CHARLESTON, West Virginia, April 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The governor of West Virginia has indicated he will allow a bill restricting the participation of transgender athletes in schools to become law in his state.
“What I’ll plan to do is either let it go into law or sign it,” said Gov. Jim Justice (R) on Saturday of House Bill 3293 passed by the State Senate and House of Delegates late last week. “I don’t know which one quite yet.”
If he follows through with his stated intention, the Mountain State will be the fourth state to enact legislation that will keep biological males out of girls’ sporting events. Last month, after signaling strong support for a similar bill in her state, south Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) suddenly stopped fully suporting the measure, leaving women’s athletics in her state unprotected from transgender encroachment.
Perhaps signaling similar qualms, Gov. Justice said that while he supports the legislation for middle and high schools, he is uncertain about enforcing it at the collegiate level.
“It concerns me that we may miss out on a really important sporting event or something that could come to West Virginia that we miss out on,” said Justice, according to a report by West Virginia Metro News.
Pro-transgender forces rally against the bill
A small group of West Virginians opposed to the bill turned out to protest at the State Capitol Saturday morning.
“We are here to show that trans people do exist, we are very much alive. Try to address how damaging this bill is going to be to the trans community in West Virginia,” said Ash Orr, Chair of the Morgantown Human Rights Commission, according to a WTRF report.
Orr went on to say that the bill is “toxic and damaging.”
State Del. Danielle Walker (D) suggested to the crowd that her colleagues who voted in favor of the legislation had exhibited “dehumanizing behavior.”
“These kids have an uphill battle just trying to get teachers to use the right pronouns and to use their preferred names,”said Christina Baisen, a mother of two transgender children.
Growing support among U.S. states to keep men out of women’s sport
So far, at least 25 state legislatures have introduced measures to prevent men from entering girl’s school athletics. Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee have already enacted such legislation.
“If the A.C.L.U. gets its way, women’s sports will no longer exist,” said Roger Brooks, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“There’ll be men’s sports and there’ll be semi-coed sports,” asserted Brooks, “and women and girls … will be losers.”
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.”