Pennsylvania governor should know problems caused by transgender sports delusion
Tom Joyce
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The Pennsylvania Legislature wants to bring some common sense to athletic participation, but Gov. Tom Wolf does not.
The incumbent Democrat vetoed a bill that would have prevented males who identify as transgender from competing in public school girls’ sports in the state.
Wolf argues that the bill is discriminatory.
“I have been crystal clear during my time in office that hate has no place in Pennsylvania, especially discrimination against already marginalized youth representing less-than-half of 1 percent of Pennsylvania’s population,” Wolf said in a statement following the veto.
It’s an unfortunate view from Wolf. He, of all people, should know the negative consequences of men competing in women’s sports.
Pennsylvania got firsthand experience of how absurd it is to let men compete against women for the sake of adhering to woke gender ideology this past school year. University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas won an NCAA Division 1 national championship in women’s swimming earlier this year because Thomas identifies as a woman.
The photo of Thomas on the podium with actual women was a great visual representation of this problem. The picture made it clear who the real women were and who was a man identifying as a woman.
While this bill wouldn’t affect a private college such as Penn, it would prevent a case like that from happening at a public high school in the state. And while the issue of males who identify as women dominating women’s sports isn’t common, it is nonetheless a problem for the female athletes negatively affected by it.
Also, Wolf’s point about discrimination doesn’t hold up. No one is saying that these male athletes cannot play sports. That would be wrong and worthy of condemnation. Rather, these bills aim to ensure that men compete against other men because men and women are not the same.
If liberals want to lose on this issue, that’s fine. Strong opposition (55%) exists to letting transgender girls compete against biological girls in high school sports, while just 30% support it, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released earlier this year.
Or, they could understand that this subject is even more contentious than many others involving transgender people and respect the will of the people.
Tom Joyce (@TomJoyceSports) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
