The Free Press
The Democratic consensus on allowing males to compete in women’s sports is starting to crack. In November, Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton broke ranks, telling journalists his party was “out of touch” on the issue. Last week, California governor Gavin Newsom told conservative activist Charlie Kirk that male participation in female sports is “deeply unfair.”
Newsom is simply bowing to political reality. Take the case of Payton McNabb, who was left with a traumatic brain injury after a male volleyball player spiked a ball at her head. Or the female swimmers exposed to male genitalia in their changing facilities. Or the many high school girls who have experienced heartbreak and frustration, training for months only to have scholarships, opportunities, and trophies stolen by members of the opposite sex.
Almost 80 percent of Americans, and 67 percent of Democrat voters, disagree with allowing males in female sports. That leaves Democrats with two choices—jump ship or double down. In my home state of Maine, Democrats are choosing the latter.
For the past four years, as a representative of Maine House District 90, I have fought for the rights of women and girls. But last month, Democrats in my state prohibited me from speaking and voting in the chamber, trampling on my constituents’ rights to representation. And all because I dared to say that boys shouldn’t play on the girls’ team.
Last month, a male high school athlete in Maine was awarded first place in the female Class B state championship for pole vaulting. I called attention to this injustice on my official Facebook page, noting that, just one year before, the same athlete finished fifth place in the boys’ pole vault.
These facts, including the athlete’s name and picture—which I included in my post—are a matter of public record and have been reported by the media. I didn’t call him names. I didn’t share his address or incite anyone against him. Yet simply highlighting the unfairness of male participation in female sports was enough for Maine House Democrats to accuse me of “endangering a minor.”
Lacking the two-thirds majority needed to eject me, the Democratic-led Maine House of Representatives voted 75 to 70, largely along party lines, to censure me. I tried defending myself during the resolution, but my colleagues heckled and interrupted me. Now, my rights will only be restored if I apologize for speaking the truth—which I refuse to do.
This is not only unjust to me personally. By taking away my vote and my voice in the Maine House of Representatives, the Democratic majority has silenced the voices of the thousands of Maine women and girls I represent. In the past week or so, I have received hundreds of calls, emails, and cards from constituents and state residents offering their support and expressing outrage that I am now prevented from doing the job they elected me to do.
Democrats may feel they have to resort to intimidation because their position on male inclusion in female sports is indefensible. But their strategy is doomed by reality.
I could rehash the reasons why. The scientific evidence for male advantages in muscle mass, strength, and speed. The critical role of testosterone. But most people don’t need convincing. The fact that men and women are biologically distinct is as obvious as the glaring sun.
I predict that soon enough we’ll see many more Democrats like Newsom and Moulton walking back from their party’s stance. But perhaps not before they’ve condemned themselves with their flagrant hypocrisy.
Take the Democratic lawmakers dressed in pink at President Trump’s joint address to Congress last week. Whatever their feminist virtue signaling, not a single one of these lawmakers voted for the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, a federal law requiring school athletic programs to keep sports single-sex.
Or take our own state governor, Janet Mills, who clashed with President Trump at the White House on February 21. “See you in court,” she said, after the president demanded she comply with his executive order on protecting female sports. “That should be a real easy one,” Trump said, adding, “and enjoy your life after governor, because I don’t think you’ll be in elected politics.”
As a mother of three girls and two boys, I know that it’s not Republicans who are endangering minors, but Democratic legislators, by denying biological reality.
Sports are segregated by sex to ensure female safety, privacy, and fairness.
I will not be silenced. I will keep speaking out until the scandal of boys and men in female athletics is over. Maine Democrats may have tied my hands behind my back until my term ends. But try as they may to quash dissent, it’s their party that’s facing a reckoning.
Once upon a time, honorable men went to the gulags for refusing to repeat the Kremlin’s lies; now an American president is telling them for free. In the latest episode of Breaking History, Eli Lake takes us back to the Cold War and President Reagan’s support of dissidents.