After the Republican-dominated Florida state legislature passed it in April, state Governor Ron DeSantis this week signed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” into law. And that is a breath of fresh air for female athletes who have been discriminated against due to President Joe Biden’s executive order issued January 20th which essentially compromises female athletes by forcing them to compete against biological males.
During Tuesday’s news conference, DeSantis stated “We believe it’s very important that the integrity of those competitions are preserved, that these opportunities are protected. In Florida, girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports.”
Not only does the legislation bar males from competing against females in high school and college athletics regardless of how they “identify” with their gender, it also gives students the power to file a lawsuit against schools that permit biological males to compete against or play on female sports teams. The law also opens the door for arbitration in gender disputes by requiring a medical professional to confirm a student’s sex.
Transgender activists and others within the LGBTQ community argue that the law now “legalizes bullying”. State representative Anna Eskamani stated, “Sports have become another avenue to attack the rights of trans people. And those efforts have caused incredible harm to trans youth, who, like all kids, especially in the middle of a pandemic, deserve compassion and support.”
But fellow representative Traci Koster countered, “There is an inherent, biological, undeniable difference between men and women, boys and girls. Simply put: we were designed differently.”
Though transgender activists claim the biological male has their testosterone levels artificially suppressed, somehow levelling the playing field with biological females, numerous studies support the fact that males retain advantages like greater bone density despite years of hormone therapy.
The signing of the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” comes on the heels of a poignant written testimony by Connecticut track star Chelsea Mitchell who has been in the eye of the storm surrounding so-called transgender rights in sports. Mitchell, as a senior at Canton High School last year, reached a boiling point after having lost four women’s state championship titles to male athletes. It forced her to file a lawsuit with Alliance Defending Freedom against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) “because girls and women shouldn’t be stripped of their right to fair competition”.
Incredibly, the testimony which was published in USA Today on May 22 was edited – without Mitchell’s knowledge – due to “hurtful language” deemed by USA Today. The “hurtful language” was Mitchell’s use of the word “male”.