Tim Barto: Time to draw the line for fairness for girls

By TIM BARTO

There comes a time with almost every major social movement when a line must be drawn; a line that says, “Enough is enough. If we don’t put an end to this creeping creepiness then it will continue to grow and fester and get out of control.” As far as the transwomen in sports movement goes, that time is now. 

The Alaska School Activities Association (ASAA) is holding its spring meeting in Valdez this week. The ASAA is an overseer of extracurricular educational activities.

As the backgrounders of ASAA’s board membership indicate, there’s an emphasis on sports, but the Association also governs diverse areas such as art, music, drama, debate, and student government. It’s a pretty safe bet that your average Alaskan isn’t too familiar with ASAA because unless you’re involved with extracurricular activities or (more likely) have a child who is involved, then you won’t have much interaction with them. 

The ASAA Board of Directors is an impressive group of people with multitudes of accomplishments and awards to their credit, due to decades of teaching, coaching, mentoring, and counseling.

And now those board members are attracting attention they have probably not experienced off the court or ballfield, and one gets a suspicion they would rather not be drawing such attention. But the crazy-headed-full-speed-towards-completely-insane world in which we live is drawing them in.

A couple months ago the Alaska State Board of Education recommended –- unanimously –- that ASAA address the issue of boys competing in girls’ sports by protecting girls’ sports; that is, keeping girls sports for biological girls. So, the ASAA Board took up the issue, with testimonies being heard on May 1^st and 2^nd.

How did it get to this point? Why couldn’t this action be taken in the legislature – you know, the governmental body that makes laws?

Well, Sen. Shelley Hughes of Palmer, a true conservative and a fighter for common sense who is standing with two other conservative senators (Mike Shower of Wasilla, and Robert Myers of North Pole) in a micro-caucus of three, introduced legislation to protect girls’ sports during the previous legislative session.

It went nowhere and received very little support from the general public.

Hughes wanted to introduce the bill again this session, but a deal was struck between both sides of the aisle that controversial social legislation would not be forwarded by either side. That deal was quickly broken when SB43 was introduced by Senator Elvi Gray-Jackson.

The bill, which is co-sponsored by fellow Anchorage Senators Loki Tobin and Forrest Dunbar, mandates sex education starting in kindergarten and is based on National Sex Education Standards that include teaching of gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, and sexual identity.

This type of legislation obviously fits the definition of controversial social legislation, so Sen. Hughes wanted to get the ball rolling on her bill to save girls’ sports.  

Not so fast. The Senate, while made up of a majority of Republicans (11 of 20 members), is controlled by the left, with the Education Committee – where the bill would almost certainly be referred – particularly solid in its commitment to collectivism. Bottom line: the bill wouldn’t get anywhere in the Senate.

Over on the House side, Reps. Tom McKay of Anchorage and and Jamie Allard of Eagle River, respectively, would love to get the bill heard, but while they have hopes that it would survive a series of contentious hearings, they also know that it has no chance of getting through the liberal-irrespective-of-party-affiliation Senate.

So, here we are turning to ASAA for leadership and courage. And courage it will take because those opposing the measure are loud, fervent believers in their cause. The idea that a boy/man can simply choose to call himself a girl/woman and it magically becomes so, has become sacrosanct.

Never mind all that Title IX has accomplished for female athletes over the past 50 years. If a transwoman is a woman, as the screeching goes, then transwomen should get to compete with and against women, even if the athlete is biologically male. 

Tolerance and individual rights are often touted as reasons for allowing biological boys to play girls’ sports, but tolerance should not include unfairness, and the rights of one individual gaming the system should not strip away the rights of the other 99-plus-percent of girls participating in earnest. Title IX paved the way for female participation in sports. When passed into law in 1972, there were approximately 300,000 females participating in high school and college athletics. Today, that number is close to 4 million. 

But today, boys and men are being allowed to participate as girls and women based solely on their inner feelings that they are female.

One only needs to look at Lia Thomas, the University of Pennsylvania swimmer who was awarded the title of NCAA champion last year. Thomas, who swam for Penn as a male during the early part of his college career, moved up in the rankings from 65^th as a man to 1^st as a woman in the 500-yard freestyle, and from 554^th as a man to 5^th as a woman in the 200-yard freestyle. Thomas went through male puberty, and while he took medication that limits the amount of testosterone in his system, the fact is that he still went through male puberty.

Remember those East German women swimmers who looked masculine and dominated women’s international competitions in the 1970s? As masculine as they looked, their physiques pale in comparison to that of Lia Thomas.

It’s easy to find other instances of transgender females winning high school track meets, running over rugby opponents, or pummeling biological women in mixed martial arts competitions. It’s reached the level of absurdity, and it’s time to draw the line and now allow it to go any further. Alaska has a chance to be rational and realistic, and protect girls’ sports for girls. Please let your thoughts be known on this issue.  

The Alaska Family Council is leading a petition drive to encourage the ASAA Board to act appropriately and responsibly in protecting girls’ sports.  You can access it here:  Sign the petition today! GIRLS DESERVE FAIR PLAY! – Alaska Family Council (akfamily.org)

Tim Barto is Vice President at Alaska Family Council. He is baseball coach and the father of five grown children, including two who were competitive female athletes.