – Republicans in the Ohio House of Representatives have advanced legislation to limit women’s athletic programs to actual women, potentially setting up a confrontation with moderate Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
The Columbus Dispatch reports that lawmakers attached the bill, which says students can only join sex-specific athletic teams that match their actual sex, to a different bill “that provides resources and mentorship opportunities for new teachers.” It passed the state House 56-28, along party lines, and now moves to the state Senate for consideration.
“Across our country, female athletes are currently losing championships, scholarship opportunities, medals, education and training opportunities and more to discriminatory policies that allow biological males to compete in girls sports,” said one of the bill’s sponsors, Republican state Rep. Jena Powell.
Once again, however, the bill’s greatest obstacle may be a governor of Powell’s own party. Last year’s version of the bill died when DeWine signaled his opposition, claiming 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.” Following his cue, Senate leadership declined to vote on the bill.
The forced inclusion of “transgender women” – biological men who claim to be women – in female sporting events and athletic competitions is among the most contentious manifestations of gender-fluid ideology. LGBT activists claim it’s “discriminatory” to reserve female competitive sports for actual females, but science confirms that “trans women” retain distinct physical advantages through which they can deprive actual female athletes of recognition and scholarship opportunities intended to advance girls.
Scientific research further affirms that hormone suppression does not suffice to cancel out the physiological advantages enjoyed by male athletes.
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 DeWine’s excuse for rejecting the bill, the dueling examples of other Republican governors, Ron DeSantis of Florida and Kristi Noem of South Dakota, demonstrate that “sports leagues and athletic associations” are typically impediments to resolution of the issue, as they approach it with a predetermined position in favor of the LGBT lobby and attempt to intimidate lawmakers and even other students into compliance (Noem has since signed legislation to protect women’s sports).