Transgender – Family Council

Leading Grappling Association Changes Policy on Transgender Athletes

Nov 15, 2023Jerry CoxTransgenderFairness in Women's Sports, LGBT, Transgender

Late last month the North American Grappling Association revised its policy to clarify that male athletes must compete in the association’s men’s grappling division — even if the athlete identifies as female.

The North American Grappling Association is the largest submission MMA and jiu-jitsu association in the world. The new policy states,

We will have divisions for only biological females. Transgender females [biological males who identify as female] will not be entered into these divisions. . . .

Transgender females must compete in the men’s division. We hope that the simplicity of this revised policy will help to avoid any future occurrences where transgender females enter women divisions. If NAGA staff is informed that a transgender female is in a women’s division, they will be given the choice to go to the men’s division or given a refund.

In recent years we have seen men dominate women’s sports as a result of pro-transgender policies that let biological males compete against female athletes.

For example, in 2019 Rachel McKinnon — a biological male who claims to be female — won the female Cycling World Championship.

More recently, biologically male athlete Lia Thomas shattered women’s swimming records and was even nominated for NCAA Woman of the Year.

Female powerlifter April Hutchinson reportedly faces a two-year ban from the Canadian Powerlifting Union for expressing concerns about males dominating against female athletes in powerlifting events.

Letting men compete in women’s sports reverses 50 years of advancements for women and effectively erases women’s athletics.

It hampers girls’ abilities to compete for athletic scholarships, and it hurts their professional opportunities as adults. In some sports, it can even be dangerous.

Public opinion polling shows Americans increasingly believe athletes ought to compete according to their biological sex instead of their gender identity.

In June pollsters at Gallup reported 69% of Americans believe athletes should compete based on their biological sex. That’s up from 62% in 2021. Despite public opinion and the mounting evidence that biological males are effectively erasing women’s sports, President Biden’s Secretary of Education recently reiterated that the administration believes transgender athletes should be able to compete in whatever sport they choose.

All of this underscores that Arkansas did the right thing by passing legislation to protect fairness in women’s sports.

Act 461 of 2021 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) helps protect fairness in women’s sports by preventing male student athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. In January a federal district court upheld a similar law in West Virginia as constitutional.

Laws like Act 461 help protect athletes’ safety and preserve fairness in competitions.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

Federal Lawsuit Continues Over Whether or Not Arkansas Can Protect Children From Sex-Change Surgeries

Oct 16, 2023Jerry CoxTransgenderLGBT, SAFE Act, Transgender

The federal lawsuit continues over whether or not Arkansas can enforce a law that protects children from sex-change surgeries and similar procedures.

Earlier this month the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals granted Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s request for an en banc review in the lawsuit over Arkansas’ Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

An en banc review means the entire Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case instead of a three-judge panel.

The Arkansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed the SAFE Act in 2021. It’s a good law that prevents doctors from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

Unfortunately, the SAFE Act has been tied up in court for more than two years, and a federal judge in Little Rock has blocked the state from enforcing the law.

In a statement, the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office noted that federal appeals courts have allowed similar laws protecting children from gender-transition procedures to go into effect in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama.

Sex-change surgeries and procedures can leave children sterilized and scarred for life.

Researchers do not know the long term effects puberty-blockers and cross-sex hormones can have on kids. That is why many experts agree that subjecting children to sex-change procedures is experimental, at best.

Not long after Arkansas passed the SAFE Act, a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

Last year the U.K.’s National Health Services closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years. Families have indicated the clinic subjected their children to sex-reassignment despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence to support the procedures and that healthcare providers failed to perform adequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

And last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration added a warning label to puberty blockers in America after biological girls developed swelling in the brain.

Interestingly, public opinion is shifting on this issue, with more Americans saying it’s morally wrong to change genders.

The SAFE Act is good legislation that protects children. We believe higher courts will recognize that fact and uphold this law as constitutional.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

“Egg Producers” or Moms?

Sep 11, 2023John StonestreetTransgenderTransgender

According to The Daily Mail, the Biden administration’s health secretary recently endorsed a gender clinic in Alaska. The secretary is a man who identifies as a woman. The clinic advocates for replacing the term “mother” with “egg producer.”

Somehow “Happy Egg Producer Day!” doesn’t have the same ring to it as “Mother’s Day.” As a colleague of mine noted when she heard the story, “That really is The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Language matters. Especially from people who occupy positions of cultural power, from the media who call this man a “she,” to politicians who claim he is a powerful woman, to a clinic obscuring reality. When they detach from reality, incoherent and dangerous ideas like this are the result.

Reality, however, has hard edges, and neither our bad ideas nor our bad language can change that. The farther afield from reason and science our cultural elites wander, the more revolutionary it will be to say what is true.