Idaho Senate Approves Bill to Protect Women’s Sports from Transgender Athletes

FILE - In this Monday, April 9, 2018 file photo, New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard, right, stan
AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein
Dr. Susan Berry

The Idaho Senate voted Monday to approve the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act (HB 500a), which would ban biological males who identify as female from competing on girls’ and women’s athletic teams.

The bill passed the State Senate, 24-11, after being approved by the House in February, 52-17. The House must approve a Senate amendment to the bill prior to sending it to the desk of Gov. Brad Little (R) for his signature.

The State Senate approval means Idaho could become the first state in the nation to protect girls’ and women’s sports from an ideology that makes gender identity subservient to biological science.

Left-wing LGBT activists and their media allies are attempting to shame members of the Idaho legislature who voted to protect girls’ and women’s sports as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

“This is downright shameful,” tweeted GLSEN, which pushes LGBT sexual relationships and gender ideology in state-mandated comprehensive sex ed curricula and in public school districts.

“In the face of a global pandemic, the #Idaho Senate spent yesterday passing a dangerous bill that singles out #transgender students for discrimination,” the group complained:

“We are not trying to do anything except save women’s sports for girls and women,” said Idaho Sen. Mary Souza (R), one of the bill’s sponsors, according to the Idaho Press.

Souza also told her fellow lawmakers fearful of the bill drawing a lawsuit that a “third-party group that has been working with us on this bill … will be responsible for any legal defense fees.”

“So, is there a problem now?” she asked, and added:

Not in Idaho. Although there was a young man on a track team in eastern Idaho who decided a year ago that he wanted to run on the girls’ team. He was on the boys’ track team, and he wanted to sign up for the girls’ track team. And he thought about it, talked to the coach and made a decision not to do that. I don’t know any of the details, but that’s what the outcome was. It’s coming. The issue is in states across the country.

Left-wing media Vox also attempted to shame Idaho lawmakers who voted to approve the trans athlete ban during the coronavirus crisis. The headline on its story about the bill read, “While the country deals with the coronavirus, Idaho state legislators prioritize banning trans athletes.”

LGBT media outlet Logo NewNowNext headlined the story with, “Despite Pandemic, Idaho Passes Ban on Trans Student Athletes.”

“Idaho has at least seven coronavirus cases, but lawmakers took aim at trans kids,” the outlet added.

In a similar way, Planned Parenthood attacked the firestorm over House Democrats’ insistence to push for taxpayer funding of abortion in a loophole in the coronavirus spending bill. The abortion giant complained:

Using this very real public health emergency to attack abortion coverage shows a despicable lack of concern about the severity of this crisis. These politicians will do anything to advance their anti-abortion agenda.

GLSEN also contributed to a policy in the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, that instructs district employees to allow children to change their gender identity without parental notice or consent.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court on behalf of some parents. According to a press release from WILL, the school policy, issued in April 2018, trains district employees to “conceal and even deceive parents about the gender identity their son or daughter has adopted at school.”

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the largest LGBT activist group, condemned the approval of the bill banning transgender athletes by the Idaho Senate, calling it “discriminatory.”

“Not only is it discriminatory, it invades the privacy of Idaho’s youth,” HRC said. “HB 500 contains a provision that would require athletes to prove their gender via blood, genetic or DNA testing.”

“If HB 500 becomes law, Idaho will be the first state to have such a retrogressive, invasive and patently anti-transgender law on the books,” said Alphonso David, HRC president:

In states across the country, extreme lawmakers are targeting transgender youth and seeking to discriminate against them through any legislative vehicle possible. These elected officials and the groups backing them are proposing a ‘solution’ in search of a problem — and using transgender kids as pawns to stoke division at a time when our elected leaders should be finding ways to unite us. If HB 500 becomes law, it will send a strong message to trans youth that they are less than their peers and not deserving of community and acceptance.

HRC states it appreciates its partners, among them the ACLU, Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii, and the Pride Foundation.

Breitbart News sought comment from supposed women’s rights groups Planned Parenthood and the National Organization for Women on the plight of three Connecticut female high school runners who have now filed a federal lawsuit that aims to safeguard fairness in women’s sports, but neither organization responded.

Some transgender activists have falsely claimed there is no scientific evidence that suggests biological males identifying as females have an unfair advantage over biological female athletes.

However, as Breitbart News reported, a recent study conducted by the Karolinska Institute and Linkoping University in Sweden found biological males — who claim to be transgender women — who were administered a full year of hormone therapy, still maintained muscle mass and strength advantages over biological women.

“Despite the robust increases in muscle mass and strength in TM, the TW were still stronger and had more muscle mass following 12months of treatment,” the researchers observed. “These findings add new knowledge that could be relevant when evaluating transwomen’s eligibility to compete in the women’s category of athletic competitions.

“Our results indicate that after 12 months of hormonal therapy, a transwoman will still likely have performance benefits over a cis-woman [biological woman],” they concluded.

In another study published at BMJ and released in July, three professors — two in bioethics and one in physiology — concluded that male athletes who claim to be female hold an “intolerable” advantage over biological female athletes.

The study was conducted after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced it would allow “transgender women” to compete against biological females if their testosterone is below 10 nmol/L. However, even that level is “significantly higher” than that of biological females, the authors said.

They cited research demonstrating that “healthy young men did not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced” for 20 weeks to meet the IOC’s guidelines.

The researchers also noted that “indirect effects of testosterone will not be altered by hormone therapy.”

“For example, hormone therapy will not alter bone structure, lung volume or heart size of the transwoman athlete, especially if she transitions postpuberty, so natural advantages including joint articulation, stroke volume and maximal oxygen uptake will be maintained,” they explained.

“We conclude that the advantage to transwomen afforded by the IOC guidelines is an intolerable unfairness,” stated the professors.

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