CONROE, Texas (LifeSiteNews) — Former President Donald Trump vowed over the weekend to support a ban on male athletes competing in female-specific athletics in a hypothetical second term.
“We will ban men from participating in women’s sports. So ridiculous,” Trump said during a rally in Texas, Mediaite reports. “Did you see the man that was on a swimming team at a certain school that I know very well? The record held for like 11 years, he beat it by 38 seconds!” Trump ranted. “But the best is the weightlifting records — they’re going. One guy walks in with one hand … he broke the record that held up for 20 years. For 20 years they’re putting a little half an ounce on each side of the weights and the women are working so hard.”
“Take a look at the weightlifting records!” Trump continued. “You wanna see some real — think of it, two ounces is unacceptable, they beat ’em by many, many, many, many, many, many pounds.”
Trump’s was referring to University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who recently “transitioned” to female yet retains male genitalia and reportedly remains heterosexual (despite self-identifying as lesbian), which has generated unease among his female teammates, particularly due to sharing lockers. The former president’s comments also appear to repeat a conflation of Thomas’ records circulating online, though he has won races that would have otherwise been won by actual women.
Conservatives argue that indulging transgender athletes in this way undermines the rational basis for gendered athletics and deprives female athletes of recognition and professional or academic opportunities. Scientific research affirms that physiology gives 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.”