(LifeSiteNews) — House Speaker Mike Johnson defended Biblical Christian teaching on the sexes Tuesday after the House passed a bill prohibiting biological men from women’s sports teams in public schools.
“We know from Scripture, and from nature, that men are men and women are women, and men cannot become women,” the Louisiana Republican said during a press conference after the House signed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. “It’s sad that we have to say that. It’s a matter of biology. It’s how we’re made.”
Johnson explained that the bill, which was signed by all House Republicans and only two Democrats, “require(s) all schools receiving federal funds to uphold the original meaning of Title IX and keep biological men out of women’s sports.”
The speaker pointed out that as a result of allowing men to compete against women in sports, “over 1,000 medals, awards and scholarships intended for women” have gone to men.
“It’s dangerous, it’s unfair, it’s a rejection of reality, and it’s just plain wrong,” Johnson said in condemnation of the practice.
During a question-and-answer session, a reporter asked Johnson to account for the Scriptural teaching that “a man is a man and a woman is a woman”:
You led off saying that a man is a man and a woman is a woman … and that’s what Scripture teaches…. Can you say why you think Christian Scripture teaches that? I’m curious about your response to various different Christian traditions that interpret Scripture differently, who ordain openly transgender people.
“Well, it goes back to the first book – Genesis: male and female, he made them,” Johnson replied. “I mean this is pretty clear, I’m not sure there’s another interpretation, but everybody’s open to interpreting Scripture however they will.
“But this comports with common sense, as well. So we know it from our religious tradition, which I believe is the truth – I’m a Bible-believing Christian and make no apology about that,” Johnson continued. “But whether you regard that as truth or not, it’s also nature. It’s biology, and biology is not bigotry.”
The Democrats who voted in favor of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act are Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez, both of Texas, a slight improvement from 2023 when House Republicans passed the bill without any Democratic support to see it then quashed by the Senate. This week, the remaining 206 House Democrats voted against the bill.
Riley Gaines, an All-American swimmer turned women’s sports activist, lamented during Tuesday’s press conference that women have to fight for the fundamental rights of equal opportunity, privacy, and safety in the sports arena.
“I’m mad that as women, we have to beg for equal rights. I’m mad that we have to beg for privacy in areas of undressing and I’m mad that we have to beg for safety on the court or on the field,” Gaines declared.
Studies have shown that males have a considerable advantage over women in athletics in many ways, even after testosterone suppression. A United Nations report concluded that “(P)harmaceutical testosterone suppression for genetically male athletes – irrespective of how they identify – will not eliminate the set of comparative performance advantages they have already acquired.”
A paper published in the Journal of Medical Ethics noted previous research found that “healthy young men did not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced to (below International Olympic Committee guidelines) for 20 weeks,” according to the Daily Caller. Moreover, “indirect effects of testosterone will not be altered by hormone therapy.”
“For example, hormone therapy will not alter bone structure, lung volume or heart size of the transwoman athlete, especially if (he) transitions post-puberty, so natural advantages, including joint articulation, stroke volume and maximal oxygen uptake, will be maintained,” they explained.