Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has become the latest state leader vowing to protect women’s sports by pursuing a ban on trans athletes competing in all-female competitions.
Abbott made the pledge to bar biological males from competing in women’s events during a meeting this week of the Young America’s Foundation in Dallas, Breitbart News reported.
This next session, we will pass a law prohibiting biological men to compete against women in college sports,” the governor declared.
Already, Texas has made progress in this area by barring biological males from competing in girls’ sports in primary schools.
Breitbart News noted further:
When making the case for extending the trans ban to the collegiate athletic ranks, Abbott specifically referenced the case of former University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
Thomas, a man, began his collegiate career on the men’s swim team at UPenn where he achieved nothing more than mere mediocrity. However, after he began identifying as a female and competing on the women’s team, he shot up to the top of the national ranks defeating Olympic and Olympic-caliber swimmers on the way.
“We’ve fought for the rights of women to be able to succeed in this world only to have that now superseded by this ideology that men are going to be empowered to compete against women,” Abbott noted.
In June 2021, Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the “Fairness In Women’s Sports Act” into law . The Act bans transgender girls or boys who are transitioning into girls, from competing in women’s sports in the state of Florida. The measure states that “athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls may not be open to students of the male sex.”
The law received criticism from Democrats and some from the NCAA. “We believe in the state of Florida of protecting the fairness and the integrity of women’s athletics,” DeSantis said in a news conference call from Jacksonville. “we believe that it’s very important that the integrity of those competitions are preserved. That these opportunities are protected.”
The trans-athlete ban bases fairness for women athletes on a student’s biological sex on their birth certificate at the time of their birth. The ban applies to public “interscholastic, intercollegiate, intramural, or club athletic teams or sports” in the state of Florida.
“We’re gonna go based off biology, not based off ideology when we’re doing sports,” added DeSantis. This has been an uphill battle around the country for many female athletes who are losing their hard-earned records and medals to girls who are biologically men.
Connecticut track athlete Selina Soule says she has lost out on many opportunities due to trans-athletes competing. “My chances of being first, of being the best, were shattered,” said Soule. “Everyone should have the chance to participate in sports, but they need to compete where it’s most fair,” she added.
