Male Volleyball Player Offered Girls’ Scholarship

Transgender,

Recently, the University of Washington offered a girls’ volleyball scholarship to a 16-year-old boy. Swimmer Riley Gaines, perhaps the nation’s top advocate for female athletes, broke the news. In response, UW allegedly rescinded the scholarship offer, claiming that they didn’t know the recipient was male.  

Some parents of girls who play in the same high school league as the boy have said that their daughters didn’t realize they were being forced to compete against a male until matches were underway. Of course, they shouldn’t have to think about it, and parents shouldn’t have to worry about it either.  

It’s the school’s job, along with those tasked with governing school sports, to ensure fair competition and reasonable safety, and to protect the privacy of minors in spaces like locker rooms. But since many aren’t doing that job, like Ohio’s governor, parents have to be vigilant, ask the hard and awkward questions, and make the tough decisions.  

After all, it’s only the new normal if everyone goes along. 

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

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Ohio Lawmakers Pass Law Protecting Children From Sex-Change Procedures, Upholding Fairness in Women’s Sports

Transgender, , ,

On Wednesday lawmakers in Ohio overwhelmingly passed a measure upholding fairness in women’s sports and protecting children from sex-change procedures.

Ohio’s measure — H.B. 68 — is similar to two laws Arkansas passed in 2021.

The bill prohibits doctors in Ohio from giving a child puberty blockers or performing a sex-change surgery on a child.

H.B. 68 also prevents biological males from competing against women in women’s athletics at public schools as well as colleges and universities.

In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act and the Save Women’s Sports 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.

Arkansas Attorney General’s Office has 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, 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.

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

This good law is in effect in Arkansas.

Over the past few years we have seen biological males dominate women’s athletics in some parts of the country.

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 recently announced she 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.

Interestingly, public opinion is shifting on this issue, with more Americans saying it’s morally wrong to change genders and believe that athletes ought to compete according to their biological sex rather than their gender identity.

It’s good to see states like Ohio taking steps to protect children and preserve fairness in women’s sports.

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

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School-Sponsored Trip Assigned Girl to Share Bed With Boy Who Identifies as Trans Without Telling Her Parents

Transgender,

An 11-year-old girl was assigned to share a bed with a male student who identifies as a girl while on a Colorado public school-sponsored trip, according to attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom.

ADF writes,

In June 2023, JCPS [Jefferson County Public Schools] sponsored an overnight trip for fifth-grade students to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. Serena and Joe Wailes had a daughter in fifth grade, D.W., who attended the trip. They were assured in multiple parent meetings leading up to the trip that male and female students would be staying not only in different hotel rooms but also on completely different floors. And they were told that their daughter would room with three other girls.

Serena decided to accompany her daughter on the trip, but she did not serve as a chaperone. During the trip, the students were told that boys and girls were not allowed to visit each other’s hotel floors without permission. D.W. was assigned to share a room with two students from her school and one student from a different school whom she did not know.

D.W. was supposed to share a bed with K.E.M., the student from another school. So D.W. was friendly and tried to make K.E.M. feel included. But on the first night, K.E.M. identified as transgender to D.W.

D.W. was understandably uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a bed with a male student, so she snuck into the bathroom and quietly called her father and then her mother, who met her in the lobby of the hotel. Serena contacted a chaperone on the trip, who then contacted a trip leader.

The chaperones asked D.W. if she could simply move to another bed rather than a new room, and while she was still uncomfortable, she agreed to try it for one night so that she could get some sleep. But the chaperones, consistent with district policy, told D.W. to lie about the reason and say she needed to switch beds to be closer to the air conditioner.

Once the chaperone and D.W. were back in the hotel room, however, another roommate suggested that K.E.M. also switch to the bed closer to the air conditioner. D.W. was afraid to speak up in front of the other roommates on the contentious topic of gender identity, so she went into the hall and again told Serena she was uncomfortable.

Finally, the chaperones agreed to rearrange the rooms so that D.W. was in a room with only one other girl. But they again told her to lie about the reason for the room change, blaming it on a sick roommate who needed more space.

ADF attorneys sent a letter on behalf of the Waileses asking the school district to clarify by December 18, 2023, if it would be forthright with parents in the future regarding whether their children should be concerned about sharing rooms with members of the opposite sex on overnight trips.

All of this underscores the importance of Arkansas’ Act 317 of 2023.

This good law by Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Jonesboro) addresses privacy in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, changing areas, and similar facilities by requiring public schools to designate these facilities for “male” or “female” use.

It also generally prevents public schools from housing students with members of the opposite sex on overnight trips.

Every student in Arkansas has a right to physical privacy and safety at school and on school-sponsored trips.

Public school students’ school records are protected by law, because we value student privacy. A student’s physical privacy should be just as important. Act 317 helps protect the physical privacy of public school students in school showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and similar facilities on campus, and it helps protect physical privacy and safety on overnight trips.

Family Council was pleased to support passage of Act 317. We are grateful to Rep. Bentley and Sen. Sullivan for sponsoring Act 317, and to the General Assembly for passing this good law.

Act 317 will help prevent situations like this one highlighted in Colorado from happening in Arkansas. That’s something to celebrate.

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

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