House Bill 183, to protect Alaska’s girl athletes from having transgenders take over their teams and competitions, is the subject of a public hearing on Monday at 8 am in the Alaska House Education Committee.
Last week, the committee heard from NCAA champion swimmer Riley Gaines and others in the athletic realm about the need to protect girls from boys who decide they’d rather compete in the girls’ divisions.
Watch Friday’s hearing at this link.
On Monday, the committee will hear from the ACLU-Alaska, which has put out an action alert for its supporters to call in and oppose the bill, which the group claims is anti-transgender.
House Bill 183 is at this link.
The bill says it’s the intent of the Legislature that maintaining fairness in athletic opportunities for women is an important state interest; requiring the designation of separate sex-specific athletic teams or sports is necessary to maintain fairness in athletic opportunities for women; significant biological and physiological differences between males and females, including greater strength, speed, and endurance capabilities among males on average, provide a competitive advantage to male athletes in sports; and having separate sex-specific teams furthers efforts to promote sex equality and that discrimination against women and girls in sports is counter to that effort.
In order to preserve an even playing field in school athletic programs and maintain opportunities for female athletes to demonstrate their strength, skills, and athletic abilities, and to provide female athletes with opportunities to obtain recognition and accolades, college scholarships, and the numerous other long-term benefits that result from participating and competing in athletic endeavors, state Statute would be amended to read that schools whose students or teams compete in athletics must designate teams for male and for female, or coeducational/mixed team or sport. The team members would be based on biological sex listed on their birth certificates.
“Girls who participate in sports reap huge benefits for a lifetime. They gain confidence, good habits, strong bodies, and bones, and have a lower chance of osteoporosis, breast cancer, and depression,” said the bill’s prime sponsor, Rep. Jamie Allard. “They have a more positive body image and higher levels of self- esteem. They grow into strong women who are leaders and role models in our communities. They carry the lessons learned far beyond the playing field. And thanks to Title IX, their right to equal opportunities in sports and education is federally protected.”
Letters in support and opposed to the bill have been received by the committee.
Sarah King Hnilica wrote from Fairbanks that
I am writing to you today to show that “I, as well as others in the community, are strongly against HB 183. I feel like this is a step backwards for all human rights regardless of how someone might identify. HB 183 violates students privacy as it sounds like it would require educators and coaches to decide and police whether a student is trans or not. That is absolutely not acceptable and violates medical rights of the student. I am very disappointed in our legislature for even considering such a harmful bill as this. Students have the right to play sports. Please consider how detrimental this bill would be to the emotional and social well being of students.”
Irene Quednow of Anchorage wrote another perspective: “Even with a sex change surgery and hormone therapy there are physical aspects like bone density and greater physical strength that will not change in a transgender male, putting the person at a great advantage in competition with women that is simply unfair.”
Quednow noted that last year Alaska celebrated Lydia Jacoby’s gold medal in the Olympics.
“One of our own Alaskan incredible women athletes. That would most likely never have happened if a transgender male would have competed in the same swimming competition as Lydia,” Quednow wrote. “The argument is being made that it will gravely affect the self esteem of the transgender person if they are not allowed to compete in women’s sports. What about the self esteem of the women’s athletes? Why would they put all the hard work in to compete when their opponent in the competition has such a huge and unfair advantage? That is a huge blow to their self esteem. By allowing transgender males to compete in women’s sports you are telling all women that their hard work and accomplishments mean nothing and one person’s self esteem is more important than another person’s self esteem. And that is never ok.”
Read some of the written testimony here.
Thank Goodness I am of the age that I can clearly enunciate that this issue is the most asinine topic ever to raise its being1 Of course, it is the “feelings” crowd that promotes this brain dead concept.
When I am exposed to the topic, it is an occasion to roar with full volume laughter. You can be what you wish yourself to be, but ‘Sweetly” or “Butch”, I am not going to acknowledge you other than you have a ‘Johnson” or you don’t. You are what God made you.
Peace and good Cheer
I emailed my House Rep and Senator. Hopefully they will listen to me that I support women sports for women. But these days it seems they represent themselves. Let’s hope not!
Here we go again. By using the term “biological male,” we are acknowledging there are different types of males: real males and those that are supposedly women. Furthermore, to maintain their image of political correctness, most women athletes still refer to transgenders with feminine pronouns. We can’t have it both ways. If we refer to men as anything other than simply “men” then we must allow them to compete with women. The transgenders are not the problem. The problem is those of us who tolerate this nonsense and actually participate in it with modified language. Most women athletes are guilty of this.
Excuse me, but where are the courts and the American Psychiatric Association regarding gender dysphoria? Why must our legislative government be forced to pass laws to protect us from the mentally ill, and the mentally ill be allowed to freely continue their damaging behaviors?
LOL, They obviously have all forgotten the “KISS” principle.
Keep it stupid simple…
Or the progressive hairy left handed libertarians goal…Make it simply stupid!
Pretty simple. At birth you are born male or female. Not “biological male” Protect women’s sports from these trolls that are in a delusional mental state.
They need to be told NO at every corner. Keep women’s sports for REAL WOMEN! Not fairy men who feel like being a girl, while still having a log in their pants!
The term “real women” implies there are fake women. Fake women would be men. Just say, “men”–full stop.
I think there shld be a different category all together for trans athletes to compete among themselves. This way, no one can say their rights are being taken away by denying them to compete.
Isnt that category called “special olympics”???
There are males calling themselves females; there are females calling themselves males. Accordingly, we would need two so-called “trans” categories. However, we already have two categories. Let’s leave well enough alone.
If it were really about fairness in sports, why do you NEVER hear about a trans female dominating ANY male sport…EVER! If someone out there can name a single male sport that is being dominated by a female turned “male”, I will shut up.
Come to think of it, its not even about athletics only. Women have their own international chess league for a reason.
Moral decay is part of the long game.
We need a hearing to protect our wives, daughters and granddaughters. This is unreal. I’m sick and tired of hearing about this crap.
Lydia Jacoby and Kikkan Randall would never be Olympic gold medal winners if they had to compete against men. Hopefully these two will stand up for women’s sport and support this bill. Being quiet is being a hypocrite.
Lets get a cross country skier that is an expert on Climate change from Anchorage, dude.
These “public testimonies “ are outdated and a waste of time and money. We all are aware of this small faction with unlimited time and resources and their ability to make their opinions the only ones heard. Better to make all testimonies in person from designated public places in the state. Then at least we would know that they live here. Otherwise, it should be disregarded. We can’t expect everyone to travel to our disconnected capital so voting places could be used at least for local residents to register for testimonies and given a sequence number after proving their residency. Certainly our legislators are capable of organizing such a thing.
If passed, this discriminatory legislation will be challenged in the courts and likely thrown out.
The privacy clause of the Alaska State Constitution guarantees the right to privacy for all citizens, regardless of your moral outrage.
That includes women. The ignored group in this mess.
Your feelings are inconsequential to this matter. From a legal standpoint, this legislation is a loser right out of the gate. My prediction is that this bill will die a silent death, as it should.
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