Finally, girl power: Girls’ hockey team boycotts match against male
A girls’ field hockey team in Massachusetts on Monday boycotted a match because the opposing team contained a male player.
Dighton-Rehoboth School District Superintendent Bill Runey said in a statement yesterday that the “coaches and captains” of the girls’ team have decided to forfeit next week’s contest against Somerset-Berkley High School, whose team reportedly includes a male.
Runey cited a district policy that “allows players and/or coaches to opt out of competitions or any part thereof against an opposing team because that team includes a member of the opposite sex.”
The policy was approved last year after a player on the girls’ hockey team was hospitalized from taking a puck to the face shot by a male on the opposing team.
“The District supports this decision as there are times where we have to place a higher value on safety than on victory. We understand this forfeit will impact our chances for a league championship and possibly playoff eligibility, but we remain hopeful that other schools consider following suit to achieve safety and promote fair competition for female athletes,” the statement concluded.
While it does not appear the male opponent in this case pretends to be female, the boycott demonstrates that women can refuse to participate in gender ideology instead of enforcing it.
Women support men in women’s sports, surveys show
According to a 2022 Pew Research poll, 62% of women feel “there is a great deal or a fair amount of discrimination against transgender people.” Only 52% of men agree. Women are also more likely than men to say it is “extremely or very important” to use a person’s “new” name or “preferred pronouns.”
Further surveys conducted in Western countries such as Australia, England, and Canada have also found that the majority of women athletes support men competing in women’s sports and do not believe males hold an “unfair advantage” against females. Most men strongly disagree.
Women enforce gender ideology
When a man named “Lia” Thomas competed in the NCAA championship for University of Pennsylvania, the university’s administration — headed by then-President Elizabeth Magill — ordered the team not to speak to the media about his participation, according to a former teammate.
For its part, the NCAA welcomes men on women’s teams if they have undergone hormone replacement therapy and submit their testosterone levels. While most of the NCAA’s leadership is male, those in charge of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” which covers men’s participation in women’s sports, are women. They are Senior Vice President of Inclusion, Education & Community Engagement Felicia Martin and Vice President of Human Resources Kim Oren.
Furthermore, ten out of 16 members of the NCAA’s Board of Governors, responsible for adopting such policies, are women. Of the seven voting members, five are women.
Last year, National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) President and CEO Fatima Goss Graves suggested at a congressional hearing that girls should “learn to lose gracefully” to boys who claim to be girls.
“Trans students participate in sports for the same reasons as [other] kids,” Graves said. “Because it is fun, because it creates belonging, community, because it teaches so much about persistence, leadership and discipline, and last, they learn to lose gracefully, hopefully, and often, win with dignity hopefully.”
“We at NWLC know unequivocally that trans women and girls, and intersex women and girls, are women and girls who deserve the full benefits and opportunities intended by Title IX,” Graves added.
Title IX is a federal law which prohibits sex-based discrimination in institutions funded by the federal government. Controversy over the law erupted earlier last year when the Department of Education issued a proposal to ban schools from keeping men out of women’s sports.
In response, half of US governors signed a letter demanding the Biden administration withdraw or delay its proposal. Twenty-two out of the twenty-five governors were men. The three female governors who signed the letter — Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem — are the only Republicans out of 12 female governors in the US.
These and other reports suggest that women — particularly those in power — are fueling gender ideology in the US and attacking women who oppose it.
At the hearing where Graves made her remarks, the committee also heard from Riley Gaines, a swimming champion who tied for fifth place in the NCAA freestyle championship with “Lia” Thomas. Since then, Gaines has become a vocal advocate against gender ideology and has campaigned against men competing in women’s sports.
But it was a female lawmaker who attacked Gaines for her views during the hearing. Rep. Summer Lee (D-PA) said Gaines was “transphobic” for opposing men in women’s sports. When Gaines hit back and called Lee a misogynist, Lee tried to have the athlete’s remarks erased from the record.
