OPINION:
The results of the Center Square’s recent poll of registered voters on a hot issue come as no surprise. Fully two-thirds of American voters oppose biological males who identify as women from competing in women’s athletics.
American voters have consistently rejected the “trans inclusion” agenda of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and far-left liberals. Yet both continue to ignore voters’ positions and the rights of women. It’s why 23 states have enacted laws to protect fairness for female athletes.
The issue came to a head in 2022 when NCAA transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who had previously competed on the University of Pennsylvania’s men’s swimming team, smashed school, pool and Ivy League conference records in the women’s freestyle events on the way to winning an NCAA Division I national championship in women’s swimming.
Lia Thomas also freely undressed in women’s locker rooms, forcing frontal nudity on female athletes without their consent.
Voters know this is not right. No matter how you slice the poll results, no majority supports “allowing transgender female student-athletes to compete on women’s and girls’ sports teams.”
Even a majority of the poll’s self-identified “strong Democrats” aren’t in favor of this. According to the results: “Those ‘strong Democrats’ were only 43% supportive with 37% opposed and 20% unsure.”
This is an indictment on the NCAA’s crusade to promote Lia Thomas holding a women’s swimming trophy and the Biden administration’s determination to rewrite the meaning of sex under Title IX. President Biden is sprinting to the finish line this fall to establish rules that would block schools from having a policy that keeps women’s sports for women only — a rule that could backfire:
“The group driving that support are very left-leaning Democrats,” said Mike Noble, founder and CEO of Noble Predictive Insights, which conducted the poll. “It is pushed by Democrats on the left. Biden’s administration has really embraced it.”
Despite the Thomas backlash, the NCAA remains dedicated to promoting “trans inclusion” at the expense of female athletes while disregarding the scientific and psychological evidence of disadvantage and physical and emotional harm to women.
Since 2010, the NCAA has showcased its “pride” by pushing a trans inclusion policy ironically written by lesbian rights groups. These women apparently don’t care about female athletes. The NCAA’s Inclusion of Transgender Student-Athletes handbook dated August 2011 was a stealthy, cut-and-paste repackaging of the report written by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and Billie Jean King’s Women’s Sports Foundation.
No NCAA member school challenged this policy because the NCAA operates as a demigod at the center of the collegiate sports universe and holds the keys to selecting host sites for postseason competition, a process starting anew this week.
The NCAA acts as the self-appointed authority over Title IX and state laws on sex discrimination while pledging allegiance to the pride flag and the International Olympic Committee, not U.S. sex discrimination law governing its member institutions.
In 2016, the NCAA boycotted North Carolina, pulling all postseason competition, including the NCAA Division II baseball tournament, in protest of a “bathroom bill” that protected women’s restrooms and locker rooms on the basis of biological sex.
The NCAA now forces colleges to complete a lengthy “nondiscrimination questionnaire” disclosing any law or institutional policy that the almighty NCAA could consider “discriminatory,” such as:
• Does your city, county, or state regulate choice of bathrooms or locker rooms that may affect student-athletes, coaches, administrators, game officials, or fans during the Event?
• If the Event is planned to be held on institutional/campus property, does your institution have provisions that interfere with any person’s choice of bathroom or locker room?
• Does your city, county, or state have any laws, regulations, or policies related to the participation of transgender student-athletes?
The NCAA is not backing off, and it won’t unless NCAA President Charlie Baker has the backbone to confront the failures of former President Mark Emmert, who sought cover from the IOC and transgender activists he invited to the table, including Chris Mosier and Schuyler Bailar, while shutting out the voices of female athletes directly assaulted by NCAA’s policies.
The Center Square’s poll is further evidence of how out of touch and out of reach the NCAA remains in its attack on its own athletes, cloistered in its Indianapolis ivory tower run by DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) administrators like Jean Merrill, NCAA director of Inclusion.
Her advocacy as a once-closeted lesbian is forcing female collegiate athletes, including 31-time All American swimmer Kylee Alons, into the closet to protect her own safety and dignity while Ms. Merrill coerces women into a sexually hostile environment allowing Lia Thomas in the female locker room.
Even Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona admitted that this was sexual harassment. The NCAA has never apologized.
Standing for the safety, dignity, and equal opportunities of female student-athletes should not be a political issue, but the NCAA’s authoritarian trans-inclusion agenda and the Obama and Biden administrations seeking to turn Title IX on its head have made the issue all too political. This pollster’s observation might be the key to correcting the injustice for female athletes:
“This is a huge opportunity for Republicans this election to use it as a wedge issue,” Mr. Noble said. “They don’t have a lot of wedge issues. This is a good issue for Republicans.”
If it takes a change in political leadership at the top to protect women’s sports, the Center Square’s poll offers a good predictor for 2024.
• Doreen Denny is senior adviser for Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization.
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