COLUMBIA (LifeSiteNews) – On Tuesday South Carolina became the latest state to keep gender-confused males out of sporting events designed specifically for females, with Republican Gov. Henry McMaster signing H4608.
Dubbed the Save Women’s Sports Act, H4608 requires that publicly-sponsored athletic and sporting teams intended for females not be open to males, and that teams intended for males not be open to females unless the school in question has no female team.
Any student who is “deprived of an athletic opportunity or suffers any direct or indirect harm as a result of a violation of this section may initiate a cause of action against the school or postsecondary institution,” as can a student “who is subject to retaliation or other adverse action” for reporting a violation.
The day after signing the law, which took effect immediately upon signing, McMaster called it “common sense”:
It’s common sense, boys should play boys sports and girls should play girls sports.
— Gov. Henry McMaster (@henrymcmaster) May 17, 2022
Supporters of such legislation argue that indulging supposedly transgender athletes’ desire to compete as their “new gender” undermines the rational basis for having sex-specific athletics in the first place – the immutable physical differences between men and women – thereby depriving female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities. Scientific research affirms that concern, indicating 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.”
The Daily Wire adds that, according to the American Principles Project, with South Carolina, 16 states now keep males out of female sports: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.