Texas trans athletes bill to protect college sports rights for women is a no-brainer | Opinion

Texas lawmakers are debating a bill that would require a student athlete attending a public university or college to play on the team that aligns with the student’s biological sex. Like similar bills before that addressed K-12th grade, it’s creating controversy.

The bill is already being portrayed as either a step towards fairness or discrimination. Two things can be true at once: This issue is important, although not the biggest one the Legislature faces, and fairness for women in athletics should be defended with little fanfare. It should be obvious that allowing biological males to compete against them violates Title IX, the federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education and athletic programs.

Have you seen male athletes on a track, football or soccer field? Their bodies are generally bigger, taller and stronger than most female athletes. Their lungs have more capacity, their hearts are bigger, their muscles are larger and more dense, and even their hips are situated differently than a woman’s so they can run faster.

Male athletes have a physical advantage over female athletes, full stop. Ever heard of a female athlete vying to play on boy’s or men’s teams as a male? It’s pretty rare at best.

Even if an athlete born male transitions and takes female hormones, puberty cannot be fully reversed, and the advantage testosterone gives is still present.

Riley Gaines spoke in support of the Texas bill Monday at a rally at the Capitol. You might not know her name, but you likely know her competition: former teammate Lia Thomas. Thomas, born male, took a break from swimming on the men’s team at the University of Pennsylvania, transitioned to female and started swimming in women’s competition.

Gaines also swam with that team. (She later transferred to the University of Kentucky.) Thomas started besting female peers, stripping them of victories and titles usually they earn.

During one race, Gaines tied with Thomas for fifth place in the 200 meter freestyle during NCAA Division I Women’s Championships. Gaines has had the courage to point out how unfair it was to her and her fellow swimmers to compete against a biological male.

In Connecticut, two biological men “transitioned” to female and started running against women on high school track teams. The schools allowed this because they didn’t want to seem discriminatory. Starting in 2017, two biological males competed against females in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, and they won 15 women’s track championship titles. The year before, nine different girls had held those titles. Several women have sued the organization responsible for the school’s policies.

A state court judge in Minnesota recently ruled that USA Powerlifting discriminated against a trans woman when it banned her from competing in its women’s division. The ruling required that USA Powerlifting stop “unfair discriminatory practices” and revise its gender identity policy right away.

If gender identity is the basis for a protected legal class, then it makes sense that any policy excluding trans people would be discriminatory. But in the sports arena, such a law ignores the innate differences between male and female physiology.

Texas’ bill should be passed with no drama or fanfare because the concept of allowing biological men to play against women — regardless of identity — disrupts the very idea that women deserve to compete fairly in robust athletics programs. It’s not about discrimination but recognizing the inherent biological differences between sexes.

In America, women enjoy a lot of gender parity, perhaps more than in most countries. Title IX was created to ensure that women are treated fairly in high school and college sports. Allowing men who identify as female but have natural biological advantages to compete against women in the name of discrimination laws is unfair to women.

This is so obvious, it shouldn’t need to be codified as a law — in Texas or anywhere. Women have fought too hard for fairness, only to be set back by men again.