Equally important, why are Pennsylvania House Democrats so politically foolish that they’re thumbing their nose at an 80-20 issue? A January New York Times/Ipsos poll revealed 79 percent of Americans believe men shouldn’t compete in girls’ sports.
Of those surveyed, more than 60 percent of registered Democrats tallied, are against allowing biological men to compete with girls. The number is probably higher, I theorize, if you take away the intimidation contrived by the trans lobby, aimed at anyone who dares defend girls or cite biological reality.
The Background: Senate Bill 9, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” sponsored by Sen. Judy Ward (R-Blair), passed the Pennsylvania Senate in bipartisan fashion early last week, carrying five Democrat votes and unanimous Republican support. The bill’s concept of fairness for girls’ and women’s sports isn’t new to the Pennsylvania legislature, but has suffered the same fate at the hands of Democrats. The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, introduced and passed in 2021 by Rep. Barb Gleim (R-Cumberland), was subsequently vetoed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf.
SB 9, the Save Women’s Sports Act, has been sitting in the House Education Committee for over a week collecting dust. It’s not altogether uncommon for a bit of time to pass, even for a politically popular bipartisan measure, to be considered. Still, when the majority chairman of the committee pledges to a group of girls that he’ll block the bill from ever being considered, as the Daily Caller reported, it’s something different. Why the hostility? And, as a Democratic politician, why in the world would you die on this hill?
As a former two-sport Division 1 athlete, I have a better perspective on this issue than most. I clearly see in my years in sports the immense disparities in size, strength, and speed between girls and men. To ignore this reality is hazardous and unfair.
As a father to a little girl, the only word I can come up with is “unjust.” How unjust it is to potentially subject my seven-year-old in the future to a game that’s both dangerous to her, but also one that violates her privacy and steals opportunity from her.
As a politician, I can’t help but identify a trend when it comes to matters of basic civil rights. It is Democrats now blocking equality in women’s sports, yes. Still, it was also Democrats in greater proportion, in 1972, voting against equal participation for girls in sports with the Title IX amendment. If we venture back further to 1919 and consider the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, we see the same trend: Democrats voting against women in greater proportion.
The burning question, then, is what do Democrats have against girls and women? More specifically, what reason, what stakeholder, what principle would they cite to justify “blocking” a vote on protecting girl athletes? I’m asking the same questions with my “athlete” hat on as I am with my “dad” and “public servant” hats.
Make it make sense.
