NY County’s Decision to Protect Women’s Draws Support From Caitlyn Jenner, Opposition From ACLU

A Nassau County, New York, decision to protect fairness in women’s sports is sparking controversy.

On February 22, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed an executive order preventing male athletes from competing in female athletics at county recreational facilities.

The decision helps ensure biological males don’t compete in women’s or girls’ athletics at county-run ballparks and sports facilities.

In response, the ACLU of New York filed a lawsuit against the county, calling the executive order “discriminatory.”

However, last week former decathlon Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner spoke in favor of the county order, saying that letting men compete against women would “ruin women’s sports” for years to come. Jenner is a biological male who identifies as female and legally changed his name from Bruce to Caitlyn in 2015.

Across the board, policymakers and sporting leagues have taken steps to protect fairness in women’s sports.

Earlier this month the professional golf league NXXT Golf announced that only biological females would be eligible to participate in the NXXT Women’s Pro Tour.

Last fall the North American Grappling Association clarified its competition policy by saying biological males must compete against other men, regardless of their gender identity.

These changes come as female cyclists, swimmerspowerlifterssprinters, and others have seen their sports radically changed by biological males who identify and compete as women.

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

That is part of the reason states like Arkansas, Texas, West Virginia, and Ohio have enacted laws that uphold fairness in women’s sports.

In 2021 Arkansas passed Act 461 by Sen. Missy Irvin (R — Mountain View) and Rep. Sonia Barker (R — Smackover) preventing male student athletes from competing against girls in women’s athletics at school. This good law protects fairness in women’s sports in Arkansas.

It’s worth point out that public opinion is shifting on this issue, with more Americans agreeing that athletes ought to compete according to their biological sex rather than their gender identity. Laws and policies preserving fairness in women’s sports reflect public opinion on this issue.

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

England Joins Growing List of Jurisdictions That Protect Children From Puberty Blockers

The U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) is officially banning healthcare professionals from prescribing puberty blockers to children.

The NHS guidelines for puberty blockers now say:

Puberty blockers (gonadotrophin-releasing hormone analogues) are not available to children and young people for gender incongruence or gender dysphoria because there is not enough evidence of safety and clinical effectiveness.

The guidelines also note that cross-sex hormones often given in conjunction with puberty blockers may cause irreversible changes, and that long-term cross-sex hormone use may cause temporary or permanent infertility.

In 2022 the NHS closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years.

A government investigation revealed healthcare professionals at the Tavistock clinic pressured families into subjecting their children to puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

The SAFE Act is a good law that prevents doctors in Arkansas 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. However, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office is appealing the case.

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, 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.

As we have noted repeatedly, public opinion is shifting on this issue, with more Americans saying that it’s morally wrong to change genders.

All of this just goes to show that Arkansas’ lawmakers were right to pass the SAFE Act in 2021.

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