DV Journal

(This column first appeared in Broad + Liberty)

As readers, listeners and friends know, I’ve been coaching softball for 26 seasons. My family, faith, and conservative politics are the only things that I’ve been involved in longer.

While coaching, I have purposefully kept a wall between my softball world and my political world. I even ignored a phone call from soon-to-be Speaker Kevin McCarthy while coaching at the Pennsylvania Little League Softball Championships.

I’m duty-bound to crack the wall.

Our local high school softball team has advanced to the state tournament — the “sweet 16.” I coached many of those players in Little League and beyond. I still attend their games.

Recently, I saw the videos and read the story about Minnesota’s state high school softball championship. The “winning team” won the championship by having their pitcher throw back to back shut-outs.

Their pitcher is a biological male.

I can be silent no more.

I do not live in Minnesota. I do not know any of the players. Yet I know that what happened was wrong. It must not be allowed to happen, especially not in competitive softball or any sport with prizes, titles and scholarships on the line.

Whatever one thinks about the morality or the politics of transgender issues, we should all agree that when it comes to competitive sports, allowing a biological male to pitch — from 43 feet away — to high school girls is wrong. It’s a safety issue.

And, yes, it’s a fairness issue.

Let me tell you about the girls I’ve coached. They put in thousands of hours of practices, drills, conditioning and lessons—and play hundreds of games. They play when it’s 101 degrees and the infield is like playing at the beach. They play after rain, when the batter’s box and pitcher’s mound are like swamps in Louisiana. They play in the early spring and late fall when the wind chill is in the 30s. I’ve been at games when it was snowing.

They play with bruises, blisters, and soreness. The pitchers throw until their arms almost fall off.

They play for their coaches and trainers. They play for their teammates and parents. They play for themselves.

They deserve better.

As a nation, we watched men playing college and high school volleyball spiking the balls into the faces of girl opponents. We watched track and field championships turn into dark comedy and tragedy as males win medals, sometimes beating female opponents by outlandish differentials.

We watched the Olympics allow a man to literally beat up female boxers — and they rewarded the male athlete with a gold medal.

I can be silent no more. This is wrong and it must be stopped.

Sporting events are becoming mockeries of competition. Someone is bound to get hurt. Someone might get killed.

Part of the reason I chose to coach softball was that 26 years ago, girls’ sports had fewer coaches, crappy equipment, and less support. Through a change in culture and Title IX, eventually that changed over time.

Until now.

Now, that hard work of advocates, parents, coaches, and female athletes is being yet again pushed aside and devalued. Adults with an upside-down sense of morality and “fairness” have not only tolerated this injustice, but fight to make it so. Women’s sports, they allege, must allow men identifying as women to participate.

These adult administrators, commissioners, and league officials are ruining careers and crushing dreams to advance an ideology — or out of fear of expressing common sense. Then, they often allow these men to use the locker rooms and shower next to our daughters.

Enough.

I don’t know the Minnesota high school softball pitcher who is a biological man that alleges he identifies as a woman. Perhaps his feelings are genuine. Perhaps he’s wrestling with identity issues. Perhaps he has other emotional issues. Perhaps he has self-esteem issues. Perhaps he’s “scamming the system” to win prizes.

I don’t know.

What I do know is that no matter what his story is, no matter what his reality is, he should not have been allowed to pitch in the high school state softball championship.

Maybe he needs counseling. Maybe he needs tough love. Maybe he needs support — be it for a battle he’s fighting or because he’s genuinely confused. Maybe he needs love.

We can empathize with the student and with his parents. We can respect his feelings as genuine. We can send him our prayers. Perhaps we should do all those things.

What we should not do is give him a gold medal and his team a championship trophy.

His feelings do not outweigh biology, common sense, fairness, and safety.

What happened in Minnesota was my tipping point — perhaps because it was softball. Even more than the cruelty of boxing and the embarrassment of track and field, this compelled me to break down my wall.

This madness in girls sports must stop.